Steadfast

Lauren Mitchell

Description

Ever wanted to know what made David have a heart after God’s own? Steadfast is a study in the kind of prayer based relationship God and David shared.
If you have ever wondered what made David a man after God’s own heart, the secret is in these pages. David’s entire life is characterized by his understanding of prayer. We need look no farther than Psalms to see that prayer was his native tongue. Each psalm is an illustration of David’s vulnerability versus God’s strength, and God’s strength wins every time. This book teaches you the art of prayer, taking your vulnerability and pairing it with God’s strength. In these pages, you will develop a prayer life like you have never had and you will find your heart changed by it. You will learn a pattern of prayer that can stick with you long after you have finished this study.

Sujets

• Biblical Studies
• Philosophie et théologie
• Devotional
• Steadfast
• Devotion
• Bible study
• Journaling
• Prayer
• Psalms
• Religion
• Scrapbooking
• David

Informations

• Publié par: WestBow Press
• Date de parution: 06 octobre 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781490895789
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Steadfast
 
A Study of the Prayer that Made David’s Whole Heart Rely on a Steadfast God
 
 
 
 
 
LAUREN MITCHELL
 
 
 
 
 

 
Copyright © 2015 Lauren Mitchell.
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
Unless otherwise marked, scripture quotations were taken from the ESV. English Standard Version, copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles a division of Good News Publishers.
 
Scripture quotations marked Message were taken from The Message .
Copyright1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002.
 
Scripture quotations marked NEB were taken from the New English Bible. Copyright 1961, 1970 by the delegates of the Oxford University Press and the syndics of the Cambridge University Press.
 
All word studies were taken from Biblehub.com Copyright 2004-2013 by biblios.com.
 
WestBow Press
A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403
www.westbowpress.com
844-714-3454
 
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.
 
ISBN: 978-1-4908-9577-2 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-4908-9579-6 (hc)
ISBN: 978-1-4908-9578-9 (e)
 
 
WestBow Press rev. date: 07/14/2022
 
For my own warriors of prayer who weekly seek to have a heart like God’s own. My study girls…I love you.
Contents
Foreword
Week 1   Time
Introduction to Week 1
Week 2   Praise
Introduction to Week 2
Week 3   Identity
Introduction to Week 3
Week 4   Sin
Introduction to Week 4
Week 5   No Fear
Introduction to Week 5
Week 6   Destiny
Introduction to Week 6
 
Afterward and Challenge
Study Guide Answers
Notes
Biography
Acknowledgements
Foreword
The word Steadfast has been defined as something unwavering, firm in purpose. It is something constant, unshakeable, and changeless. The only thing I have found that meets any of these criteria is my God.
Everything changes. There is evidence in all of nature around us. To everything there is a season. Even our lives are patterned this way. We age in seasons, we grow in seasons, we bear fruit in seasons, and it never stops until we die. My favorite attribute of God in this season of my life has become Steadfast. He alone is steadfast. He alone is fixed, immovable, and constant. If you don’t know Him, this sounds frightening and harsh rather than comforting and encouraging, but immovable and constant are comforting when everything else is spinning and out of control. We try to control life to feel safe. What we need is something steadfast that makes us immovable when everything is shifting. Change comes to everything but God. He alone is unchanging.
This is a study of the heart of David, and how it was anchored to God in prayer. There were many seasons in David’s life, seasons of sin and seasons of victory, through them all he remained a man after God’s own heart. He became immovable. David became steadfast as he anchored himself to the One who is steadfast and hasn’t even a shadow of change. This enabled him to serve God with a whole and undivided heart because he was not tossed by the wind and waves of the world. David had a heart after God’s own because he understood the gift of prayer. Prayer anchored the warrior poet and kept him in close communion with Steadfast Love. What we hold fast to will ultimately define us. David learned that his God would never change, and he could bet his whole heart on it. With God there is “no variation or shadow due to change” (James 1:17). “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). Because of this truth, we can bet our whole hearts on Him and be made steadfast as we cling to Jesus.
This book is about learning how to anchor our hearts to God’s through prayer. David authored at least 74 of the psalms found in the Bible. I can only imagine how many other prayers he wrote. Prayer enables us to take our thoughts to God and, in turn, understand His thoughts. That’s an incredible privilege that is incredibly underused. I know that I unlocked something that David already knew when I started journaling prayer. There is something concrete that happens when I write my prayers to God. For one thing, I am more focused. The human body can only do so many things at one time, when I am physically writing my prayers, my mind can’t wander like it does when I’m not writing. Now, if I put my pen down, my mind is still prone to wander, but I have found that the longer I practice this discipline of writing my prayers, the longer my attention span for prayer becomes, even when I am not writing them. Another beautiful thing about this practice is that it keeps a running log of requests. I am quick to forget some of the things I pray, and then when God answers, I don’t even acknowledge it. Journaling has helped me to look back on requests, to keep them fresh in my mind, and most importantly to celebrate their answers with praise.
This book looks at six areas of David’s life and how prayer defined him in each: Time, Praise, Identity, Fear, Sin, and Destiny.
 
