we will collect for Everlasting Life Ministry. Don't forget to pick up your Congregational report and budget in preparation for our Congregational Meeting (probably after worship)
Good Morning Focused, Trusting God, Servants! Amen! May that be me and us Lord! Thanks!
Do you ever struggle staying focused on God? Sometimes it's hard with circumstances, Satan attacks, and our own doubt. But God is always there. We need to catch and still ourselves and refocus, ask for forgiveness for our unbelief and choose to trust God. Sometimes we need the reminder and prayers of some friends to help us to do that or even realize we are drifting and not trusting well. Sometimes God's promised peace beyond understanding evades our grasp. Again we need to turn off the noise and ask for His help and the prayers of some friends to help us to step into that peace and for the help and ability to choose joy as we grow in and experience trust. He is with us, trustworthy and always working all things together for the good of those who believe. Do you believe? Are you able to stand firm in faith. Are you armored up and being sheilded by God and your faith and weilding the Sword of His Word? And sometimes we need to just step forward in faith and go love and serve others to help us redirect and realize God is with us and has great plans awaiting our faithful movement with Him. Amen! HELP!!! (Check out Our Daily Bread about right focus and the Connection Blog (below) about partnering in prayer and action. I feel and still very much need your prayers!)
I need your prayers and the wisdom, peace and help of God and . Karen jumped in and prayed over me early . Thanks and thanks God for helping me release my own thinking and stepping into faith and your shalom! The Ross Stuart funeral has been haunting me. I loved Ross and could have written a great message of celebration and peace. BUT GOD and Ross! Ross had requested I and his son read so much Scripture and sing hymns that the service will probably go over an hour without saying anything. It's a struggle that haunts me because I try to always bring comfort, peace, and closure at funerals. Ross (and God) have another idea. Ross and I often discussed and always prayed for his family and for salvation. He longed for his family to come to know God and to choose to trust His Word and walk in His ways. He asked me many times to share the gospel too. He also knew he'd have everyone captive . I try my best to honor wishes. So I feel aprehensive as I didn't really write a message and I have to trust God and Ross' insight to what he believes his family needs to hear . PleASE PRAY FOR OPEN HEARTS AND EARS, SALVATION AND RENEWAL OF FAITH AND FOR GOD TO SPEAK TO AND THROUGH ME . pRAY THAT rOSS' MEMORIES AND WISHES WOULD BE HONORED WHILE WE REMEMBER AND CELEBRATE. Thanks! Our Daily Bread reminded me to choose joy and shalom through trusting God's got this. Pray His Word does not come back void of accomplishing what it is sent out to achieve . I am trusting God and praising Him because He will carry me and also bless family while honoring Ross' memories. Maybe we will experience some salvation and renewal of faith too. That was Ross' prayer. Thanks Lord and thank you all for praying.
While you're at it, please pray the same over . I am still needing to finish up the message when I return from the funeral this afternoon. I just don't have peace about what is on paper right now. Ask God to speak to and through me and to lead us into His Word with open hearts and understanding. We will look at 1 Peter 2 and 3 if you want to read ahead. Ask God to help us all to stay focused on Him and ready to pray and serve and respond with His heart and mind. And please pray wisdom and shalom over me. Thanks. I'm trying to choose joy even through some heavy distractions this week as Satan tried to derail me and my focus with some other issues and attacks. Pray a covering over Karen and me, Sarah and Mike and our Body. Thanks! Ask God to keep us focused on Him and His ways and to be able and ready to choose joy and step into His shalom always. Thanks.
I need Thee, O I need Thee. Every hour I need You Lord! Come fill me and us and help us to turn off the noise, focus on You and trust as we choose joy, faith and shalom. Come fill and lead us. Protect us from the enemy and may Your Kingdom come and will be done and always. Here I am Lord! Send and use me and us! Hear our prayers and keep us focused on You alone. Thanks Amen!
ODB
Focused on God
You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you. Isaiah 26:3
My coworker made a quick call to discuss an issue. She asked how I was doing, and I admitted that I had a really painful sinus infection, and the medicine wasn’t working. My coworker simply asked, “May I pray for you?” After I agreed, she offered a thirty-second prayer to God for my healing. I admitted, “Sometimes I forget to pray. I was so focused on the pain I didn’t turn to God.”
