Tag: God

Tip Toeing …

Posted on By Prayer Coordinator

“Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” Hebrews 4:16 (NIV) 

Do you understand that we have the privilege and right to pray and to believe and expect God to do what he wants and is willing to do in the life of His children? When you pray, do you approach God with boldness and authority? Boldness relates to confidence or assurance, while authority suggests the right, privilege, accessibility, and freedom to pray to God.  

We should approach God boldly and fearlessly and leave our prayers with Him, expecting God to hear and answer our prayers. We’ll never be able to accomplish what God wants us to achieve as a body (your church or our fellowship) or as individuals until we learn to come before God in dependence on Him and come with the authority delegated to us. 

If we do not enter prayer believing we have authority with God, Satan will attack us. He will challenge our authority with God. If that is true, when and where do you think Satan will make his most vicious assault, not when we do our jobs or sit around enjoying life but when we are in prayer? Ephesians 6 reminds us that our battle is against unseen forces to keep us off our knees and challenge our authority before God. Satan doesn’t come after us weakly, but he attacks boldly. But if you are a believer, the supernatural power of God possesses you, and you can overcome these attacks and bind Satan to prevent him from interfering with your prayers.  

Too often, we pray weakly and fearfully instead of coming to God based on what He said He could do. Too often, we grope along in life weakly. The church is weak. The church is weak because its praying is weak. Our country is weak because the church is weak. 

When you pray, do you feel that you enter God’s presence, tiptoeing around His throne room, unsure what to say for fear of what God will do? Do you second guess your prayers or doubt them because you aren’t sure how God will respond? This mindset is contrary to what God expects of believers. He wants us to bring our prayers to Him. If we come before God in humiliation and desperation, everything in heaven will move in response to prayer. 

Prayer is the most powerful tool in the hands of believers. Coming to God with confidence and authority and coming to Him egotistical and proudly are different. Our authority is linked to our humility and absolute and total dependence on God. Prayer is a privilege we should exercise often. We should do so with boldness and authority. 

TEMPTATION

Posted on By Prayer Coordinator

Theologians describe temptation as the desire to engage in short-term urges for enjoyment that threatens long-term goals. It can be a distraction that prevents us from doing what is right. We can be tempted to buy things, eat things, write something on social media, say things to family or friends and so on, things that feel good at the time, but later we regret what occurred. Temptation turns our hearts away from God’s truth and towards a self-serving, self-centred attitude. 

Since humanity’s arrival on the earth, Satan has sought to distract us from God’s plan. He attacks our belief system and even uses God’s word to trick us. He tempts us to think because God loves everyone, we are all going to heaven. He will tempt us to reason that if we do good things and behave as good people, we can earn God’s invitation to eternity. He will draw us into ignoring God by aiding us to make excuses for why we don’t read our bibles, why we can’t pray or even why we can skip or even avoid going to church. He will distract us from reflecting on Easter’s significance and God’s salvation plan. 

Over the past few weeks, our churches have shared much about Jesus’ earthly ministry leading to His final days on this earth.  We need to hear these stories to remind us that God has a plan involving us that started in the Garden, got messed up, and has been corrected by Jesus. We must remember that Jesus is the key to humanity being with God for all eternity. We need to hear that God’s plan for us requires us to believe and trust Him.  

Our pre-easter stories remind us that Jesus allowed Himself to be taken prisoner, abused, crucified, and murdered as the final human ceremonial blood sacrifice. We need reminding that Jesus rose after the third day, ascended to heaven, and that, as He promised, He will return to bring all His followers to eternity with the Father. We need to remember that scripture says we are sinners, and we need to repent of those sins. We need to hear Jesus say, “our sins have been forgiven, and that belief in Him is the only way to a future with Him.” 

God brought his creation into a garden He prepared for us. He offered us everything we needed, including daily interaction with Him, and He asked us to be obedient. Satan tempted Adam and Eve to believe they could have more than God offered, resulting in their expulsion from paradise. We must be retold how we bear the scar of a flawed human nature which suggests we don’t need God. God tells us that belief in Jesus is the start of our reconnection to Him. We need to hear that God allowed Jesus to be the final sacrifice and that there are no actions we can personally do to earn us heaven.

Whether you understand or accept it, we are being tempted constantly to lose our self-control: to give into everything; to have no opinion or belief of our own, to let the world tell you what is right; to see Easter as another holiday, and to ignore God’s plan of salvation. We will never avoid temptation, but God has told us: “No test or temptation that comes your way is beyond the course of what others have had to face. All you need to remember is that God will never let you down; He’ll never let you be pushed past your limit; He’ll always be there to help you come through it.” 1 Corinthians 10:13

You must and can resist with the power of the Holy Spirit and get your mind back to what is true. Take time to read Jesus’ stories to see what is true. Turn your eyes towards heaven and seek the truth. See Easter for what it is; victory, freedom from the evil one, and a fulfilling future.  

Find the Quiet Place

Posted on By Prayer Coordinator

“Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed” Luke 5:16

I am not sure what busyness was like in Jesus’ time, but He found it necessary to isolate himself from His followers and spend time alone with His Father. Since He was God, I imagine He wouldn’t need to go to a lonely spot. He could shut His eyes and close off the world around Him. However, He was a man and a teacher who taught and showed us that it is important to be alone with God. 

Do you have a personal prayer closet? Do you have somewhere in or outside your home to be alone with your thoughts and God? Do you have a place where you can pray and where there will be no disturbances or distractions from computers, phones, and even family? If you don’t, you owe it to yourself and God to find such a place. We all need a place to be isolated from the world to talk and listen to God. 

Our weekly posts have spoken about praying when you wake up or before bed. We have shared the importance of praying with others. We have reminded you to pray for yourself and others throughout the day as good and bad circumstances arise. However, we want to remind you about the prayer practice recorded in Luke 5:16 that even Jesus found necessary: the quiet, alone time prayer. 
 
What does your alone prayer time look like? Where do you go, what time will you start, and how can you ensure you will not be interrupted? If you do not already have a quiet time or location, consider creating this habit. Don’t take your bible or a writing pad with you. Let this be alone time with God and not a time to study scripture or make notes. Use it as a time for prayer and nothing else. Make it a time to listen to the Holy Spirit and pray for what He puts in your heart. Listen to God. 
 
We rarely hear from God when we are busy or surrounded by noise and distractions. Put the world aside for a few minutes daily, withdraw to a lonely place, and pray.