Good Morning Abiding in the Vine Friends of God! You are a friend of God! PTL! He reigns and rules the universe! (He even waters our gardens! PTL!) And nothing can overcome His plans for you, us and His Kingdom! PTL! He brings the sun and rain and walks with us through it all! PTL! Do we take time to abide in His loving presence? Do we sit in prayer and make prayer a priority? One of the the things God keeps revealing for our church is the call to become a House of Prayer for the Nations. Sarah taught us about prayer on Sunday. (Thank you Sarah for covering for me while I was away and for bringing God's Word and plans alive with some practical application as we start some prayer groups!) Let us commit to abiding more intentionally and often and in prayer throughout the day. Check out the Connection blog about that below. What's God saying to you? As we ponder our roles in God's Good News Delivery Co., let us not forget that for some of us and for some of us in this season of life, God has called us to be His prayer warriors. Partner up with some others and pray often--even daily. Take personal time to abide, pray, listen, receive and release in prayer. God hears and will respond according to His will and plans. The prayers of a righteous person ARE powerful and effective. Because of our abiding relationship with Jesus, we are God's righteous people opening up the window for powerful and effective praying! PTL! He loves to hang out with us and answer our prayers powerfully! PTL! We need your prayers and He is waiting for you to abide and pray! Do it!  Amen! Praise God for all His blessings and answered prayers and spend some intentional time in prayer and abiding today. Pray we become a House of Prayer and disciple makers. Pray for Donut Day tomorrow at the Bread Ministry to be an opportunity to minister to those God will send and is preparing for you and us. Thank Him for His provision and for using us! Amen! Yes, God reigns! He is awaiting your abiding presence and prayer to release His will. be still and know that He is Gid then go follow His lead into this day and week. I'm praying for you!

Connection Blog:

May 13 - Taking Time to Ponder God

Among the disciplines needed for personal prayer is the discipline of time. In a survey by Leadership magazine it was discovered that thirty-four percent felt “time” was the greatest hindrance to personal prayer. A similar survey was conducted by Evangelical Missions Quarterly, which reported out of 390 missionaries surveyed, eleven percent spent less than an average of five minutes per day in prayer. Sixty percent spent between eleven and thirty minutes daily in prayer. In contrast consider Andrew Bonar who wrote in his diary, “I work more than I pray. I must at once return, through the Lord’s strength, to not less than three hours per day spent in prayer and meditation upon the Word.”  Or consider Adoniram Judson, who said: “Arrange thy affairs, if possible, so that thou canst leisurely devote two or three hours every day not merely to devotional exercises but to the very act of secret prayer and communication with God. Endeavor seven times a day to withdraw from business and company and lift thy soul to God in private retirement.”    We’ve seen the time discipline of two of the great prayer warriors in the faith. The difference between their practice and ours is not one of inherent nature. It is simply that they took time to ponder God, to study God in an act of supreme attention. We are too greatly overrun with our own trivial pursuits to find leisure for such time of spiritual pondering.   Lord, prayer is Your idea. You desire relationship with Your people and have created us to seek Your face. Yet, because of our busy lives and our lack of discipline, we have considered the things we do for You to be more important than the time we spend with You. Forgive me, Father, for my prayerless life! Grow my desire to fellowship with You as Jesus did…for only then will my life fulfill the kingdom purposes for which You created me!    --Adapted from Giving Ourselves to Prayer: An Acts 6:4 Primer for Ministry (Chapter 25, Disciplines of Personal Prayer by Dan R. Crawford). This book is available at Prayershop.org. Use the code CONPSP3 at checkout to receive an additional 10% discount.

TWFYT

 

UR: God Is Present

Blessed be God, who has not rejected my prayer or removed his steadfast love from me. - Psalm 66:20 (NRSVUE)

On July 10, 2022, after finishing my job for the day, I began my journey home. I had to get home to care for my wife, who was suffering from a fever. That evening it was raining heavily all over our city, and the ground was becoming waterlogged.

I was moving forward in knee-deep water, and trees had fallen all around. As I stepped over a huge fallen tree, I began to sink deeper in the water into a crater created by an uprooted tree. It was impossible to get help in the middle of the night.

So I called upon God: “O God, save me. Pull me out from this crater!” And God answered my prayer. As soon as I got out of the hole, I remembered the words of Psalm 23:4 — “Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”

Prayers spoken in faith are always heard by God who can see us through any situation. I am alive today because of God’s mercy and grace.

Today's Prayer

Gracious and loving God, we are thankful that you never forsake us, even when we are in some dark valley. Help us to trust you always. We pray in the name of our Savior, Jesus. Amen.

Sarah Young