Please pray for our Support team meeting tonight as we prepare for our Annual Congregational Meeting on the 19th. Pray for God to lead our leaders and us as His Body. May we be the best stewards of ALL His blessings while sowing lavishly and following well.
Many of our members have been or are sick. Please continue to pray for healing, deliverance and a covering over us all to stay healthy and of protection from evil.
Some are also enduring some physical things that need prayer and deliverance. Keep praying and reaching out to encourage. We need each other to travel through all season well.
Larry Paul had good news that the heart meds are working and he will not need angioplasty. PTL and keep praying for him to transition well back to work as He serves the Lord as one of our supported missionaries.
PTL for another amazing day of ministry and fellowship at our Bread Ministry Donut day. Many were served and much serving, prayer, fellowship and connections happened. Thank God for using us to bring some love to our neighbors. Pray those connections continue to lead people to God.
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Good Morning Faithfull Friends of God! Oh how He loves us and we Him! He has created us to love and be in relationship with Him and others and to be His vessels of love, hope and help. We are doing pretty good with that and we are a very united Body of Christ moving on mission with Him. We are doing what we can with what we've been given and allowing Him to grow us both individually and as His Body into our fuller potential and His greater things. PTL! We have reached this sweet spot of unity in purpose and mission and in donning His easy yoke to go plow in prayer and plant seeds of faith. We are harvesters as He sends in the harvest and we are becoming disciple makers for His glory. We are uniting in His love and growing as His Good News Delivery Company. We are learning and doing our age and circumstance appropriate Kingdom duties. Can you see that? It's true and we can unite around that and our hope in Christ to spur each other on and grow together into the new things He has for us. I am so excited to see where He will lead you and us this year and even believing in prayer with thanksgiving that He can send 30 new members this year and expand His territory through us. Amen! Keep praying into that and seeking your part with a determination to follow Him one step of faith after another. He really does have great plans for you and us and continues to nurture and encourage us, His faithful friends. PTL!
It seems like God has taken me down several tracks with my quiet time devotionals today, yet there may be a thread through them as well. For sure spend some time with the Harvest Prayer blogs at the end. Use the prayer starters to focus your prayers for you and us. Let's start with Psalm 63 from ODB and process that before God. Worship and remember how wonderful and ever-present He is. You are known, loved, heard and cared for always. Begin with some praise to help refocus.
Psalm 63:
Maybe that's all the further God will lead you today? It is a great place to start for sure as you remind yourself and God of His love for you and how He holds you close and carries you through. ODB reminds us of His love and care always and how praise worthy He is. We discussed the other day about loving as we love ourselves done well begins with loving ourselves as God loves us. Check out TWFYT and their reminder to see yourself as valuable. This is not a prideful thing but seeing yourself as God does and receiving His love and help because in His eyes, you are worthy and valuable and He does have perfect plans for you, even today, for just as you are right now. As you trust and allow Him and yourself to love you, you will begin to grow and then flourish in his hands of love. Amen! Chuck Swindoll reminds us that we do matter and God does have perfect, custom plans for each of us and then as His Body. We all matter and we all have our parts to perform for His glory. Do you know yours? Ask Him and then process with someone. Pray for some small groups we will be starting soon to discover and learn how to use our spiritual gifts. (If you are being stirred to this, talk to pastor Don). Sarah Young has a wonderful word from God for you today: God is with you and for you and will lead you to His best if you allow Him. Joyce Meyer reminds us that receiving God's deliverance and healing is a choice. Jesus asked, "Do you want to be healed?" God loves you unconditionally and wants to lead you to His best. The question is, do you want that too? If so, open your heart and mind and ask the Holy Spirit to help you receive and respond well. He knows what you need. Are you open to that? Speaking of that, the Upper Room reminds us that sometimes that healing comes as we forgive and His help comes as we die to self and want to love as we have been loved. It can be easy to point fingers. But remember when you do there may be some fingers pointing back at you. Often the thing we despise most in another is the thing we are guilty of as well. Ask God to show you how to love like Him and as you have been loved. After all, none of us are or ever can be worthy of His love, forgiveness or saving grace, yet He does love and forgive. How can we help others who have gone astray or we don't like to know God's love? Pray into that. As believers and even as pastors and leaders, we are often challenged with this. We need to be discerning and wanting to help, but also wise not to allow the yeast of sin to get a foothold and grow in us or another. Church discipline is always intended for restoration someday. God has forgiven, redeemed and helps us correct. How might He be calling us to do so for another--even trouble makers and divisive ones. Sometimes they may even believe they are right and we are all wrong. Let us always seek shalom and restoration and to love as we have been loved. Remember, this life in Christ is a journey that begins with loving God and wanting to live for Him in His ways and then to love others as we love ourselves. For all of that we need God and His love, wisdom, discernment and help. Keep praying for us to represent Him well and to live and love more like Jesus. Amen! Love you all! Sarah and I are always available if you have a problem or need to process something and so is our PRC. Let us resolve to always stay united and moving in Christ for God's glory. Then all other things will fall into place. Amen! There is no greater love is this...a willingness to lay ones life down for another. We are pretty good and growing in that. Amen! May we always seek to live and love more and more like Jesus!
