You are visitor: In Scotland the time is:
Christian Network

 
  
A Mother’s Prayer
 
I Chronicles 29
 

  1 Chronicles 29:1 through 1 Chronicles 29:30 (KJV)
  1Furthermore David the king said unto all the congregation, Solomon my son, 
  whom alone God hath chosen, is yet young and tender, and the work is great: 
  for the palace is not for man, but for the LORD God. 2Now I have prepared with 
  all my might for the house of my God the gold for things to be made of gold, 
  and the silver for things of silver, and the brass for things of brass, the 
  iron for things of iron, and wood for things of wood; onyx stones, and stones 
  to be set, glistering stones, and of divers colours, and all manner of 
  precious stones, and marble stones in abundance. 3Moreover, because I have set 
  my affection to the house of my God, I have of mine own proper good, of gold 
  and silver, which I have given to the house of my God, over and above all that 
  I have prepared for the holy house, 4Even three thousand talents of gold, of 
  the gold of Ophir, and seven thousand talents of refined silver, to overlay 
  the walls of the houses withal: 5The gold for things of gold, and the silver 
  for things of silver, and for all manner of work to be made by the hands of 
  artificers. And who then is willing to consecrate his service this day unto 
  the LORD? 6Then the chief of the fathers and princes of the tribes of Israel, 
  and the captains of thousands and of hundreds, with the rulers of the king’s 
  work, offered willingly, 7And gave for the service of the house of God of gold 
  five thousand talents and ten thousand drams, and of silver ten thousand 
  talents, and of brass eighteen thousand talents, and one hundred thousand 
  talents of iron. 8And they with whom precious stones were found gave them to 
  the treasure of the house of the LORD, by the hand of Jehiel the Gershonite. 
  9Then the people rejoiced, for that they offered willingly, because with 
  perfect heart they offered willingly to the LORD: and David the king also 
  rejoiced with great joy.
  10Wherefore David blessed the LORD before all the congregation: and David 
  said, Blessed be thou, LORD God of Israel our father, for ever and ever. 
  11Thine, O LORD, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the 
  victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is 
  thine; thine is the kingdom, O LORD, and thou art exalted as head above all. 
  12Both riches and honour come of thee, and thou reignest over all; and in 
  thine hand is power and might; and in thine hand it is to make great, and to 
  give strength unto all. 13Now therefore, our God, we thank thee, and praise 
  thy glorious name. 14But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be 
  able to offer so willingly after this sort? for all things come of thee, and 
  of thine own have we given thee. 15For we are strangers before thee, and 
  sojourners, as were all our fathers: our days on the earth are as a shadow, 
  and there is none abiding. 16O LORD our God, all this store that we have 
  prepared to build thee an house for thine holy name cometh of thine hand, and 
  is all thine own. 17I know also, my God, that thou triest the heart, and hast 
  pleasure in uprightness. As for me, in the uprightness of mine heart I have 
  willingly offered all these things: and now have I seen with joy thy people, 
  which are present here, to offer willingly unto thee. 18O LORD God of Abraham, 
  Isaac, and of Israel, our fathers, keep this for ever in the imagination of 
  the thoughts of the heart of thy people, and prepare their heart unto thee: 
  19And give unto Solomon my son a perfect heart, to keep thy commandments, thy 
  testimonies, and thy statutes, and to do all these things, and to build the 
  palace, for the which I have made provision. 20And David said to all the 
  congregation, Now bless the LORD your God. And all the congregation blessed 
  the LORD God of their fathers, and bowed down their heads, and worshipped the 
  LORD, and the king. 21And they sacrificed sacrifices unto the LORD, and 
  offered burnt offerings unto the LORD, on the morrow after that day, even a 
  thousand bullocks, a thousand rams, and a thousand lambs, with their drink 
  offerings, and sacrifices in abundance for all Israel: 22And did eat and drink 
  before the LORD on that day with great gladness. And they made Solomon the son 
  of David king the second time, and anointed him unto the LORD to be the chief 
  governor, and Zadok to be priest.
  23Then Solomon sat on the throne of the LORD as king instead of David his 
  father, and prospered; and all Israel obeyed him. 24And all the princes, and 
  the mighty men, and all the sons likewise of king David, submitted themselves 
  unto Solomon the king. 25And the LORD magnified Solomon exceedingly in the 
  sight of all Israel, and bestowed upon him such royal majesty as had not been 
  on any king before him in Israel. 26Thus David the son of Jesse reigned over 
  all Israel. 27And the time that he reigned over Israel was forty years; seven 
  years reigned he in Hebron, and thirty and three years reigned he in 
  Jerusalem. 28And he died in a good old age, full of days, riches, and honour: 
  and Solomon his son reigned in his stead. 29Now the acts of David the king, 
  first and last, behold, they are written in the book of Samuel the seer, and 
  in the book of Nathan the prophet, and in the book of Gad the seer, 30With all 
  his reign and his might, and the times that went over him, and over Israel, 
  and over all the kingdoms of the countries.
 
