Thank God I'm Forgiven! I often say this and praise God for His forgiveness and help to repent as I come with a humble heart and confess those sins. God was stirring me to that this morning very early at 2 am and to pray earnestly into His plans for me and us! And let me assure you that God does have great plans for us to pray into existence and to bring to life as we step out in faith! PTL! Confess and agree that we are all sinners that fall short of God's standards. BUT GOD! And by His grace we are forgiven! Amen! We have put on Jesus' righteousness and are stepping in faith more fully into our new nature in Christ and wanting to step faithfully into His good plans for us. That all is available because we are forgiven. Stop now. Meditate on how God's gracious forgiveness has changed your life and how that will lead to His perfect plans for you. Worship!
Good Morning Forgiven, Faithful, Praying and Serving Friends! We are God's family gathered for such a time as this and we need each other and to actively pursue our created purposes in God's Good News Delivery Co. What's your part? Who is helping you to do it? Ask for clarity and helpers. I need you and your prayers, encouragement, and co-laboring! We all need each other if we are to become a dynamic movement of God. I am praying for you by name and asking God to bring you dreams, vision, ideas and motivation to step into your part. God has great plans for you and us to discover, release in prayer and to step into doing! PTL! and thank God you are forgiven and being prepared for such a time as this!
Maybe just thinking about some of that has you anxious, thinking God can't use you or has no plans for you that are doable. Remember, all things are possible for God and when we are weak He is strong. Remember also that we are not of this world and that God has chosen the weak, marginalized, and downtrodden of this world to be His vessels. Humble yourself. Die to self and take up your cross daily and follow Jesus! Seek first His Kingdom and righteousness. And find some partners to pray, plan and follow Jesus with. Isaiah 43:1-2 reminds us that Our creator God has and is calling us by name. He knows us and the plans we are created to accomplish. He has redeemed us and We are His--always! Amen! Memorize that verse and Eph. 2:10, You are God's masterpiece. Made new in Christ to do the things God planned for you from long ago. Amen! PTL!
I don't think I am quite ready to put into words the things God has been doing in me and leading me to lead over the past few months and now more intensely over the past week. He is hearing and answering my prayers and revealing some of His plans more clearly. In a couple of weeks our vision team will gather to process, pray and seek God for His plans. In the Become More in '24 Challenge, I have chosen to continue to work on my two words from last year, agape (dying to self kind of love) and disciple making. This year God gave me the word earnestly to add to those. And through earnestness, dying to self and much seeking, God is bringing some clarity to His custom made plans for me and us as I continue to pray for Him to teach and use me to make disciples and for our building to become a house of prayer for the nations and a disciple making hub for such a time as this. Jesus commanded us to love like Him and commissioned us to go make disciples and promised to be with us always and sent His Spirit to us to be able to accomplish our parts with all of that. Our call is to live and love like Jesus more in '24 and add to that for some of us to pray, teach, lead and make disciples like Jesus more in '24. What's God revealing to you right now? Write it down and share it with me or someone and pray into it earnestly. Pray for wisdom for me to lead well and for all of us to have ears to hear and hearts to follow well.
Part of all of this is our call to prayer. Earnest prayer is powerful and effective! We all can and are called to pray. Please mark your calendars for the first Wednesday of each month from noon to 1 to gather to fast and pray for our denomination and church to become a house of prayer for the nations and a dynamic movement of God that makes disciples that make disciples and to plant churches that plant churches. Our first gathering will be in the fellowship hall and on Zoom Wednesday Aug. 7th at noon. Come! Let us seek God together earnestly and release His will together.
Some of you reading this need to know that God has brought your name to mind to earnestly pursue the plans He has for you and us together. Is God stirring you? Are you getting nudges, ideas, dreams and visions of things God is leading you and us to do? Don't fight Him. Receive and ask Him to reveal, guide and provide. Then talk to me and let us seek, pray and process together. God is raising up a remnant that He will use to bring revival and to start His new things. He is also raising up an army of intercessors. What's your part? Thank God that we are forgiven, made new and gifted and empowered to do the things He planned for us long ago! He is calling you by name! He has redeemed you for such a time as this! Rejoice and trust Him!
