"Mork calling Orson, Mork calling Orson, Come in Orson.".....Mork and Mindy 1978

       At the end of every Mork and Mindy show, Mork would fall into a trance and be teleported in his mind back to his planet Ork. Mork would then give an account to his leader, Orson, about all the things he had learned on Earth and would seek advice on what to do with what he had learned. After watching a rerun one night, I began to think about the book of Job and how Satan has to give an account to God. The hardships that Job faced stemmed from one of these accounts when Satan tried to prove to God that Job would turn his back on God

if things in his life got bad enough. In case you hadn’t read Job, Satan was wrong. Job was put through horrible things but stayed true to God and was greatly blessed.

    This started me thinking, should we be keeping a regular account of our lives with God? The short answer is, yes. So, let’s look at what that means. How do we give an account to God? Prayer. This is our direct line to the Father, our heavenly cell phone. Most people don’t have a problem knowing how to get in touch with God, it’s what to do when He answers the phone. First, acknowledge God for who He is and with the respect He deserves. Then we ask for God’s will to be done in our lives as we commit to living out His will. We, then need to ask for God to fulfill our needs and share with our desires and dreams. Next, we address the sin in our lives and pray for forgiveness for those who have wronged us. Lastly, we ask for God’s protection and guidance for the day ahead. This was the format that Jesus gave us in the Lord’s prayer. How often are we to pray and give an account? Daily. The model prayer that Jesus gave us said: "give us this day our daily bread," meaning we need to take our prayer life one day at a time.

     Many Christians, all of us at times, don’t pray daily or even regularly. But this is in direct opposition to a fruitful Christian life. “And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” Galatians 4:6 As young children, we spoke with our parents daily and this should be no different with our Heavenly Father as we grow in our faith. ‘“If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.  So, whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.”  James 4:15-17 Since God only wants the best for us, any day spent living by our own guidance is a day wasted. We should seek His will daily and obey what He asks us to do. As James wrote it is just as sinful to neglect to do good as it is to do wrong. The Apostle Paul, one of the greatest examples of a Christian said “I die daily.” He meant that every day he would have to confess his sins and let them die on the cross. If Paul had to confess sin daily, surely we do as well. “Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil. Ephesians 4:26-27 Pray that God will help you in time of anger to control your temper. It works better than counting to ten. Also, be quick to forgive others, don’t go to bed angry or hold a grudge. You don’t have to forgive a person directly. You can pray for them and forgive them in your heart. Sometimes that’s the best start until cooler heads prevail. “Pray without ceasing” 1 Thessalonians 5:17 Obviously we can’t go around with our heads bowed praying nonstop. We would all end up in concussion protocol. This is a mindset and a lifestyle. What the Bible is saying here is that we should live in a manner that no matter the time of day nor the circumstance we should be able to face any situation with prayer expecting God to respond. “The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” James 5:16 When you combine these two verses, you can see how a daily walk with God and accountability work. By having a daily accountably time with our Heavenly Father, we will grow to live a lifestyle aligned with God and that lifestyle will in turn make our prayers a powerful tool in our daily lives.

    Don’t let your prayer life turn into “God calling child, God calling Child, come in Child!” I encourage you this week to start a daily time of accountability with God through prayer. You can start with just two to five minutes and before long that time will grow in length, confidence, power, love, and results.

I hope your week is out of this world....Nanu, Nanu!