Please note that Pastor Don is having some phone issues. I don't always get your messages right away. I am not ignoring you. Today, I got a phone message from yesterday and several texts from yesterday morning as well. I try to respond ASAP. If you are not hearing from me and need me ASAP please reach oout through someone else or try another way like email. Thanks
Good Morning Humble Servants! You know, that is a pretty apt description of our gathering of believers. We serve, love, spread joy and bring hope and help to many. God is using you and it shows. But humility can be a struggle for many of us. Pride is at the root of all sin as well. We are commanded to humble ourselves. As we seek to become more like Jesus. He is the prime example of humbling self. I mean, He is God and humbled Himself, laid aside His power and came as a servant. And as such, He knows all our struggles. He called the bold and brash and timid and meek to be part of the twelve and worked with them to teach them all to die to self, take up cross daily, and follow Him. For some that meant letting go of operating in their own strength and doing what they thought best, often without seeking direction. For others that meant getting out of comfort zones and going boldly to share the Good News and represent God on earth. But they learned to work together and accomplished much for God's glory and Kingdom expansion. I keep thinking of 1 Cor, 13's reminder that love is not proud or boastful. That's something I always need to work on!
What's your struggle today? For a few of us bold and brash ones, it could be slowing down and waiting on God and for many of us, it's dying to self and stepping out boldly when the Holy Spirit pinches you. The Good News is that God brought us together to be His Body that goes and loves well together. And we are doing pretty good at finding our balance with that. Check out our devos below speaking into the strongholds that bind us, our questioning God and learning to humble ourselves and follow Jesus well. What's keeping you from God's best for you (or others)?Humble yourself and work on becoming more like Jesus. It would be a great idea to work on this with some trusted friends too. God created you for some great things and He is with you always and brought you to this Body to fulfill your part. We are family and we are better together! PTL! Remember, Jesus' yoke is easy, but a yoke is still an instrument of labor to be used to plow. Keep plowing in prayer and service and allowing God to grow and use you! I'm praying for you and us to continue to become more like Jesus! Amen
God awoke me early to speak to my heart and to share with you. It's obvious that He is speaking and calling us to humble ourselves and follow well. As I was proof reading (yeah I do that some days!) the Harvest Prayer Blog popped up in my email. Yes God is speaking to me and us today. I preached recently on our need to humble and purify ourselves to be ready to move with God. It was a message about earnestly pursuing Christlikeness and readiness for when God says go. Begin today's time with God by humbling yourself and asking Him to speak to and direct your heart. Start with Harvest prayer's blog and see where God leads you today. He does have great plans awaiting! Are you ready? Let's roll! Daylight's burning!
Harvest Prayer:
February 15 - Consecrate and Humble Yourselves
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The Bible teaches that when God wants to reveal Himself to His people on a corporate level, He first asks them to examine and humble themselves on an individual level. ‘Consecrate yourselves,” Joshua told the Israelites, “for tomorrow the LORD will do amazing things among you” (Joshua 3:5). Consecrate means “to purify” – to make a person free from guilt or moral blemish. We purify ourselves through humility, confession of sin, and repentance.
God wants to do something wonderful in every community as a whole. But first, He is asking us to purify ourselves individually. This means careful self-examination, humility, honest confession, and earnest repentance of any revealed sin. Then, as a body of Christ, we will be ready to come together corporately to experience God’s presence.
It is as we humble ourselves before the Lord and repent individually that we have the platform to come together to repent and pray corporately. When we do, we cultivate a spiritual appetite and atmosphere in which the Lord can do amazing things among us!
Merciful Father, hear my desire to open my heart before You so that You can reveal my pride and my sinfulness. Purify me, guide me and set me apart from the world! Help my community of believers to repent before You and fully experience Your presence together in life-giving ways. Give us that spiritual hunger to come together to pray for Your kingdom to come in our midst. Help us to yield to Your plans together as we humble ourselves before Your holiness!
--Adapted from Why Don’t We See More Community Transformations in America? by Arlyn Lawrence, an article in the Premiere Issue of Prayer Connect Magazine.
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- Praise God for his abundant mercy.
- Thank him for not punishing you as your sins have deserved (Ezra 9:13).
- Confess any secret sins which hold you back from full fellowship with God.
- Commit yourself to turning away from sin by the power of the Holy Spirit and living completely for God’s glory.
- Ask God to restore the joy of his salvation and to grant you a willing spirit (Ps. 51:12).
- Ask the Lord to create a hunger and thirst for him and his Word in the lives of unsaved persons you know. Pray that you will be sensitive to their struggles and questions.
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| Prayer Points taken from Patterns for Prayer by Alvin VanderGriend. This book is available at prayershop.org. Use the code CONPSP3 at checkout to receive an additional 10% discount. |
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Upper Room: WHY?
Job said to God, “Why then did you bring me out of the womb?” - Job 10:18 (NIV)
As I was recovering from shoulder replacement surgery, all was going well — that is, until I broke out in shingles. Anyone who has ever experienced shingles knows that the pain and general misery are a nightmare. I confess I was angry at God.
I could relate in a very small way to what Job experienced. And, like Job, my prayers began with “Why?” I was already extremely uncomfortable after surgery, and now this festering annoyance was getting worse each day! “Why, God? What am I supposed to learn from this?”
I’m happy to say that the shingles wounds have healed, and my shoulder works better than ever. But I still don’t understand what all that pain was supposed to teach me. Surely there is much in my life and in the world that just doesn’t make sense. Sometimes we are not given the answers to our “why” questions, but we can trust that God is with us. We can cry out to God with what we don’t understand and know that God loves us still.
TODAY'S PRAYER
Loving God, help us to keep trusting you when our lives seem to be overly burdened. Strengthen our spirits, and walk with us through our struggles. Amen.ODB:
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Like many teachers, Carrie devotes countless hours to her career, often grading papers and communicating with students and parents late into the evening. To sustain the effort, she relies on her community of colleagues for camaraderie and practical help; her challenging job is made easier through collaboration. A recent study of educators found that the benefit of collaboration is magnified when those we work with demonstrate humility. When colleagues are willing to admit their weaknesses, others feel safe to share their knowledge with one another, effectively helping everyone in the group.
The Bible teaches the importance of humility—for much more than enhanced collaboration. “Fear[ing] the Lord”—having a right understanding of who we are in comparison with the beauty, power, and majesty of God—results in “riches and honor and life” (Proverbs 22:4). Humility leads us to living in community in a way that’s fruitful in God’s economy, not just the world’s, because we seek to benefit our fellow image bearers.
We don’t fear God as a way to gain “riches and honor and life” for ourselves—that wouldn’t be true humility at all. Instead, we imitate Jesus, who “made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant” (Philippians 2:7) so we can become part of a body that humbly cooperates together to do His work, give Him honor, and take a message of life to the world around us.
By 洪可婷
REFLECT & PRAY
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What does humility mean to you? How have you seen someone’s humility benefit others?
Dear Jesus, I surrender my pride to You.
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SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
The book of Proverbs is both helpful and challenging. It’s helpful because it offers us wisdom for living. What’s wisdom? It can be defined as the appropriate application of knowledge and understanding to life situations. Which of us doesn’t need that? Clearly, we all do—and it’s readily available. James wrote, “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you” (James 1:5). Our wise God is the true and ultimate source of wisdom. What makes the Proverbs challenging, however, is that they offer general insight on how life works best—not ironclad promises. When we attempt to make them into guarantees, we try to prove too much. It’s better to let them guide us in wise, humble living without placing on them the expectation of specific outcomes.
Bill Crowder |
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