I am finding myself a bit anxious because what God is leading me to will cut my salary as I give up janitor to more earnestly pursue Him and His plans. It will also require more work and commitment to invest more earnestly in some of you. (I thought I was heading to retirement and winding down, but I'm guessing I am to be like Caleb at 80 because I have earnestly pleaded with God to lead me to and give me this mountain.) But God is calling His people to earnestly pursuing Him and the plans we are created for. And He promises to guide and provide. All He asks is obedient trust and He will lead to His best. I need your prayers for protection, provision, faith the size of a mustard seed, clarity and wisdom and for some partners that are all in. Charles Stanley began my quiet time with stirring me to ask, am I too busy to do what God desires? Am I too comfortable? Am I on my own agenda? Am I earnestly abiding and following from rest? Check out the upper room and their reminder to run to the light. May that be me and us! God is for us! Then pray through the Harvest prayer blog and for us to cling to God and His promises and to follow Him well. The Word for You Today reminds us that nothing surprises God. He knows us and all we will do and our hearts and still calls us by name and wants to lead us to his best plans for us. And the Our Daily Bread reminds us that we are forgiven and to ask God to cleanse and purify us and consecrate us for service. Yes humble yourself, confess, repent, receive and follow well, my friends.
Daylight is burning and God does have great plans for you too for such a time as this! Rejoice and earnestly seek and follow Him with me! Let us stay connected to the True Vine and allow God to prune and prepare us! I am praying for you! Please pray for me and for the harvest workers God is raising up. We are God's Forgiven, Faithful, Praying and Serving Friends! Amen! Let us rejoice and choose to dwell in those proclamations of faith! Let us become more than just hearers and knowers. Let us be earnest doers of all God has for us! Amen!
CS:
UR: Run to the Light
[Jesus] said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” - John 8:12 (NIV)
My husband, Gary, and I returned from a trip to hear strange scratching noises inside our woodstove. Gary cracked the stove door just enough to spot a big squirrel amidst the ashes. Apparently the chimney cover had come loose, and the squirrel had fallen down the flue. But how on earth could we safely get him out? Finally a pest removal person told us: “Turn off the lights and cover all the windows. Then open the front door wide. The squirrel will head for the light.” We made the room as dark as possible, opened the woodstove door, and stood back. After a moment of silence, the squirrel emerged. It paused to glance around then zipped out the front door like it was shot from a cannon, running toward the light.
Sometimes animals seem smarter than humans. How often do we stumble about, trapped in worry, doubt, addiction, or whatever weighs us down even after God has shown us the light? Perhaps we choose to stick with the familiar rather than risk change. Or maybe we don’t trust that God’s way really is best. Jesus is the light of the world. Whatever our problems, we can find help if we run to Christ’s light.
Today's Prayer
Dear God, teach us to run to your light when we don’t know which way to go. Amen.
Harvest
|
|
July 26 - A God-Sized Promise
|
|
|
The Bible is crowded with 7,000 promises from the God-of-All-Faithfulness. The One who has never failed in all He has promised. In Christ’s final conversation with His disciples, He gives a promise so expansive that it is hard to believe. But it is found right before us in the red letters of the inspired, inerrant Scripture.
"Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask the Father for anything in My name, He will give it to you. Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be made full." (John 16:23-24)
Fully answered prayer seems too good to be true, but Jesus puts only one limitation on our asking: "In my Name." This restriction is enough, though, to properly align our prayers.
To pray in Christ’s name is to carry all His authority and power before the Father, for Jesus said we could come in His name. But, we must listen in prayer to make sure we are praying in accordance with Christ’s desires. We must “abide in (Him) and let (His) words abide in us” so that His will becomes ours; His desires, our desires (John 15:7).
Prayers prayed in the Name of Christ are prayers aligned with His will and for His glory. These are prayers initiated by God himself, through the humble, listening believer. And God delights to answer these requests.