ODB:
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After another unexpected health setback, I joined my husband and others during a retreat in the mountains. I trudged up the wooden staircase that led to the tiny church on the top of a hill. Alone in the dark, I stopped to rest on a splintered step. “Help me, Lord,” I whispered as the music began. I walked slowly until I stepped into the small room. I breathed through the lingering pain, grateful that God hears us in the wilderness!
Some of the most intimate moments of worshiping God recorded in Scripture took place in the wilderness. While hiding in the Desert of Judah and most likely on the run from his son Absalom, King David sang: “You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you” (Psalm 63:1). Having experienced God’s power and glory, David deemed God’s love as “better than life” (v. 3), and it was the reason he committed to a lifetime of worship—even while in the wilderness (vv. 2-6). He said, “Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings. I cling to you; your right hand upholds me” (vv. 7-8).
Like David, regardless of our circumstances or the fierceness of those standing against us, we can demonstrate confidence in God by praising Him (v. 11). Though we’ll suffer, sometimes by no fault of our own, we can trust that God’s love is always better than life.
By Xochitl Dixon
REFLECT & PRAY
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How can knowing God loves you help when you’re feeling attacked or defeated? When has praising Him strengthened your faith during hard times?
My God, Your love is better than life!
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SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
David wrote seventy-five psalms, seventy-three of which bear his name. Acts 4:25 confirms he also wrote Psalm 2 and Hebrews 4:7 confirms he wrote Psalm 95.
Psalm 63 includes a note about its historical background. We’re told that David penned it “when he was in the Desert of Judah.” On several occasions, David retreated into the wilderness when he was fleeing from Saul (see 1 Samuel 23:14-15; 24:1) and also when his own son Absalom rebelled to usurp his throne (see 2 Samuel 15:13-30). When he wrote Psalm 63, he was probably fleeing from Absalom because David refers to himself as “the king” (v. 11), and he wasn’t yet king when Saul pursued him.
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TWFYT:
Chuck Swindoll
Sarah Young
Joyce Meyer
Upper Room: It's Not Fair
Jesus said, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” - Matthew 5:44 (NIV)
“I can’t believe how much trouble that woman is causing,” I complained to my husband. “She tries to get her finger in everything and is such a gossip, stirring up trouble wherever she goes.”
My husband listened carefully to what I was saying and generally agreed with me. But he asked me to consider something. He pointed out that Jesus loved her just as much as he loved me. That just blew my mind. How unfair! I thought. I was behaving well, and she wasn’t.
I prefer my husband to be supportive by always taking my side. I don’t like it when he’s reasonable and makes sense, requiring me to course-correct! He did give me a little help, though, by suggesting that I pray for eyes to see that woman as God does. Slowly, I began to open up to the idea. God began to show me that she was created in the divine image, just as I was. That alone is worthy of my respect.
Jesus challenges us to love those who are difficult to love. It’s easy to love those who agree with us. But God has called us to a higher standard. While we were still sinners, God loved us anyway. I remain a work in progress. With God by my side through prayer, I am learning that all persons are worthy of my respect.
Today's Prayer
Dear God, thank you for loving us. Help us to see everyone as worthy of love and respect. Amen.
Harvest Prayer:
January 9 - The Holy Spirit Can Be Resisted, Grieved and Quenched
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You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you (Acts 7:51).
And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption (Ephesians 4:30).
Do not quench the Spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:19).
When we study the Holy Spirit in Scripture much of the focus is on what the Holy Spirit does in us, and rightly so. For the blessings, power, and benefits the Holy Spirit supplies to the believer are immeasurable and vital for the Christian life. But is there anything we can do to the Holy Spirit? The short and unfortunate answer is, yes. In Scripture we see that we can resist the Spirit through disobedience. We can grieve the Spirit by how we treat our brothers and sisters in Christ, and we can quench the Spirit by despising His gifts and activity. While we cannot make the Holy Spirit do anything, we can cooperate with Him in what He desires to do. We can as Paul would say, “Keep in step with the Spirit” (Gal. 5:25). Let us be a people who do not oppose when the Spirit moves but choose to cooperate when He works.
Holy Spirit, please give me discernment to know Your perfect will and the desire to cooperate with You in God’s mission on earth. Show me any areas where I may be resisting, grieving, or quenching You! Please give me every spiritual gift I need today to accomplish Your purpose and will.
--Adapted with permission from The Summit Church we are inviting you into 21 days of prayer and fasting at the beginning of this new year! Each day will focus on a different biblical attribute of the Holy Spirit.
The founding pastor of The Summit Church is Bill Elliff, who is now the pastor Emeritus and serves on the Executive Leadership Team of OneCry (onecry.com). You can find one of Bill’s books, Prayer with No Intermission at prayershop.org.
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- Praise God that he knows everything in every age.
- Give thanks that he knows you by name and that you matter to him.
- Confess any attempt to conceal things from God.
- Commit yourself to openness and honesty before God. Invite him to search your heart and life (Ps. 139:23-24).
- Ask to be protected from the evil one and kept from a spirit of worldliness.
- Since faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God (Rom. 10:15-17), pray that your unsaved friends, neighbors, and relatives will hear the Word and respond in faith.
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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) © 2025 is a free devotional published daily by OneCry Prayer. Find more resources at www.onecry.com
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