 
       
      A mother's prayer 
      I think of you wherever I go
      of days gone by and times of wonder
      of simple things no more to be
      How I wish you were once more three.

      I think of times when you were younger
      Happy days,sad days and in between
      Of little you upon my knee
      How I wish you were once more three

      I think of us and how we've been 
      and deep inside I begin to scream
      The tears are frozen behind my eyes
      No one hears my sobs and sighs
      I pray the Lord for help for me
      How I wish you were once more three.

      Alas,I know it's now too late
      To start again and clear the slate
      To see again the days of yore
      To try to change what's gone before 
      So I pray to God to let me be
      As close to you as when you were three.

      (c) celtlas All Rights Reserved

Today is Mother’s Day.  Being a mother is hard work, or so I’m told!  A teacher 
gave her class of second graders a lesson on the magnet and what it does. The 
next day in a written test, she included this question: " My full name has six 
letters. The first one is M. I pick up things. What am I?" When the test papers 
were turned in, the teacher was astonished to find that almost 50 percent of the 
students answered the question with the word Mother.
Well, those of us here today realize that there is more to mother than her 
cleaning skills.  Being a mother is stressful, and for most of you today, your 
children have already grown up and left the house.  That, however, doesn’t make 
you less of a mother!  One of the hardest things for a mother is to realize that 
her children are not following her instruction, but what’s a mom to do?  PRAY!  
That’s about all you can do, so this morning we are going to talk about prayer.  
The points of this message will be built upon the letters in the word Prayer.
P=Praise
R=Repent
A=Ask
Y=Yield
E=Expect Results
R=Return Often
“P” Stands for Praise
It is here, with praise, that the Christian prayer must begin.  Prayer for the 
Christian should never be about “what we can get out of it”, but rather should 
focus upon God’s greatness.  In our scripture this morning in verses 11 & 12 we 
see King David praising God for who He is.
11Thine, O LORD, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the 
victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is 
thine; thine is the kingdom, O LORD, and thou art exalted as head above all. 
12Both riches and honour come of thee, and thou reignest over all; and in thine 
hand is power and might; and in thine hand it is to make great, and to give 
strength unto all.
David is acknowledging to God that he knows God’s character.  He praises God for 
both who He is, and for what He has done, as we can see in verses 15 & 16.
 
Everyone needs recognition for his accomplishments, but few
people make the need known quite as clearly as the little boy who
said to his father: "Let's play darts. I'll throw and you say
'Wonderful!'" 
·        Bits & Pieces, December 9, 1993, Page 24
 
Well, God doesn’t need us to tell Him how wonderful He is, nor is it necessary 
for us to bargain with him or flatter him to gain favor.  So, why do we do it?  
We do it to remind ourselves how wonderful God is.
 