God’s promise declares that such prayers are always answered. Our problem is not that God won't answer, but that we won't stay long enough in the Throne Room to let His heart mold us to His will.
Further, we often won’t believe enough to ask boldly. We measure God by our own standards, in humanistic terms. "He couldn't possibly do that," we reason. Because WE can't do something—or we’ve never seen it done—we assume HE can't do it either. Sadly, we shrink God to our level. As J.B. Phillips wrote, “Your God is too small.”
This is precisely what God longs to avoid. He wants to show us that He is God and there is no other. And the way He has designed in this age to accomplish that is through unceasing, God-sized prayers.
Lord God Almighty, I bow before Your authority and gratefully acknowledge Your sovereignty in my life! Show me how to stay rooted in Your throne room until You reveal Your perfect will to me. I deeply desire to align my will with Yours and to obediently ask for what is on Your heart! Thank You for the promises of Your word that allow me to ask for anything in Your name! Give me the confidence to pray unceasing, God-sized prayers, and to wait expectantly for the answer!
---Adapted from Prayer with No Intermission by Bill Elliff. This book is available at prayershop.org.
|
|
- Praise God for the example of servanthood given when Jesus washed the disciples’ feet (Jn. 13:5-15).
- Thank Jesus for his promise that you will be blessed in being a servant, following his example (13:17).
- Confess those times you are quarrelsome and resentful, not wanting to be a servant (2 Tim. 2:24).
- Commit yourself to God as Samuel did and respond: “Speak, for your servant is listening” (1 Sam. 3:10).
- Ask God to reveal clearly his assigned task for you, even as he did for Paul (1 Cor. 3:5).
- Pray that your church will faithfully learn the joy of servanthood in every area, fixing their eyes on Jesus, not growing weary or losing heart (Heb. 12:2-3).
|
|
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.
Connection (Devotions for Everyday Life) © 2024 is a free devotional published daily by Harvest Prayer Ministries. Subscribe here. |
|
|
TWFYT
ODB:
|
“Are. You. Kidding?!” I yelled, digging through our dryer looking for my shirt. I found it. And . . . something else.
My white shirt had an ink spot on it. In fact, it looked like a jaguar pelt: ink splotches coated everything. I clearly hadn’t checked my pockets, and a leaky pen had stained the entire load.
Scripture often uses the word stain to describe sin. A stain permeates the fabric of something, ruining it. And that’s how God, speaking through the prophet Jeremiah, described sin, reminding His people that its stain was beyond their ability to cleanse: “Although you wash yourself with soap and use an abundance of cleansing powder, the stain of your guilt is still before me” (Jeremiah 2:22).
Thankfully, sin doesn’t get the last word. In Isaiah 1:18, we hear God’s promise that He can cleanse us from sin’s stain: “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.”
I couldn’t get the ink stain out of my shirt. Neither can I undo the stain of my sin. Thankfully, God cleanses us in Christ, just as 1 John 1:9 promises: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
By Adam Holz
REFLECT & PRAY
|
|
What has it looked like in your life to experience forgiveness and cleansing from sin? What “stain” might you need to bring to God?
Father, please help me to cling to the promise that in Christ there’s forgiveness and purity as I’m washed white as snow in Your sight.
|
|
|
|
|
|
SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
In Jeremiah 2, God compares Himself to a farmer who carefully planted His people “like a choice vine of sound and reliable stock” (v. 21). Yet, inexplicably, they’d turned into a “corrupt, wild vine” (v. 21). Elsewhere in Scripture, this same metaphor of a vine is used for God’s people (Isaiah 5:1-3; Ezekiel 17:5-10; Hosea 10:1). Jesus returned to this image when He said, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener” (John 15:1). He told His disciples that they were “clean because of the word I have spoken to you” (v. 3) but urged them to remain in Him and “bear much fruit; [for] apart from me you can do nothing” (v. 5).
Monica La Rose |
|
|
|
|
|
LISTEN ONLINE
