Are you an impatient person? I know it is a bit of a strange question to ask you today. To be honest, I am a very impatient person when it comes to driving, standing in line and finding a parking spot. My wife would say “amen” to that. It is something I need to work on. You might be different from me and as you read this, you have probably thought of things that make you impatient.

One comment I read recently put it into perspective for me. It read, “Relax, you are in good company”.  As I pondered this, I am reminded of the song “every step I take, I take with you, you are my way Jesus” and that is what its all about. Even though I am alone in my vehicle, I am in good company, because Jesus is sitting right next to me. I feel a bit embarrassed as I think of it. The reactions I have given, the things I have said, while Jesus was sitting right next to me.

“Relax, you are in good company”, also gives me encouragement for today. The things I have done are in the past, but the things of today and tomorrow can be my reflection of walking with Jesus. Yes, I’ll mess up, but I know Jesus is right beside me. I will praise Him for that, today.

If you’re anything like me then from time to time you need to be reminded of just how important it is to pray. The Christian life is gloriously difficult. Our daily lives are filled with things that need to be done. It’s busy and spending time with God becomes harder and harder. It’s a daily struggle.

At bedashed.com we want you to know that we totally get it. We live that life every day, and every day it is a struggle to get on our knees. We know that it takes commitment and encouragement to give God the glory.

James 5:16 says: “The insistent prayer of a righteous person is powerfully effective.”

I love James. He is probably one of my favorite writers of the Bible. He is blunt, to the point and says it how it is. He states, if you spend the time with God on a regular basis, you are going to experience God more powerfully and effectively in your life. Your prayers are going to be answered, your life is going to change and most importantly, God is going to be glorified.

There is no specific order to follow in helping you praise God, but I would consider the last step in this series to be spending time with God by communicating with Him. Yes, just talk, that’s it. You will be surprised what he might reveal to you, or maybe better yet, what we might miss out on when we don’t.

In step 1, I talked about envisioning entering God’s throne room and coming before our God. Now I am envisioning myself playing a chess game with God and having a casual conversation, all in front of a great stone fireplace, nice and warm and cozy on a cold winter’s day.

I really just talk. I talk about my day, the things I have to do and want to accomplish. The things that are important to me and to my wife and kids. I ask for specific things that I need God to answer and/or guide me with and I thank Him for the things He provided. It’s really just me talking.

The word of God promises us that when we spend time with God, He reveals his plans, his directions and guidance for our lives and comforts us when we need it most. I have experienced God doing this in my life. They were not big things but small answers to my conversation with Him.

This exercise of talking with God was probably the most important thing Jesus did to stay connected with the Father. He gave us this example so we take time to communicate with God as well. In many occasions Jesus escaped the busyness of the people around Him and sought out a quiet place to have time to talk with God.

See Luke 5:16 as an example. After healing a man full of leprosy, he escaped the crowds that followed Him. It says;  “he withdrew himself into the desert, and prayed.”

In this busy season of Christmas, let us be Christ-like and find a quiet place to have conversations with our Father.

Step 4 in helping you give praise to God is to confess our sinfulness.  Once we are in the presence of our God and we have admired and thanked Him, we have to come clean with our sinfulness to enjoy complete fellowship with him. We want His undivided attention and complete focus on us and He wants the same with us.

Yes, God has already and completely forgiven us from all of our sins, from the past as well as the future. Jesus took care of it all so we can enjoy complete fellowship with the Father.

1 John 1:9 says; “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us the sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we haven’t sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.”

So why ask for forgiveness, even though we are forgiven? John is saying that God asks this of us when we come before Him. He wants us to acknowledge what He did for us in Christ Jesus. He wants our complete hearts toward him and not hide anything from him.

True confession toward God, gives God all the praise.  It let’s God know you are serious with Him, you understand what He did for you and you depend on Him to overcome your sin. When we open up our hearts, He comes near. Even though it might be ugly and dirty, God comes close to us and hugs us. He lets us enjoy maximum fellowship with him.

I was contracted to manage a team of developers for an oil and gas company a few years ago. It was the end of the day of a long and hard workweek and one of my co-workers came by to say “good night”. I quickly said “good night” as well and went about completing my business. I had a few hours left to go and was focused on getting it done in time so I could be home to be with my family.

At that moment, my boss called me into his office. His office was next to mine and he had overheard the quick response I gave his employee. I sat down in his office and he reminded me that as managers, we should always take the time to say, “thank you” to the people we work with. When someone says “good night”, we should not blow it off with another “good night”, but take the time to thank them for the hard work they did that day and a simple “thank you” was all that was needed to do that.

That simple message changed the way I talk in my relationships today. I believe it goes further than that. The act of giving thanks, shows us who we are as Christians, it’s one of the key characteristic of our being Christ-like.

Ephesians 5:15-21 says; “Therefore watch carefully how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise; redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore don’t be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Don’t be drunken with wine, in which is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs; singing, and making melody in your heart to the Lord; giving thanks always concerning all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to God, even the Father; subjecting yourselves one to another in the fear of Christ.

Step 3 in helping you give praise to God is having a grateful heart. We are part of His plan through Christ Jesus. We are His ambassadors. We carry His name by the measure of our thankfulness in our daily lives.

In step 1: Help to get started praising God, I talked about coming in the presence of God, before His throne. Adoring God is a continuation of us kneeling at the feet of Jesus. When we adore him we give respect to God, we show Him that he is King of all Kings, Lord of all Lords and creator of all things.

