God Morning Still and Filled, Shalom-Living, Worshipers! Amen! Our God is a God of peace (shalom) and order. He is the God of the Sabbath and calls us to trust and rest in Him for provision as we still ourselves and pray and worship. "Be still and know that He is God" is a command for ! (Check out The Upper Room below) Humble yourselves and check out The Word for You about the first Beatitude: "Blessed are the poor in spirit (us) for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven." Amen! Meditate on these two devotionals and pray through the connection blogs as we prepare to gather and worship on Zoom . How cool is God as He speaks to our souls and knows our situations and speaks His love and Way over us. Receive His love and wisdom and prepare to worship in Spirit and Truth. God loves you and is calling you by name to come sit in His love . We will be discussing 1 Peter 1:13-2:10 during worhip. Have your Bibles ready and thank God for technology, wise decisions and for allowing us to gather across the miles for worship . See you soon! Pray for my peace as I work on the order of worship for too. And remember, we have been washed white as snow! Amen!
UR: Be Still
Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth. - Psalm 46:10 (NIV)
I was resting in a hospital bed after giving birth to our second child. I was tired, sore, and very hungry; it was 10 o’clock at night, and I had not eaten all day. At least I had been able to hold my baby girl for a few minutes in the delivery room, and she looked perfect! But as the minutes ticked away, I began to feel anxious: They should have brought her to me by now. What if something has happened? What is going on? I searched for the call button, but it was out of reach. As panic washed over me, Psalm 46:10 came to my mind.
I realized I just needed to be still and seek God’s presence in that moment. I took several deep breaths, closed my eyes, and the most amazingly peaceful feeling came over me. I felt God’s presence in a way I had never felt it before. I knew then that God was with me and that whatever might happen, I would be all right because God was there.
My daughter was fine, but I will always remember those few moments as transformational in my walk of faith. If we seek to be still in God’s presence when we are challenged by life’s unexpected or delayed events, we will know God’s peace beyond our understanding.
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's Prayer
Dear God, help us always to know that you are ever-present in our lives. In trust, we open ourselves to you. In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen.
TWFYT:
Connections Blogds
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The Holy Spirit Manifests Through Various Fruit
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. The work of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer changes things about that person. There is a constant battle between the desires of the flesh that are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit that are against the flesh (Galatians 5:22-23).
The Spirit not only gives us the ability to stop doing evil things, but if we yield our life to the work of the Spirit, He will produce in us great spiritual fruit.
Holy Spirit, please give me an increased awareness of how important it is in and for my life to die daily to self so that I can live according to Your counsel and not give in to the temptations of the world. Would You move in my life to reveal areas where I am lacking spiritual fruitfulness? Show me and my church community how to live in such a way that the fruit we bear gives great glory to God!
--Adapted with permission from The Summit Church (thesummitchurch.org) 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 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, The Essential Presence at prayerleader.com.
Prayer Points
Praise the one who is able to do immeasurably more than all one can ask or imagine.
Thank God for what he is doing in your life and in the church in response to prayer.
Confess little asking and weak praying.
Commit yourself to asking and expecting much in Jesus’ name.
Claim the promise that Christ will come to you and make his home in your heart if you love him and trust him.
Pray that the countries currently banning the Bible may soon rescind these bans so that their people may have free access to the Bible.
Prayer Pointer
“Prayer should be the key of the day and the lock of the night.” —Thomas Fuller
Prayer Points taken from Patterns for Prayer by Alvin VanderGriend. This book is available at prayerleader.com. Use the code CONPSP3 at checkout to receive an additional 10% discount.