My confession made me think about where I place my focus—on my struggles and problems or on God. On this day, my thoughts centered on the pain because of its intensity. But Isaiah 26:3 reminds us that when we keep our minds focused on God, our healer and sustainer, we can find peace: “You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you.” While the pain may not go away instantly, or perhaps ever in this life, the prophet reminds us to place our “trust in” the one who is faithful and able to provide what we need (v. 4).
This passage from Isaiah pointed the Israelites to God’s promises during and after their exile. They would sing songs of praise to Him again as they clung to their faith and hope in what He would provide (vv. 1-2). And the prophet’s words also remind us that whatever pain we may endure, we too can find comfort as we focus on trusting in God and calling out to Him.
By Katara Patton
REFLECT & PRAY
Where are your thoughts focused? How can you turn your concerns into praise and prayers to God?
Dear God, please remind me to keep my mind focused on You, regardless of what situations I face.
SCRIPTURE INSIGHT
Isaiah 26 begins, “In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah” (v. 1). What does “that day” refer to? By looking back at chapter 25, we find that Israel will be singing this song upon the ultimate arrival of her Messiah, declaring, “Surely this is our God; we trusted in him, and he saved us. This is the Lord, we trusted in him; let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation” (v. 9). The Messiah will then deal with those who oppressed Israel and brought her great suffering (pictured by Moab). This will be fulfilled when Jesus comes to earth the second time and establishes His kingdom. As we await His return, we can also be comforted in the abiding presence of the one who promised, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5).
Bill Crowder
Connection Blog:
- Prayers and Words of Blessing
Charles Spurgeon attributed his success to his congregation’s prayers. The story goes that a group of visitors asked him about the secret to his ministry success. Spurgeon led them to the lower level of New Park Street Chapel in Southwark in London, where more than 400 people were praying for God’s blessing and power to rest on their pastor and the church community. “Here is the powerhouse of this church,” he said.
Of course, there is power in a large number of people gathering to pray for their church, yet a lone person can make a huge difference. I am inspired by the story of R.W. Dale, pastor of Carr’s Lane Congregational Church in Birmingham, England, in the 1800s. Dale was a spiritual leader with a thriving ministry but also a personal challenge: “A dark thread of depression ran through Dale’s life, and often he spoke of ‘the strange, morbid gloominess’ that he had to battle, sometimes for weeks at a time.”
One day Dale was in a depressed mood, walking down a Birmingham street, when a poor lady passed him and said, “God bless you, Dr. Dale!” He asked her name, but she refused to give it.
“Never mind my name,” she said, “but if you could only know how you have made me feel hundreds of times, and what a happy home you have given me—God bless you!”
As she hurried away she seemed to take the dark cloud with her. Dale said, “The mist broke, the sunlight came, I breathed the free air of the mountains of God.”
Our prayers and words of blessing for fellow members of God’s family can have a powerful impact.
Gracious Father, You are able to use me even when I don’t feel that I have anything to give to anyone! Show me how giving Your word through blessings to others can change lives and lift up those who just need a touch from You ! May I take time in this day to send a scripture of blessing to someone who needs to hear Your voice through me ! As I listen to Your Spirit, show me who I need to be praying for right now! Use me, Lord, to impact the lives of others, even when I may be walking through some darkness in my own life.
Prayer Points
Praise God for his deep compassion for the poor, the suffering, the lonely (Isa. 58:5-7).
Give thanks for the times when God has lifted you out of the pit of depression or loneliness or from the mire of circumstances (Ps. 40:2).
Confess any times recently when your ears have been deaf to the cries of the poor in your area (Mt. 25:31-46).
Commit yourself to becoming more aware of their needs.
Ask God to show you his heart of compassion and how it can be revealed in your life (Isaiah 58).
Pray that oppressive governments may learn to respect the rights of all people and that true justice and mercy will prevail in courts and government decisions.
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.
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