Rise! Shine! Give God the Glory! Rise up in praise this morning! Go out and shine bright! And give God control and the glory in all you think, say and do and that will lead to more praise, shinning and glory for Him! Amen! That is being part of His dynamic movement.
Good Morning Worshiping, Dynamic Movers of God! Yes PTL! He is on the throne and in control. He has great plans for you and us even in all this chaos. Let go of your strangleholds, turn off the noise, focus on Him, sink your roots deep and chose joy.
What strangleholds, tough circumstances, chaos, noise, and consequences are overwhelming you and keeping you from drawing closer to God, more trust, His plans for you, and the new things He is about to do that have already begun? What will you do about it? Be still and know He is God. Stop looking in the rearview mirror of your past and the way things were. You are a new creation in Christ! PTL! You were one way and now another and you keep morphing into your new nature and more of the image of God. Build on the strengths of the past and follow God to the new things He has for you and us, things He planned long ago and custom made you to do and gathered us to accomplish.
Check out the UR about allowing God to transform you, your thinking and ways as He leads you step by step forward to His new things. Think about ODB reminder of transforming worship. Turn off the noise and tune into God with much praise and worship. Allow that to overflow to your choices as God continues to lead you from glory to glory and His next steps and new things. Keep worshiping and He will give you more and more to praise. Charles Stanley reminds us to examine our hearts and surrender them to God. Cover each other for protection and pray for open hearts and minds to see weaknesses and correct. Join with some accountability partners to help you see the blind spots, cover you in prayer and help you to correct. Ask God to examine your heart and give you the mindset to change your thinking and ways. And follow the advice from The Word for You Today to honor God's healthy rhythm of working from rest. Be still, recharge and know that He is God and then follow Him to His new things refreshed and ready to produce good fruit. Sink your roots deep and dwell in and then release His Living Water!
God has some great plans for you and us! PTL! He is not content to allow us to remain the way we are. He wants to lead us to His plans, new things and best for us! PTL! He wants us to chose Him, His ways, healthy rhythms and produce good fruit. He is with us and working all things together for good. Turn of the noise! (Like the news and Olympics and political chaos--what can you do about this fallen world anyway--give God your anxiety!) Be still, reload, refocus, renew your thinking and follow Him to His new things for you today and worship! Amen!
Have a worshipful and wonderful day! Rejoice! reload! Follow well, dynamic movers!
Upper Room: Freedom Rose
The Lord said, “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” - Isaiah 43:18-19 (NIV)
Upon my release from prison, I took a clipping from a rose bush my dad had planted and potted it. This grew into my “freedom rose.” For almost three years it grew nicely with sunlight and very little attention. One day, I decided to re-pot it. I carefully trimmed the roots and placed the plant into new soil, but it eventually died. My freedom rose was gone.
I wondered if the death of this plant was God’s letting me know it was okay to let go of my past. As I pondered that, I was reminded of the Israelites and their journey through the desert to the Promised Land. During that time, God told them to forget the former things because he was making a new way in the desert for them.
God still makes a new way for us today, no matter our situation. In order to follow God’s path for our lives, we need not dwell on the past but focus our attention on the future.
Today's Prayer
Dear God, give us the wisdom to see the new things you are doing in our lives. Amen.ODB:
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Susy wept as she sat outside the hospital’s intensive care unit—waves of paralyzing fear sweeping over her. The tiny lungs of her two-month-old baby were filled with fluid, and doctors said they were doing their best to save him but gave no guarantees. At that moment she says she “felt the sweet, gentle nudging of the Holy Spirit reminding [her] to worship God.” With no strength to sing, she played praise songs on her phone over the next three days in the hospital. As she worshiped, she found hope and peace. Today, she says the experience taught her that “worship doesn’t change God, but it definitely changes you.”
Facing desperate circumstances, David called out to God in prayer and praise (Psalm 30:8). One commentator notes that the psalmist prayed “for grace issued in praise and transformation.” God turned David’s “wailing into dancing” and he declared that he would “praise [God] forever”—in all circumstances (vv. 11-12). While it can be hard to praise God during painful times, it can lead to transformation. From despair to hope, from fear to faith. And He can use our example to encourage and transform others (vv. 4-5).
Susy’s baby boy was restored to health by God’s grace. While not all challenges in life will end as we hope they will, He can transform us and fill us with renewed joy (v. 11) as we worship Him even in our pain.
