The health crisis in your life does not hold the power. Jesus does. Your marriage mess is not in charge. Jesus is. The teenager whose behavior is worrying you don’t rule the world. Jesus does! Pray! Praying in Jesus's name has power.
“Only speak a word, and my servant will be healed.” [Jesus] marveled, and said to those who followed, “Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!.. Go your way; and as you have believed, so let it be done for you.” And his servant was healed that same hour. Matthew 8:8, Matthew 8:10, Matthew 8:13
America’s leaders first called this nation to prayer in 1775. The Continental Congress asked the colonies to pray for wisdom as they worked to form a nation, and the call to prayer has continued throughout our nation’s history. The National Day of Prayer was organized in 1952 to mobilize the Christian community to intercede for America’s leaders. It continues to stand as a call for us to humbly come before God for our nation.
Whatever God has called you to do––do it! Run! Obtain the prize of Christ waiting for you in heaven:
Our high and privileged calling is to do the will of God in the power of God for the glory of God.
~J. I. Packer~
“It is impossible for a man who is warm to understand one who is cold.”
—Alexander Solzhenitsyn
A life developed "of the letter" is one built on rules and regulations. We cannot become a child of God by rules; neither can we develop in godliness by regulations. No list of demands (including God's law) could ever bring to us, or develop in us, a life with God. All rules and regulations (including God's law) come without resources. They are a list of requirements, not a supply of adequacy. They call for an observable response, but they provide no power to produce the required effect.
Sometimes Christians get caught up in their differences with other denominations rather than what we all have in common: One God = Same Faith. If our focus is placed on our similarities, the disagreements seem a lot less significant
Throughout the centuries of church history debates have regularly occurred over the interpretation of Scripture. The furor and passion of these disputes have sometimes led to denominational or congregational splits. However, the one positive thing that comes out of most types of Biblical discussion is a lot more people open, read, and study their Bibles with greater interest and passion to find out what God has said about a subject. And when God's people read the Word -- revival almost always follows.
To Him [Jesus] the assemblies of the saints pay all regal honor, and at his throne the entire church boweth itself, saluting him as Master and Lord. ~C.H. Spurgeon~
Be who God called you to be, not who we would prefer you to be. Now that means your actions have to be in line with The Word Of God.
In the world, position over people can lead to oppressing them. In the kingdom of God, ideas
about position are inverted. You are not to lord over others. You are to consider yourself the
servant of all.
Faithful leaders represent God faithfully. And how does God rule? “Though the LORD is exalted, he looks kindly on the lowly.” That’s a remarkable reversal of expectations for leaders, ancient and modern. Power brings prestige and privilege. Leaders naturally look to consolidate their power, to pay attention first to important people – to themselves, their administration, and to their constituencies. But to care about “the lowly” – who has time for that?
If you desire to be involved in ministry your life needs to have these important qualities. When God opens doors of opportunity for ministry, you will accomplish His will through the anointing of His Holy Spirit.
To be filled with the Spirit is to have the Spirit fulfilling in us all that God intended him to do when he placed him there. ~Lewis Sperry Chafer~
“When you read God’s Word, you must constantly be saying to yourself, ‘it is talking to me and about me.’”—Soren Kierkegaard
The counsel of the un-crucified flesh is ungodly counsel. It coddles the self and avoids the self-sacrifice of the Cross. ~A. W. Tozer~
The more we allow the written Word of God to permeate our minds and hearts, the more we will be able to pray in light of God’s true nature and true will. When we pray in this way, not only will we find that our prayers are answered positively, but we will also sense the presence of God in our lives. He will be “close” to us as we meditate upon his truth, growing into a deeper relationship with him. All of us desire God’s closeness in our lives as we relate to him in truth. But we are not alone in this desire. God also seeks this kind of relationship with us.
Fully trusting in God's direction is one of the most difficult aspects of Christian living, as sometimes it's hard to distinguish between an impulse and the direction of God.
“Two men look out the same prison bars; one sees mud and the other stars.“ ~
Frederick Langbridge, (1849-1922)
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