Instruct ions:
You will find that this isn’t necessarily about brand new truths or philosophies. They may be new to you, or they may not. The trouble for most of us is that we have significant knowledge, but we don’t put into practice what we know. We are going to take what we learn from David and the Psalms and apply it daily. This is about being accountable for all of our hours and bringing Jesus into them. It’s about learning to renew and focus your mind through prayer. If God is our steadfast foundation, then we can become steadfast in a world where things change every minute. The more anchored we are to Jesus, the less effect the tide of the world has to pull us away or rock our boat. Prayer tethers us to our anchor.
Instead of blanks to fill in, you will incorporate these truths into your own day and your own prayer through journaling. Don’t worry, there are sample prayers at the end of each day, and you can use them as a guide. They are based on the scripture of that day. There is additional space for you to add your own prayer at the end of both morning and evening sessions, or you can keep your prayers in your own journal. If you have never journaled a prayer in your life, pattern it after mine. I patterned mine on scripture, so you can’t go wrong. Writing them will make these truths that David applied to his life your own. When the Truth is applied and prayed over individual circumstance, it unleashes power over those circumstances.
Last thing, I invite you to memorize this verse from Colossians. It is a reminder of how we are to pray; steadfastly, while being expectant for answers, and always with a thankful heart.
Continue steadfastly in prayer
being watchful in it with thanksgi ving.
Colossians 4:2
WEEK 1 Time
“But the highest condition of the human will, as distinct, not as separated from God, is when, not seeing God, not seeming to itself to grasp Him at all,
it yet holds Him fast.”
George MacDonald
Introduction to Week 1
Time
Time and focus. It takes time to focus. Without deliberate time in focus life blurs. Instead of a life of purpose you wind up with something that looks like modern art, the kind that takes no actual shape and is left up to interpretation. That isn’t what life should be, smears of color with no clear meaning or direction, but without time and focus that is what life becomes. There is a way to make time purposeful instead of simply allowing it to pass. The key is in what you choose to spend your time focusing on. That is what decides what kind of life you will have.
The Bible leaves clear instructions as to what our focus should be. Colossians 3:2 instructs us to, “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth”. How do we put that into action? What does it mean to set our minds on things above? How do we focus on something past this temporal earth? It takes time. You have to deliberately direct your thoughts over and over to the Truth. The world in which we live becomes more and more deceptive every day. Satan evolves with better tactics of distraction all the time. Our battle is to see our reality with heavenly eyes instead of the lies that Satan would have us believe. The key to achieving a focus on Truth is repetition. See the Truth is a person. The Truth is God. The way to stay focused on Him is to pray and meditate on His word. Without this effort daily, yes I said daily, we lose focus because of the onslaught of distractions and evil which also comes against us daily. Renewing our mind is not a one-time deal. Taking our thoughts captive means that when they stray, we repeatedly bring them back. It’s like a reset button; bringing our thoughts back to God allows us to hit clear and start over, seeing things from His perspective. The only way to achieve this is communion with God through time in prayer. Prayer is meant to be our line of ongoing communication with God.
If we are honest,