What makes something as tragic as death – good?
When death is purposeful.
When death is a sacrifice.
When death is atonement.
When death is not the end.
What made Jesus death good?
He died for His purpose – to reconcile men to God.
He died as a sacrifice – he willingly gave up His life.
He died to atone – he paid for my sins and yours.
His death was not an end – He rose from the dead!
Reflect of the goodness of Jesus death.
Rejoice in the resurrection! He is alive!
For the last 5 weeks we have been praying for others to experience the transforming work of Christ in their lives. When we take our eyes off ourselves and pray for others, something happens to us. We begin to see how God has worked in our life. We are more sensitive to what God is doing in the lives of others. We see trials and difficulties as the tools they are in the hands of God – drawing us close to Him and a means for others to see their need for Him.
Praying for others changes us. Ongoing conversation is the best way to grow and maintain healthy relationships. Having a meaningful conversation is essential to all healthy relationships. The same principle holds true with our relationship with God. The more we converse with God the better and deeper our relationship with Him will become.
Matthew 7:7,8
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
Jesus tells us to “Ask”, “Seek” and “Knock”. Those are action words – when we pray we are acknowledging our need for God. All this in the context of a relationship with a loving heavenly Father. Ask and he gives what we need. Seek Him and He is found. Knock and the door is opened.
Keep praying – He hears us!
1 John 5:14
This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.
In Luke 18:1-8 we hear from Jesus on persistent prayer:
One day Jesus told his disciples a story to show that they should always pray and never give up. 2 “There was a judge in a certain city,” he said, “who neither feared God nor cared about people. A widow of that city came to him repeatedly, saying, ‘Give me justice in this dispute with my enemy.’ The judge ignored her for a while, but finally he said to himself, ‘I don’t fear God or care about people, but this woman is driving me crazy. I’m going to see that she gets justice, because she is wearing me out with her constant requests!’”
Then the Lord said, “Learn a lesson from this unjust judge. 7 Even he rendered a just decision in the end. So don’t you think God will surely give justice to his chosen people who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? 8 I tell you, he will grant justice to them quickly! But when the Son of Man returns, how many will he find on the earth who have faith?”
Can you hear the heart of God in this parable? If you petition me with faith – you will not need to wear me down like an unjust judge – I will hear you and work in your persistent prayers.
As we pray over the next 4 weeks – don’t miss out on the blessing of persistent prayer for others. Your faith will grow. Your life will change. Because you are interacting with the one true and living God.
Keep on Praying!
Sunday, February 26th Hershey Free church will start a 40 day prayer adventure. We will focus our prayers on the needs of others. We will be praying for the transforming work of Christ to impact the lives of those around us. My prayer is that over the next 40 days God would turn our hearts outward to join Him in what He is already doing in our neighbors, co-workers, family and friends lives. May we have hearts of compassion. May we have the same heart of God who loved us when we were at our worst.
Are you ready to have God change you?
Are willing to be used in the lives of others?
Are you ready to pray?
Anticipate what God will do through the prayers of His people!
Are you ready?
As Hershey Free Church enters into the 40 Days of prayer we should pray with hearts filled with anticipation of what God is going to do around us and how He is going to change us! This will require us to see with spiritual eyes.
2 Kings 6:15-17
15 When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. “Oh, my lord, what shall we do?” the servant asked.
16 “Don’t be afraid,” the prophet answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”
17 And Elisha prayed, “O LORD, open his eyes so he may see.” Then the LORD opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.
My prayer for us in the next couple months is that God would open our eyes so that we can see what He is doing all around us. We need spiritual eyes to see the spiritual battle that is happening all around us. When we start to see, we have a better understanding of how to pray. Here are some prayers we can pray for each other and ourselves:
-Lord help me see people like you see them!
-Jesus help me to love people like you love people!
-Lord help me to engage the battle for the salvation of people!
-Lord keep me from the influence of the evil one: may I pray boldly and with out fear!
-Lord help me to see what you are doing in the lives of people around me!
-Lord help me join you in what you are already doing!
-Jesus please show me how you want to use me in the lives of others.
Anticipate what God will do if we all pray!
I was listening to a small child pray the other day. Her prayer was straight from the heart and was a petition for God to act on her behalf. She prayed that God would change her mommy’s mind so she would be able to have another cookie. She knew what she wanted, she knew her mom was the key to success and so she prayed accordingly.
Do you pray with the faith of a child? When you pray do you expect God to answer? The child above got her answer to her prayer very quickly. Her very wise mother said: “God made me responsible for you and the answer to your prayer is no. God agrees with me, no more cookies.” I loved it! Don’t you wish your prayers would result in such definitive clear immediate answers? I believe God always answers our prayers. The problem isn’t getting answers from God it is accepting them. After the little girl got her answer from her mother she promptly said “I don’t think I like that – I am going to ask again”. When we don’t like the answer -Do we just ask again?
Jesus tells us how to pray in Matthew 6:9-13
This, then, is how you should pray:
‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come,
your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’
Prayer is more about God than it is about us.
Prayer is more about God’s will than it is about ours.
Prayer is more about our needs than our wants.
Prayer is more about forgiveness
Prayer is more about others
Prayer is engaging in spiritual warfare
Prayer aligns us with God rather than trying to align God with us.
So let’s pray!
This year as Hershey Free Church approaches the Easter season we are going to focus on praying for people who need the transforming work of Christ in their lives. As disciples of Jesus we are called to be ambassadors for Him. With that in mind the leaders of Hershey Free asked; how can the church body unite and focus on the heart of the redemptive mission of God? One way to unite behind the mission of God is for us to join in praying together. The leaders are asking each of us to focus our daily prayers for 40 days starting February 26 on 3-5 people who are in need of the transforming work of Jesus in their lives. Just think if 1,000 people choose to participate in praying for 40 days for 3 people in their lives – that is 3,000 people who have the prayers of the saints at the alter of our God of grace. Can you anticipate what God might do?
Praying for others and their spiritual needs does three things:
-It helps us get our eyes off ourselves and on God’s bigger purpose
-It builds our relationship with God
-It improves the possibility of God working in the life of a person who needs him
Paul asked for prayer from the Colossian Church:
Col. 4:3-5
3 And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. 4 Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. 5 Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity.
My prayer for you: That God would open your heart to pray for the people God has placed in your life that need Him. That God would use you to proclaim the mystery of Jesus and that you would proclaim it clearly. I pray that you will seize every opportunity and be wise in how you live your life.
I hope you read this with Anticipation of what God will do during this time (Feb 26 through April 8) as we (The People of Hershey Free Church) commit to pray.