By Tom Felten
REFLECT & PRAY
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How might worshiping God as you endure pain affect you? How might your example affect others?
Dear God, please transform me even as I worship You in my pain and difficulties.
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SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
Psalm 30 is a psalm of praise for the way God had delivered and healed David (vv. 1-3, 9-11). But as commentators Jacobson and Tanner put it, the psalm isn’t just a psalm of praise, but “a psalm about praise” calling hearers to “a complete life of praise.” It’s God’s merciful and restoring character that gives His people reason to live a life of praise (vv. 4-5). To be abandoned by God would be to be “silenced” (v. 9). But because God turns “wailing into dancing” (v. 11), we have reason to “praise [Him] forever” (v. 12).
Monica La Rose |
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CS:
TWFYT:
Harvest prayer Starters
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July 28 - Extraordinary Prayer
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Jonathan Edwards was perhaps the greatest theologian America has ever produced. He was a brilliant but also a deeply spiritual and passionate pastor and leader. He is the principal name associated with the First Great Awakening that began around 1735. He stood in the revival fire of God’s movement in which 15% of the nation came to faith in Christ.
When the revival began to wane, Edwards wrote a small, but vitally important book in 1746. This book framed much of the religious thinking in America for the next 100 years. The title is telling, as was often the case in his day.
“An Humble Attempt to Promote Explicit Agreement and Visible Union Among God’s People in Extraordinary Prayer for the Revival of Religion and the Advancement of Christ’s Kingdom on Earth, Pursuant to Scripture-Promises and Prophecies Concerning the Last Time.”
The great revival historian, J. Edwin Orr, said that to read the title was to have read the book! Each word must have been chosen with prayerful precision by Edwards and are worth examination, particularly since they were written by such a great theologian who had experienced a nationwide revival in his day.
“An Humble Attempt To Promote”
Edwards was seeing the wane of revival fires. His book was an attempt (just like this book) to awaken people to what was happening—the spiritual emergency—and rouse them to action.
“Explicit Agreement”
One man might say, “This is the problem in our nation,” while another cries, “No, it is something else.” Edwards believed that to ignite a movement that would move the heart of God, there must be agreement about the problem and solution. Edwards believed the problem was (and is today) that people had forgotten God and wandered from Him. And the solution was an outpouring of revival and awakening.
“And Visible Union”
Edwards knew that something extraordinary happens when people are united. Throughout the Bible there are multiple phrases or its equivalent like this: “And all the people cried out.” Each time there was such desperation that led to a united cry, God heard and answered. A.T. Pierson was right when he said, ““There has never been a spiritual awakening in any country or locality that did not begin in united prayer.”
“Among God’s People”
It is to His children that God directs the commands to pray for revival, for only these understand and are spiritually capable to do so. This is why the great promise of 2 Chronicles 7:14 begins with a conditional phrase:
If My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
“In Extraordinary Prayer for the Revival of Religion and the Advancement of Christ’s Kingdom on Earth”
What was the means that Edwards believed would usher in revival and awakening? Was it a fresh program? A new or novel idea? A united campaign? A catchy method? What does God call for in times of national, spiritual emergency? Edwards knew through Biblical understanding and practical experience that there was one thing we must do: we must pray and pray in an extraordinary way.
Lord, teach us to humble ourselves and pray!
---Adapted from Simply Prayer by Bill Elliff. This book is available at prayershop.org.
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- Praise God for his compelling love (2 Cor. 5:14).
- Give thanks for that love that holds us as in a vice, never letting go (Jer. 31:3).
- Confess those times when you fight against God’s love, wanting to go your own way or seek glory for yourself instead of for him.
- Commit yourself to being comfortable in that “love grip” of God so that you willingly live for him, serving him gladly (Prov. 3:3-6).
- Ask God to give you a greater appreciation of his eternal blessings and to be glad with the joy of his presence (Ps. 21:6).
- Pray that God’s compelling love may keep believers from fear and lead them on in the daily work of ministry “in Jerusalem, and Judea . . . and to the ends of the earth” (Joel 2:21-27; Acts 1:8).
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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.
Connection (Devotions for Everyday Life) © 2024 is a free devotional published daily by Harvest Prayer Ministries. Subscribe here. |
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