First Step Prayer

 First Step Prayer is the name I gave to a group that I tried to organize here in Verona. Verona is the community where I live. I ran across a scripture in Jeremiah 29:7 that says: And work for the peace and prosperity of the city where I sent you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, for its welfare will determine your welfare. I am not in exile, I chose to move here, but I felt this scripture still applied to me. So then I came up with a name, in any endeavor we should choose to pray to seek God's guidance. The First Step in any endeavor seeking God's guidance should start with prayer.   I write these posts I am trying to learn to pray first and ask God for guidance. I felt I got a confirmation with the name. One of the ministers that support this group commented that the name was good.  I don't remember the exact words. Pray to the Lord for guidance is the First Step. Often we then look to God's word to support us in seeking his will. About the same time, I was reading and probably posted something about 1 Timothy 2:1-2. I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. Ask God to help them; intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them. Pray this way for kings and all who are in authority so that we can live peaceful and quiet lives marked by godliness and dignity.  This has had a personal impact on me as I want to write these blogs but I feel I need God's guidance. I am in many cases unless I am writing something political trying to teach God's word. I want to rightly divide the word of truth. But even in politics, God desires to guide us.  I will be held accountable to God as a teacher for what I write. Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Philippians 4:6. This has been a shift in my thinking. Years ago I would think God doesn't care if I buy a ford or a chevy, he just wants me to make the best decision I can. After all, he gave me a brain. But in trying to understand Philippians 4:6, I feel God desires that we pray about all our needs, all that we do.  I am trying to make it a habit to pray first.  About everything. I am trying to be more specific and not just general prayers asking God for guidance every day.  Since the beginning of time, in the Garden of Eden God desires a relationship with us. In Genesis, God would converse with Adam and Eve in the cool of the evening, Genesis 3:8. Often I just want to start writing, but I am trying to form the habit of praying first. There is so much instruction for living in the Bible if we look for it. So not only am I trying to organize and facilitate this group to pray for God's guidance for Civil Authority as the aging Apostle Paul instructs a young minister, it is having a personal effect on me as an individual Christian. By the same token, I need God's guidance in my life as does our country, our state, and our little town. Pray about everything. Ask God for guidance even about buying a ford or a chevy. So I feel the name fits, First step prayer just like the AA steps except in AA the 11th step is seeking God or their higher power as AA words it.  As a Christian, our first step should be in seeking God. In everything. Pray about everything, let it be your First Step. And perhaps our second step would be in consulting God's word for direction in everything. God created everything, everything including me belongs to God. Even our finances come from God, not just the first tenth but all of it is God's. God does desire that we are good stewards of the things he entrusts to us. In our last First Step Prayer meeting, one of the pastors asked us to remember to pray for our prayer meeting. It is an important thing we are doing asking God's guidance for our nation and our city. Even when we teach or preach the word of God it has a personal impact on us first before we give to others what God is teaching us. Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord. As more than a year has gone by since I first tried to gather the Churches to unite in prayer before Almighty God, I have realized that it was from God and not just a grandiose idea of my own. I do really believe God put this on my heart in the fall of 2019.  Then 2020 happened with full force and how we have needed God's help. God bless, LVZ.