Don' t forget about taking your spiritual gift inventory and emailing to me. As people do so we will decided when and how to meet to discuss and learn how to apply.
Here's the link: Spiritual Gifts | FREE Spiritual Gifts Survey | Assessment, Analysis, Test
Good Morning Praying Friends! Check out the connection blog on the importance of corporate prayer. Praying churches are growing churches! We are seeking to become a House of Prayer for the Nations and that is birthed from prayer. All we do is birthed, guided and empowered through prayer. May we be a praying church. Talk to me if you would like some help in learning to pray or praying out loud or even joining a church prayer team that will be starting soon.
I'll just put my devos below for you to process with God and some others. God loves you and wants you to dwell in His love, love Him and go love others. He even wants you to love yourself. That comes alive as you abide in His love and flows from quality time with Him. The Word He sends today is, "Tell them I love them and want them to abide in my love, fill up with love and go love as they have been loved." Meditate on that as you abide in His love today. I'm praying for you. He sure is refreshing me and filling me to overflowing with His love! Amen! May it be so for you and your partners in prayer. Amen! Be filled with His Love, joy and peace as you go live and love more like Jesus! Amen!
Connection Prayer:
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February 19 - Faith Grows as We Pray Together
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Praying together increases the faith of a congregation to believe God for the miraculous. In Matthew 17 and Mark 9 there is the story of the father who brought his demon-possessed son to the disciples. They could not cast it out. The boy was taken to Jesus, who spoke a word and the demon left. Later the disciples come to Jesus and they were baffled. Why? Because they knew how to cast out demons. (The story takes place after they had been sent two-by-two into villages casting out demons and healing the sick.) They asked Jesus why they couldn’t do it. Jesus said two things: “because you have so little faith” (Mt. 17:20), and “this kind can come out only by prayer” (Mk. 9:29).
I wonder if the disciples attacked this demon issue cavalierly or routinely. They knew the words to say, the steps to take. But nothing worked because they were not prayed up enough. Their faith was not there as a result. There is a clear connection between prayer and faith (beyond the fact that we are supposed to pray in faith).
I believe the most significant thing that is lost in a church that does not have corporate prayer is faith. The main reason most churches are stagnant and do not see God at work in miraculous ways in their midst? Most churches and individuals do not know what it is to pray in faith anymore. But faith grows as we pray together.
Father, forgive my lack of faith! Release me from the stronghold of my own unwillingness to pray with others. Increase my faith to see You work in the midst of Your people…and even through my own life. Help me to see my faith grow as I stretch myself to willingly pray with other like-minded believers.
--Adapted from the article The Benefits of Praying Together by Jonathan Graf. Check out this powerful resource also written by Jon Graf: Praying Like Paul: Learning to Pray the Kingdom for those You Love, available at prayershop.org. Use the code CONPSP3 at checkout to receive an additional 10% discount.
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ODB:
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As a child, when asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Ben would say, “I want to be like Dave.” Ben’s older brother was athletic, sociable, and an honor student. Ben, on the other hand, says, “I was clumsy in sports, timid, and struggled with a learning disability. I’d always wanted a close relationship with Dave, but he didn’t. He called me ‘the boring one.’ ”
Ben spent much of his life pursuing his older brother’s love in vain. It was only when Ben became a follower of Jesus that he learned to rest in the love of his Savior instead.
Leah, the first wife of Jacob, spent much of her life pursuing her husband’s love (Genesis 29:32-35). Jacob, however, remained devoted to Rachel. But God saw Leah’s plight and made up for the rejection in her life. He blessed her by allowing her to be a mother, a great honor in her culture at that time (v. 31). Leah, unseen and unheard by her husband, was lovingly seen and heard by God (vv. 32-33). She gave birth to a daughter and six sons (35:23), one of whom was Judah, a forefather of Jesus Himself. She said at his birth, “This time I will praise the Lord” (29:35). Leah lived a long life in Canaan and was buried in a place of honor—with Jacob’s family (49:29-32).
When we experience rejection, let’s find comfort in Leah’s story. We can rest in the love of God, who makes up for what we lack.
By Karen Huang
REFLECT & PRAY
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How can you rest in God’s love when you’re rejected? How might you entrust your pain to Him?
Dear God, thank You that Your love heals me in all the places where I’ve been rejected.
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SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
Genesis 29:31–30:24 and 35:16-26 tell of the births of the twelve sons of Jacob, whose name means “deceiver.” His name was later changed by God to Israel, which means, he “struggled with God” (32:28). Jacob’s life was characterized by favoritism (29:18, 30), spousal neglect, jealousy, and rivalry (29:31–30:1). That God would name His chosen nation after Jacob and use his twelve sons to become the ancestral heads of the twelve tribes of the nation of Israel points to His covenantal love and unmerited grace (see Romans 9:10-18). Equally noteworthy in Leah’s sad story is that two crucial institutions of the nation of Israel—the Aaronic-Levitical priesthood (Numbers 18:1-7) and the kingship (Genesis 49:10)—come from her third and fourth sons, Levi and Judah (29:34-35). These two sons were from a marriage in which she was unwanted and unloved. Yet God honored Leah and graciously looked after her (vv. 31-35; 30:17-21).
K.T. Sim |
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TWFYT:
UR: Joyful Service
Since you know these things, you will be happy if you do them. - John 13:17 (CEB)
On the first morning of our cruise, my wife and I were eating breakfast in the cafe. We overheard a conversation between a busboy and the people seated at a nearby table. It soon became apparent from their dialogue that the man clearing the table was not a busboy but the ship’s captain! Despite his important position on the ship, he occasionally waits on tables, allowing him to engage with all the passengers on the voyage.
In today’s familiar passage from the Gospel of John, Jesus washes his disciples’ feet to teach an important lesson: if he, our Lord, is willing to serve others, we need to be willing to do the same. He said, “I have given you an example.” He then added that happiness comes from following his example. Jesus’ teaching contradicts society’s norm by telling us that happiness comes from serving others, not from others serving us. There is a special joy that accompanies serving others in a spirit of humility. It is not enough simply to agree with Christ’s teaching; we must also follow his example.
Today's Prayer
Loving Lord, help us to follow the way of life you lived on earth. Show us whom we can serve today, and give us the humility to do so. Amen.
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