Pray Network Forum

Life changes and is never stagnant, if you allow yourself to grow. Growing takes effort. Reading His Word and applying His principles to your life. They are good principles, adding value to life. This does not mean you’re going to hop on a fluffy soft cloud and float through life with no heartache or pain. It does mean that you have God to lean on. It means when you seek Him, He will answer. When you follow His principles the hardships in life can be overcome. He cannot always keep you from harm, but He can help you heal from it. He does not control anyone. He is not a control freak. He is here to guide you when you ask but you must listen when He answers. He is your healer, but not always in the way you expect. You only think in the ways of man. You cannot always comprehend what He is doing in your life. This is where trust comes in. If you are following Him, reading His word, praying and soaking in His presence you will have greater understanding and greater healing from life’s hurts.

He is here for His people! The one’s who choose to follow Him. Being a follower of His Son Jesus does not make you weak. Instead it makes you strong. Spiritually strong. Align yourself with the Holy Bible. Align yourself with a Bible believing church that teaches Agape Love above all else. Learn of His ways. Learn to love others and His Son. Learn to love yourself. Many people have done so much wrong, been taught wrongly, or mistreated so badly, even by those who call themselves Godly, that they are confused and refuse to hear His Word. But know that I do not control them and they can choose to misconstrue His Word, or twist it for their own glory or excuses. He is the ONE and ONLY TRUE GOD who love’s your soul. Who forgives your sins and longs to guide you to the truth of the Word. He is peace when there is no peace around you. He is Love when there is no one to love you and even when you do have people to love you. He is the Great I AM, here to guide and save His people. You must choose Him as He has already put you on the list of HIS Chosen. He has given you the opportunity and the right to follow Him and seek His peace in your life.

Matthew 11:28-30: “Come to me you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

DAY SEVENTEEN:
VERSES:
Cast your burden upon the Lord and He will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken....(Psalm 55:22)
PRAYER:

Heavenly Father, in You alone do I both my trust and faith as the Leader and Lord of my life. Father You have been there for me all the time, even when I walked away from You countless times and did not follow Your precepts and statutes. You called me into the Kingdom of Your marvelous Light, but yet in my disobedience, many times I preferred to walk in darkness. In those times oh Lord, You were still with me, You never leaved me or forsake me because You had Your calling on my life as You do with all whom You have called out of the Egypt of despair, into the Promised Land of Eternal Destiny and Joy.

When there is adversity, You are there. When there is trouble and despair, You are there. When there is doubt. You are there. When there is fear and trembling, You are there. When there is persecution and hate against Your people, You are there. Where there is no vision or hope, You are there.

You sustain the world by the Word of Your Mouth. You speak life and hope into the atmosphere and the people rejoice. You shake the Heavens and let the snow and hail fly, in times of war and battle such as now, and Your remnant stand in amazement. The world does not know You, the religious and the rulers issue documents and like Nimrod claim man's authority over the Climate You created and still control. They and their modern day scribes and pharisees claim precedence over Your Word and rewrite the code of civilization and family which You have ordained. They blaspheme You by bowing down to other useless and worthless idols who can never create a child, or explain the crops of the field or the birds of the air, and they pay more respect and honor to non-existent idols and prophets You never sent or ordained.

But You will never allow Your righteous, Your true elect to whom You have positioned as the saved, to those whom You have made righteous and now are blameless as those bought under the Precious Blood of the Most Righteous One, Whose Body was never abandoned to sheol but went down and knocked over the gates of hell and told death Who had won the Victory! O death, where is thy sting now! Thank You Jesus for defeating death and for now sitting on the Right Hand of the Sovereign One and Satan, you, evil one, have no authority, no claim, no right, no open door, no nothing on the Called ones- the Christian made right by God - because Jesus has defeated you.  Be gone, and get thee behind me and all who are Christ's.

Because Jesus Christ is my Lord, and the Lord of the millions and millions of this world, whom He has saved, we can lay our burdens at His Feet. Because He is Our Shepherd, we shall want no good thing, and no good thing means being apart from the greed and desires of this world. Because He is my Savior, we cast ALL our cares upon Him, for in the end, what it is all said and done, He cares for me and it is in the strong and mighty Name of Jesus I believe that promise, stand on that precept and follow that Good Protector and Provider and Proconsul, the Lord of Heavens' Armies, amen and amen - from now until the end of time and my days, amen.

It's interesting and encouraging that many of our churches are waking up to the fact that even Christ followers in our ranks are still sinning big time. For years studies by Barna and others have been telling us that church people aren't at least statistically that different morally from those not in the church.

But unfortunately the truth is being realized and we're having to admit the studies were right. Christians struggle with porn, kids who sext with each other, get divorced, have affairs and cheat on their taxes just to name a few things.  It's not that God isn't at work, lives aren't being changed or that there aren't some really miraculous things taking place but we're still a mess.

So naturally and thankfully many churches are being called to pray for their church, city and country, that God would do a great work and change people.  The problem is that too often we are only praying for the symptoms not the real problem.

We pray that our people would quit having affairs and getting divorced. We pray that our young people would reject the habits of their friends online and not send dirty pictures to one another. We pray for people to come to our churches and lay aside their distractions. And we should want those things and more.

But if that is all we pray for we've missed the boat.  We'll be like the surgeon who removed the cancerous spots on the patient's skin but didn't consider the tumor or disease elsewhere in the body. There is a deeper root.

Jeremiah 2:13 is probably familiar to most of us but it is a key passage for understanding the underlying issues.  My people have committed two sins: they have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water."

We must pray people to go back to God (Jesus) for their water, for what really gives them life and meaning and purpose.  We must help them see the broken cisterns in their life that culture and our selfishness have drawn us to for our worth, satisfaction and fulfillment.

We have started to worship our kids and their needs so we let them get away with too much, quit parenting and look the other way. We worship comfort and happiness so we spend much of our time earning more, getting more and storing up more, too exhausted to consider doing anything for God.

And when our spouse feels the same way we have no time for them and them for us. But someone out there will have time when we're most vulnerable and we need to dull our pain.

We must pray for Christians, starting with us, to re-visit our first love, Jesus. Ask God to help us put Him first and to lay aside our leaky buckets, to exchange again our idols for the glory and pleasure of God. We must not dress the wound of the people as though it were not serious. (Jeremiah 6:14)  We must pray for people to tell it like it is and not settle for superficial change. 

And if we do, then God will truly heal us, our churches, our communities and our land. Change will be real and lasting. Why would we want anything less?