O is for Observation / P is for Prayer

O is for ObservationA to Z Challenge

Observation: an act of recognizing and noting a fact or occurrence; to be aware of one’s surroundings; to listen and pay attention; to see, watch, recognize details, to collect information through one’s senses

It seems today, we have lost the art of using our brains when told something or even when looking at something. We no longer observe. Instead we absorb. Time to reawaken those observation skills that engage our reason and thinking. Yes, think and weigh the evidence presented to us. Is it logical? Does it make sense? Are we truly open to where the evidence leads?  

Here are a few websites to challenge you to be an engaged observer.

Observation Techniques 

The Christian Observer

The HolyObserver

P is for PrayerA to Z Challenge

Prayer: Talking to God from your heart; 

Prayer has an effect not only on the person praying, but God affects things and events because we pray. How do I know? I look at what God Himself says He does when we pray as in this example of His response to Hezekiah's prayer.

          Then Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it, and he went up to the house of the Lord and spread it out before the Lord. Hezekiah prayed before the Lord and said, “O Lord, the God of Israel, who are enthroned above the cherubim, You are the God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. Incline Your ear, O Lord, and hear; open Your eyes, O Lord, and see; and listen to the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to reproach the living God. Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have devastated the nations and their lands and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. So they have destroyed them. Now, O Lord our God, I pray, deliver us from his hand that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, O Lord, are God.”

          Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah saying, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Because you have prayed to Me about Sennacherib king of Assyria, I have heard you.’ This is the word that the Lord has spoken against him….

           ‘Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria, “He will not come to this city or shoot an arrow there; and he will not come before it with a shield or throw up a siege ramp against it. …‘For I will defend this city to save it for My own sake and for My servant David’s sake.’”

          Then it happened that night that the angel of the Lord went out and struck 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians; and when men rose early in the morning, behold, all of them were dead. From 2 Kings19

There are different approaches to prayer, different techniques to help us. Here are a few approaches.

The Lord's Prayer, a model

The 5 finger prayer

Prayer Cards

Thanks for visiting,

Maria