It's Friday--Thank God I'm Forgiven! TGIF! And thank God that Resurrection Sunday came and death and the grave have been overcome and our sins can now be forgiven! Thank God that we don't need a priest to offer sacrifices for us or to lift our prayer because the curtain has been torn and God's presence is available always! Thank God for pursuing and saving us! Thank God for pursuing others through us and gifting and empowering us to be His hands and feet! Thank God for hearing and answering our prayers! Thank God we are known, loved and created for such a time as this! TGIF! What are you thankful about today? Tell our Abba Daddy!
Good Morning Praying Imitator's of Jesus--Children of Our All-Sufficient God! There's a mouthful of truth that ties directly to our devotionals today. As we flow from the National Day of Prayer to TGIF time with God, let us lift many praises and thanksgivings! Let us be still and know as we dwell in His peaceful, loving presence. Let us open our hearts and minds to receive all He has for us today. And let us commit to following Him all day to His best for us and others! Amen! Let us bathe this day, our situations and others, including this nation in prayer. Let us release all our anxious thoughts to the Prince of Peace. Let us always remember that God is with us and He is enough! Amen! He has great custom made plans just for you, His masterpiece, to discover, process and enact! PTL! What's He saying to you and who are you partnering with to bring that all to life?
Remember, the battle is the Lord's and He is sufficient, able, willing and partners with us to bring His perfect will and plans to life! Amen! Stand firm in faith and follow Jesus to His best for you today. What joy awaits us on the other side of our persevering in prayer and walking through in faith! PTL!
Here are our devotionals for today. Spend some time in them, God's presence in praise and prayer, and preparing to go live and love more like Jesus! Father, Abba, Daddy COME! Fill us to the fullest and overflow from us. Speak to our hearts. Help us persevere always in You and follow well to Your perfect plans. Not our will Lord, but Yours! Come! Inform and empower our prayers and us for this day! Amen.
Charles Stanley (God is all we need! Is He enough for you? Who needs to see that and be introduced to our Provision and Sufficiency?)
UR: Imitators (We have an example in Jesus and as we spend time with Him we become more like Him and He empowers our prayers and choices! Amen!)
Be imitators of God, as beloved children, and walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. - Ephesians 5:1-2 (NRSVUE)
A few weeks ago my daughter returned to work after the birth of her baby, and I started my new job: caring for my grandson. It’s only one day a week and leaves me physically exhausted, but I’m loving it. My grandson is not yet verbal or mobile, but he is alert and always learning. He watches, listens, and imitates. He smiles when I smile, and he tries to clap when I clap.
Children learn so much by imitation. Even as adults, we can easily begin speaking, behaving, and thinking like the people we associate with most. Spending time with people who speak and act in encouraging and edifying ways will help us to speak and act in similar ways.
Likewise, if we want to imitate Christ in our speech, actions, and attitudes, we need to spend time with him. We can do this by learning about his life through the Gospels, by sitting quietly in his presence, or by talking to him in prayer. Doing so is good for us and the people who spend time with us. The more we imitate Christ, the better examples we will be for others.
TODAY'S PRAYER
Thank you, Jesus, for living out an example of how to glorify God. Help us to imitate you in all things as we spend time with you and better learn your ways. Amen.ODB: (You and your prayers matter! Prayer warrior is a critical role in our Good News Delivery Co. Cover us and release God's sufficient power and perfect plans today. Thanks!)
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“Prayers for an upcoming brain scan.” “That my kids would come back to church.” “Comfort for Dave, who lost his wife.” Our card ministry team receives a weekly list of prayer requests like these so we can pray and send each person a handwritten note. The requests are overwhelming, and our efforts can feel small and unnoticed. That changed after I received a heartfelt thank-you card from Dave, the recently bereaved husband, with a copy of his beloved wife’s obituary. I realized anew that prayer matters.
Jesus modeled that we should pray earnestly, often, and with hopeful faith. His time on earth was limited, but He prioritized getting away by Himself to pray (Mark 1:35; 6:46; 14:32).