“R” Stands For Repent
 
Wabush, a town in a remote portion of Labrador, Canada, was 
completely isolated for some time. But recently a road was cut 
through the wilderness to reach it. Wabush now has one road 
leading into it, and thus, only on one road leading out. If 
someone would travel the unpaved road for six to eight hours to 
get into Wabush, there is only way he or she could leave---by 
turning aournd. Each of us, by birth, arrives in a town called Sin. As in 
Wabush, there is only one way out--a road built by God himself. 
But in order to take that road, one must first turn around. That 
complete aboutface is what the Bible calls repentance, and without 
it, there's no way out of town. 
·        Brian Weatherdon 
 
Repentance is necessary when we pray.  Verse 14 shows us David saying to God 
“Who am I?”  David is admitting coming short before God.  Prayer is not prayer 
if not accompanied by repentance.  
 
It’s not necessarily cataloging our sins before God in a laundry list, but 
rather more of an attitude of repentance.  At its core is us standing before God 
in the full realization that we are not worthy!
 
“A” Stands for Ask
 
Prayer is the time for us to ask for what we need.  Mothers?  Are you grieved 
because of the way your children disobey God’s Word and your instruction?  Don’t 
despair ask God to make it right!
 
David was not afraid to approach God with his requests as we see in verse 18.  
Here he petitioned God to keep the people pure in spirit.  The scriptures are 
clear in both the Old and New Testaments that we are to present our needs before 
God.
 
Dare I say that we have not because we ask not?  To be sure we don’t deserve 
this privilege, and indeed it is a privilege, but we do have it.  
 
“Y” Stands for Yield
 
To yield means to give way for God.  At least in our context today this is what 
yield means.  It’s all about letting God have His way in our lives.  If we are 
praying and praying, mothers, and feel no answer, it may be because we ourselves 
are not yielded to God.  
 
Sometimes God says “NO!” even though it is something we would rather not hear.  
We must be yielded enough to Him to understand that answer.  
 
In the summer of 1986, two ships collided in the Black Sea off the coast of 
Russia. Hundreds of passengers died as they were hurled into the icy waters 
below. News of the disaster was further darkened when an investigation revealed 
the cause of the accident. It wasn't a technology problem like radar 
malfunction--or even thick fog. The cause was human stubbornness. Each captain 
was aware of the other ship's presence nearby. Both could have steered clear, 
but according to news reports, neither captain wanted to give way to the other. 
Each was too proud to yield first. By the time they came to their senses, it was 
too late. 
·        Closer Walk, December, 1991 
 
Are we yielded enough to God to hear his answers?  Or are we waiting until it is 
too late?
 
“E” Stands for Expect Results
 
If we are busy asking, and are yielding to God in a repentant attitude we better 
expect something to happen! In fact we should have great expectations.
 
You can have a brighter child, it all depends on your expectations. Before 
you're tempted to say, "Not true," let me tell you about Harvard social 
psychologist Robert Rosenthal's classic study. All the children in one San 
Francisco grade school were given a standard I.Q. test at the beginning of the 
school year. The teachers were told the test could predict which students could 
be expected to have a spurt of academic and intellectual functioning. The 
researchers then drew names out of a hat and told the teachers that these were 
the children who had displayed a high potential for improvement. Naturally, the 
teachers thought they had been selected because of their test performance and 
began treating these children as special children. 
 
And the most amazing thing happened -- the spurters, spurted! Overall, the "late 
blooming" kids averaged four more I.Q. points on the second test that the other 
group of students. However, the gains were most dramatic in the lowest grades. 
First graders whose teachers expected them to advance intellectually jumped 27.4 
points, and the second grade spurters increased on the average 16.5 points more 
than their peers. One little Latin-American child who had been classified as 
mentally retarded with an I.Q. of 61, scored 106 after his selection as a late 
bloomer. 
 
