Prayer has been heavy on both Rick’s heart and my heart as of late. And I am writing about prayer today to encourage you, my brothers and sisters in Christ, and also to encourage myself. I started reading a book called “Fresh Wind Fresh Fire” by Jim Cymbala and it has re-enforced that we all need to pray. We hear Zach tell us to pray, pray, pray. Do we listen to our calling? In this book this small little church was changed significantly because they united in prayer. They were told by a guest pastor to think about one thing: “You can tell how a popular a church is by who comes on Sunday morning. You can tell how popular the pastor is by who comes on Sunday night. But you can tell how popular Jesus is by who comes to the prayer meeting.” I believe that this is so true. Jim said it plainly to his church “If we call upon the Lord, he has promised in His Word to answer, to bring the unsaved to himself, to pour out His Spirit among us. If we don’t call upon the Lord, he has promised nothing—nothing at all. It’s as simple as that. No matter what I preach or what we claim to believe in our heads, the future will depend upon our times of prayer.” So let us pray as individuals, but most importantly let us pray as a church. There has been so many answers to prayers in the short life of our little church and I can only imagine what will be answered if we continue to pray with passion and our whole being.
Love Steph S
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2 comments:
Amen sister! This is Zach's favorite quote from Cymbala. And I believe it's true. Thank you to those of you who have remained obedient to praying Sunday mornings for Hillside!
Thank you Steph for the encouragement in prayer!
Love,
Cam
I enjoy your guest pastor's message. Yes, it's very true. You can see the effectivity of a church by the prayer lives of the congregation as whole. There is power in corporate prayer as we're told in the Bible.
Sometimes, we think that we only ought to pray when we are in need. Prayer is a lifestyle, it is a part of us that establishes our relationship with God.
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