To give you a visual element to get started in adoration, have a look at this.


A star birth in the Carina Nebula, located 7,500 light-years away in the southern constellation Carina.

This picture was taken by the rejuvenated Hubble Space Telescope. NASA added a new Wide Field Camera to the Hubble and repaired a few other things. The results of these repairs are truly amazing! God blows my mind with his creativity and splendor.

God I adore you, you give us pictures like these to show your awesome power over creation. The universe is your canvas and I am honored to be in it and part of it!

Bedashed.com is all about people connecting with God. We know that sometimes it is not easy to get started writing our praise to God and to do it publicly as well. Our frame of mind might be elsewhere and we are not ready to come before our God.

So here at bedashed, we want to help get you started.

To praise means to express our reverence, worthiness and respect to God. For me, it takes visual elements to help me get started in praising God, especially when I feel at a lost for words. One of the ways I do this is I envision myself in the presence of God. I have a picture in my mind of entering God’s throne room as described in Revelation 4:2-6 and bowing before him in praise. I really do not say very much, I just let it soak in.

Revelation 4:2-6:
“Behold, there was a throne set in heaven, and one sitting on the throne that looked like a jasper stone and a sardius. There was a rainbow around the throne, like an emerald to look at. Around the throne were twenty-four thrones. On the thrones were twenty-four elders sitting, dressed in white garments, with crowns of gold on their heads. Out of the throne proceed lightnings, sounds, and thunders. There were seven lamps of fire burning before his throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.  Before the throne was something like a sea of glass, similar to crystal. In the midst of the throne, and around the throne were four living creatures full of eyes before and behind.”

It’s not always the same picture or exactly as described in this verse, but I let my imagination run wild. A picture speaks louder then words. What’s your picture that can get you started?

We as Christians have a desire for God to hear our needs, wants and desires. We want that because it makes our relationship with God, real. And when it comes down to it, we cannot live our lives faithfully if we do not know if God hears our prayers.  Therefore the last ground rule to knowing that God listens to us is to fully believe and trust He does. 

This might sound simple but for me it is easier said then done. I have the temptation to be impatient, to needing to pray more and do more for God, so he will listen, see my needs more clearly and pay attention to me more. But then I am humbled by what Isaiah 66:1-2 says;

Thus says Yahweh, “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: what kind of house will you build to me? And what place shall be my rest? For all these things has my hand made, and so all these things came to be,” says Yahweh: “but to this man will I look, even to him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at my word.”

God tells me, I have made all things and I have made you. There is nothing you can do for me. But I will pay attention to you and be near to you, even though you are not perfect. I will listen to you because you seek me and hear my word. I will certainly listen to you.

How full of Grace is that! Know, believe and trust God hears it all.
Thank you my Father.

At bedashed it is our dream for people to spend good quality time with God. We believe that this regular and daily habit creates the foundation for life. The decisions we make, the attitudes we carry, the service we render to others and the problems we face are all impacted by the relationship we have with God.

In the first ground rule, I talked about coming before God in spirit and in truth, the true intentions of our heart to be with God.

I believe the second ground rule in coming before our God is the acknowledgement that we need him, that He is King of all Kings and Lord of all Lords.  We need to be humbled by his majesty.

First Chronicles 7:14-15 says; “if my people, who are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. Now my eyes shall be open, and my ears attentive, to the prayer that is made in this place.”

The Word of God gives us many different ways we can humble ourselves before our God, in particular the psalms of David. Have a look at the beginnings of Psalms 51, 53 -57, 61-63 and 66;

Make a joyful shout to God, all the earth!
  Sing to the glory of his name!
  Offer glory and praise!
Tell God, “How awesome are your deeds!
  Through the greatness of your power, your enemies submit themselves to you.
All the earth will worship you,
  and will sing to you;
  they will sing to your name.”

We believe that God listens to all of our prayers. It is God’s desire to help us and take care of us. His love for us is so great that he will do anything for us. In matter of fact, he already did, by sacrificing Jesus on the Cross.

There are however ground rules to follow when we come before our God and for God to take us serious.

The first ground rule is that we must come before our God out of our own will, with complete desire from our heart to be with God. Jesus says in John 4:23-24; “But the hour comes, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such to be his worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

So how do we do that?  I think a great way to come before our God in spirit and truth is to quiet ourselves down. Take 2-3 minutes and be still. Let your spirit prepare itself.  Let your spirit guide you in your conversation with God.

Romans 8 verse 26 says; “In the same way, the Spirit also helps our weaknesses, for we don’t know how to pray as we ought. But the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which can’t be uttered.”

This is always a hard question to answer, but it is an important one to ask. We often want to do good things for God and serve him deeply.  We want to do these things because of God’s love for us and we want to show our love for Him.  This is often why we ask “God what is your will for my life? What do you want me to do? How do you want me to live?”

However, the fact of the matter is that we do not have to do anything. Because of his perfect gift of Grace, through the death of Jesus Christ, there is nothing we can do to improve our relationship with God. It’s already perfect!

I know this does not satisfy the answer to the question. We are wired, “to do”. What if we look at the question differently? What if we look at it from the perspective of “being with God” and not from the perspective of “doing for God”, the answer might be more satisfying.

What does it mean, “to be”. First Thessalonians 5:16-19 says; “Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus toward you.”