Isn't this impressive! It reminds me of what Eliza Doolittle says in My Fair 
Lady, "The difference between a lady and a flower girl is not how she behaves, 
but how she is treated." You see, how a child is treated has a lot to do with 
how that child sees herself and ultimately behaves. If a child is treated as a 
slow learner and you don't expect much, the child shrugs her shoulders and says, 
"Why should I try, nobody thinks I can do it anyway!" And she gives up. But if 
you look at that child as someone who has more potential than she will ever be 
able to develop, you will challenge that child, work with her through 
discouragement, and find ways to explain concepts so the child can understand. 
You won't mind investing time in the child because you know your investment is 
going to pay off! And the result? It does! So, what's the message for parents? 
Just this: Every child benefits from someone who believes in him, and the 
younger the child, the more important it is to have high expectations. You may 
not have an Einstein, but your child has possibilities! Expect the best and 
chances are, that's exactly what you'll get.
·        Kay Kuzma, Family Times, Volume 1, Number 3, Fall, 1992, Page 1 
 
 
As parents, we often expect a lot out of our children, and indeed, the turnabout 
is often true as well.  Our children expect a lot out of us!  If we are going to 
truly prayer with power we must expect God to hear and answer our prayers.  We 
must expect great things.
 
“R” Stands For Return Often
 
In 1972, NASA launched the exploratory space probe Pioneer 10. According to Leon 
Jaroff in Time, the satellite's primary mission was to reach Jupiter, photograph 
the planet and its moons, and beam data to earth about Jupiter's magnetic field, 
radiation belts, and atmosphere. Scientists regarded this as a bold plan, for at 
that time no earth satellite had ever gone beyond Mars, and they feared the 
asteroid belt would destroy the satellite before it could reach its target. 
 
But Pioneer 10 accomplished its mission and much, much more. Swinging past the 
giant planet in November 1973, Jupiter's immense gravity hurled Pioneer 10 at a 
higher rate of speed toward the edge of the solar system. At one billion miles 
from the sun, Pioneer 10 passed Saturn. At some two billion miles, it hurtled 
past Uranus; Neptune at nearly three billion miles; Pluto at almost four billion 
miles. By 1997, twenty-five years after its launch, Pioneer 10 was more than six 
billion miles from the sun. 
 
And despite that immense distance, Pioneer 10 continued to beam back radio 
signals to scientists on Earth. "Perhaps most remarkable," writes Jaroff, "those 
signals emanate from an 8-watt transmitter, which radiates about as much power 
as a bedroom night light, and takes more than nine hours to reach Earth."
The Little Satellite That Could was not qualified to do what it did. Engineers 
designed Pioneer 10 with a useful life of just three years. But it kept going 
and going. By simple longevity, its tiny 8-watt transmitter radio accomplished 
more than anyone thought possible. 
 
So it is when we offer ourselves to serve the Lord. God can work even through 
someone with 8-watt abilities. God cannot work, however, through someone who 
quits.
·        Craig Brian Larson, Pastoral Grit: the Strength to Stand and to Stay, 
Bethany.  
 
We cannot give up.  The early church went to elaborate lengths to pray.  We must 
return to prayer over and over again. Paul told Timothy in 1 Tim. 2:8  “I will 
therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and 
doubting.”
 
Not a day goes by that we don’t have something to take to God in prayer.  
Especially those of you who are mothers!  Problems with the kids, whether young 
or old?  Pray about it!  Get down on your knees, day after day and pray.  
 
God will hear your prayers.
 
 
"Happy Mother's Day" means more
Than have a happy day.
Within those words lie lots of things
We never get to say.
It means I love you first of all,
Then thanks for all you do.
It means you mean a lot to me,
And that I honor you.
But most of all, I guess it means
That I am thinking of
Your happiness on this, your day,
With pleasure and with love.
To all of our mothers here today we wish the greatest of days, and encourage you 
in prayer.
 
 
 
NOTE:  The Acrostic P*R*A*Y*E*R was taken from a sermon by Pastor Zeke Moore 
entitled “Lessons from the Life of King David  Pray Like You Mean It.”

Rev. Charles Mims    
Copyright ©2000 by Claim The Victory Ministries
South Peninsula Baptist Church
Daytona Beach, FL