All posts tagged: prayer

Let the Lord Settle You Down

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Philippians 4 For  Anxious People Celebrate God all day, every day. I mean, revel in him! Make it as clear as you can to all you meet that you’re on their side, working with them and not against them. Help them see that the Master is about to arrive. He could show up any minute! Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life. Philippians 4:4-7 (The Message) _____________________________________________________________________________________________ Photo via Etherealpanda

Edging God Out – Episode Four

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Therefore it says, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. Ephesians 5:14 Today we are going to talk about the fourth lesson in the story of a prophet going down. Jonah not only refuses to share his faith, cultivate intimacy with God in his presence, care deeply for the welfare of others, but today we see him edging God out of his prayer life. The bible tells us that Jonah was asleep at the bottom of the ship. Someone may say well, hold it right there, Jonah prays in the belly of the fish.. That’s prayer! You are right, that is prayer – but that is not a prayer life. Unfortunately, for a lot of people, the only time they pray is when they are in trouble or when they want God to do something for them. They seem to have no use for God or no relationship with him when things are going great. Prayer is more than just coming to God for something – it is …

Eyes open Prayer-walk

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Three more days to go! I will begin my 40 days prayer for community in three days and will continue to share articles, prayer tips and encouragement from SeekGodfortheCity. Today we are going to focus on prayer-walking or praying near the people you are praying for. There’s a story rolling in everyone’s life. God has done and will do good things in people’s lives. He does good things long before anyone opens their life to Christ. It’s the kindness of God that leads anyone to repentance (Romans 2:4). Meeting, following and serving Christ is always a lifelong story. The typical stories have multiple encounters and experiences that turn people closer to or further from Christ. Someone researching effective ways to lead people to Christ found that most people have no less than five significant encounters in which the message of the gospel registers at the heart level. On the verge of something good. As we connect with people in practical ways, those deep heart connections increase rapidly. I love to assume that God is on the verge …

Prayer, share, care!

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I’m excited about the next 40 days of prayer starting in five days! My prayer as a pastor in the community I serve is to see God move incredibly in the lives of people. Yesterday we talked about how to co-work with God in sharing his love and kindness. Today, we want to see how that actually works. I am going to use another article from seek God for the city to help us put that into perspective. Caring prayers, tangible kindness and well-timed words. Think of your prayers for others as accelerating what God has already been doing. Since God’s work is always a story, your best praying will be part of an ongoing story. We know that prayer is more than some kind of quick-fix for problems. It’s confusing to think of utilizing prayer as a procedure that, if performed correctly, will bring about “results.” Instead, God delights in our praying as a way of enlisting us into His work and His purpose. Prayer is a way of collaborating with God. God is already on the move. Prayer does not …

Co-Work with God!

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I downloaded an app unto my iPad today to help plan, pray and make daily progress in my up coming prayer effort for my community.  Beginning February 22 through April 1 – I will begin a forty day prayer journey asking God to fulfill His purpose in my community. The app makes it very easy to do it. While I was browsing, I came across this little article that I thought would be a blessing to you as it was to me. It is about how we can partner with God in sharing His love and kindness. ______________________________________________________________ Co-work with God Co- work with God in the story of His love. The story started early. When did God begin to do good things in your life? Was it only after you became a Christian? Actually, the Bible is very clear about God doing good things in people’s lives long before they even know about Him. There’s a story of kindness in every person’s life. God delights in showing His premeditated, forever love with tangible acts of kindness. …

The Power of Reduced Options

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Back in the day I remember the days when people used to say – Jesus or God is all I’ve got. Now I hear them say – He is all I got ‘left’. As if, I’ve tried everything else and came up short, so I’m turning to Him – He is my last resort. I know we don’t necessarily say it out loud, but we act as if we have this rich uncle who will bail us out when we are in a financial jam or so, and if he doesn’t, well, than we can turn to God for some help. So I guess the question here is who do you go to first when problems arise in your life? Do you turn to your well-connected friends in high places? Do you start looking for all the people to whom you’ve done a favor to get a pay-back, or do you turn to God? If God is not our only option than we are going to continually rely on Wall-street, on our medical insurance, on our …

The Hem of His Garment

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Mark 5:25-33 And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse. She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. For she said, “If I touch even his garments, I will be made well.” And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my garments?” And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, ‘Who touched me?’” And he looked around to see who had done it. But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. And he said to her, “Daughter, …

It’s a Lie!

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We hear it all the time The check is in the mail. I’ll start my diet tomorrow. We service what we sell. Give me your number and the doctor will call you right back. Money cheerfully refunded. One size fits all. This offer limited to the first 100 people who call in. Your luggage isn’t lost, it’s only misplaced. Leave your résumé and we’ll keep it on file. This hurts me more than it hurts you. I just need five minutes of your time. Your table will be ready in a few minutes. Open wide, it won’t hurt a bit. Let’s have lunch sometime. It’s not the money, it’s the principle. But it all a lie. Cute little phrases people use to disguise their lie. Today I would like to introduce an outline of 10 lies about God, faith and life. Ten lies cunningly twisted and crafted to cause you to doubt and question you faith, God and yourself. I am very sure that there are many more lies out there, but I want to share a …

Quotations About Prayer

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…the prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working… James 5:16 John Wesley God does nothing except in response to believing prayer.”  (Famous evangelist who spent 2 hours daily in prayer)   S.D. Gordon Prayer strikes the winning blow; service is simply picking up the pieces.”  One should never initiate anything that he cannot saturate with prayer.” The greatest thing anyone can do for God or man is pray.” Martin Luther If I fail to spend two hours in prayer each morning, the devil gets the victory through the day. I have so much business I cannot get on without spending three hours daily in prayer.  Chuck Smith Prayer does not change the purpose of God.  But prayer does change the action of God.” The most important thing a born again Christian can do is to pray.” Sidlow Baxter Men may spurn our appeals, reject our message, oppose our arguments, despise our persons, but they are helpless against our prayers.”  E.M. Bounds God shapes the world by prayer. The more prayer there …

I am not a Morning Person. Liar!

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So, this little motivational post is to discourage people from making excuses about their lack of prayer and devotion in their lives by saying things like ‘I am not a morning person’ when it comes to prayer. Because the question is what do you do with the rest of your time? Have you schedule another time in your day to meet with God on a consistent basis, or are you too busy to make it happen. Are you up on the internet… playing video games… watching movies all night? If you are, a simple change in your daily habits, nightly habits or bad habits could improve your prayer habit.