Hundreds of years earlier, the Israelite king Hezekiah learned this lesson too. He was told that an illness would soon take his life (2 Kings 20:1). In distress and weeping bitterly, Hezekiah “turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord” (v. 2). In this instance, God’s response was immediate. He healed Hezekiah’s sickness, added fifteen years to his life, and promised to rescue the kingdom from an adversary (vv. 5-6). God answered his prayer not because Hezekiah was living a good life, but “for [his] own honor and for the sake of [his] servant David” (v. 6 nlt). We may not always receive what we ask for, but we can be sure that God is working in and through every prayer.
By Karen Pimpo
REFLECT & PRAY
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Who in your life needs prayer today? How can you remind yourself to pause and pray more frequently?
Heavenly Father, thank You for listening to my prayers.
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SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
Hezekiah witnessed the power of prayer when he cried out to God and He answered him (2 Kings 20:5-6). Prayer is also a prominent theme in the New Testament. Jesus encouraged it, and His life modeled it. The one who taught us to address God as “Father” in prayer (Matthew 6:9; Luke 11:2) did so Himself when He prayed: “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth” (Matthew 11:25). Christ’s blueprint for prayer included prayer regarding temptation and protection from evil: “He fell with his face to the ground and prayed, ‘My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will’ ” (26:39). Jesus modeled praying for our enemies (Luke 6:28) and said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (23:34).
Witness the power of prayer in James Banks’ class.
Arthur Jackson |
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TWFYT: (The Battle is the Lord's! Who are you partnering with in prayer and action to withstand the fierce attacks?)
Harvest Prayer Blogs: (really good stuff here to inform your prayers! Are you desperate for God and for His moving? Get in that prayer closet and release His power as you abide in Him and He informs your prayers and marching orders for the day))
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As Jesus approached Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. When he heard the crowd going by, he asked what was happening. They told him, “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.”
He called out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”
Those who led the way rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”
Jesus stopped and ordered the man to be brought to him. When he came near, Jesus asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?”
“Lord, I want to see,” he replied.
Jesus said to him, “Receive your sight; your faith has healed you.” Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus, praising God. When all the people saw it, they also praised God. (Luke 18:35-43).
Here we find the account of a desperate pray-er—a blind beggar. When he heard that Jesus was passing by, he cried out for mercy. When other people tried to silence him, he "cried out all the more.”
His desperation made him shameless. He must have thought Jesus was his only hope. He must have believed that Jesus could actually change his life. And, he must have known that his opportunity was fleeting.
Jesus hears cries like this, and he described the blind man’s desperate cry with one word: faith. When faced with external pressure to quit praying, this man’s belief in Jesus caused him to increase his cry.
An African pastor once said to one of my friends, “In our country, we did not cry out to God until there came destruction. I wonder when the American church will turn and cry out to God? Will it be at the point of desperation or destruction?”
God is looking for people of persistent, desperate faith. Faith is the key that unlocks the door and makes room for God. And faith expresses itself in desperate cries.
Prayer that will never give up. Prayer that cries out all the more.
God who hears and answers prayer, You are the only One with the power to heal and to change the lives of desperate and damaged people! Please grow my faith so that I will come to You consistently and persistently in prayer! I also lift up my nation, Lord! May Your people cry out to You day and night and never give up! Please don’t allow us to become discouraged or deterred! Help us to get past our focus on self and make space for Your power to be demonstrated in our midst!
---Adapted from Prayer with No Intermission by Bill Elliff. This book is available at prayershop.org.
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- God sends his teaching like rain and his words like the dew (Deut. 32:2).
- Praise God for being your teacher (Ps. 71:17).
- Thank God for the privilege of receiving his instruction through his Word.
- Confess any lack of attention you’ve paid to God’s teaching.
- Commit yourself to listening closely to what God has to say to you.
- Ask God to reveal himself more clearly through his Word each day.
- Ask that God will shower the blessings of salvation on unsaved people in your community as they learn of Christ.
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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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