God is Faithful

Listening prayer: Conversing with the "Threeness" of God

The 4th chapter of 2 Timothy is Paul's final declaration of faith before he was executed by Nero. When he pinned these words he was in prison and fairly certain of his imminent death.

I suppose that my situation is somewhat similar to Paul's, although Paul's physical condition was much more severe than mine. But my doctors tell me I am going to die before too long.

I have communicated with several people in the last few months that had a much different perspective on life and death than I. One was a man in his 80s who was actually in amazing health for his age. I told him I was reacting against people saying if they were in critical condition they didn't want “extreme measures” to keep them alive. I said extreme measures were what I wanted. He spoke to me as if he had much more wisdom than I. “Well, when you can no longer have quality of life you would rather not linger.” But what he called quality of life was comfort and diversion. He jokingly said, “If I couldn't play golf.” Those are not my purpose in life.

In 2 Timothy 4 Paul gives us a marvelous example of integral hope in his life. Paul's life even at that difficult end was still buoyed by a higher purpose. 2 Timothy 4:1,2 reads,

“I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.”

Paul challenges Timothy, and us, to preach the word. And faithful endurance of his painful situation was crucial to that encouragement. He saw his approaching death as part of his challenge and a crucial part of his worship. He encourages us in versus 6-8 by comparing his life to a drink offering. 

“For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.”

A drink offering was a powerful expression of devotion in the desert middle east where water was life. The first drink offering mentioned in Scripture was made by Jacob as he met God at Bethel in Genesis 35. As he emptied his canteen onto the ground, he was trusting his life to the Lord who had appeared to him. Later when drink offerings were included in worship in the Tabernacle the vessels for it were to be of gold, befitting costly devotion. 

Paul sees his final circumstance as the ultimate worship and witness for God. And he could endure it however long it wood last for two reasons. First, as he wrote earlier to the Philippian Church,(Philippians 1:22-24) God might allow him to continue his purpose on this Earth. Also, he knew the reward waiting for him in the presence of God was worth whatever he had to endure.

Relationships were also crucial to the hope Paul clung to. The English Standard Version of the New Testament labels the final two-thirds of this chapter as, Personal Instructions. Verses 9-13 capture this.

“Do your best to come to me soon. For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. Luke alone is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me for ministry. Tychicus I have sent to Ephesus. When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, also the books, and above all the parchments.”

I do not believe Paul saw his purpose or even his worship as separate from the lives of other people. He was investing himself in them. 

God has allowed me to live some years longer than the doctors thought I would. But I still have the cancer that they believe will take my life. Shortly after they began telling me my condition was terminal, I wrote an article for Mature Living Magazine entitled Filling The Unforgiving Minute. You can see that article on my website listed below. Of course I took my title from Rudyard Kipling's poem If. “If you can fill the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds worth of distance run.” In the article I said I wanted to devote the remaining days of my life to writing, prayer, and relationships. In these days I see writing is my purpose and calling from God. It is an extension of my original calling to preach. And of course prayer is essential to that. I pray for God to do what only he can do in the lives of people through my writing. Prayer is also crucial to relationships. I pray for those I love and for others i meet. And relationships are in the purpose of God. Even after my condition deteriorates so that I can no longer write, I hope to be loving and pray for people around me. 




http://theanchorofthesoul.blogspot.com/

httphinkinginthespirit.blogspot.com/

http://watchinginprayer.blogspot.com/

http://writingprayerfully.blogspot.com/




Website

http://daveswatch.com/




YouTube



https://goo.gl/PyzUz7

This is part 2 in a series on helps for personal prayer.  In Part 1, we looked at a helpful pattern for prayer and at turning our Bible reading into prayers.  Today’s focus is on praying for other people.  Let’s look at suggestions for praying the roles and relationships in our lives.  Let’s face it, when most of us pray for other people, we usually tell God what”s wrong with someone else (just in case God didn’t already know) and then ask God to fix THEM.

Somewhere, I learned to think a little differently when I pray for other people.  Instead of complaining about somebody to God, it might be better to thank God for putting that person in my life in the first place.  Then I pray for me to be a good ____ (whatever my role is in the other person’s life).  

For example, if I am praying for my wife, before I pray that God helps HER to fulfill her role in my life, I pray that God helps me to be a good husband.  Now, that’s a pretty good start, but let’s raise the bar a little more.  Next, let’s pray that God helps me/s to grow in ____ (some skill, character trait or attitude related to my role in the relationship).  Now, after I’ve thanked God for the person, asked for help to be a good (whatever my role is) and then prayed that I might grow in my role, now I might be ready to ask God to help the other person grow in a certain area.

Note the chart below.

Praying for our roles and relationships

A fuller version is available in the document designed for you to print out and put in your Bible, Prayer journal or even your purse or jacket pocket.  Download the pdf Personal Prayer Helps.PDF or the Microsoft Word doc Personal Prayer Helps,DOC.

Anything to add?  Any tips that you've found helpful in praying for the people in your life and ministry.

In the comments, please let me know how God is using this in your own life and relationships.

Kevin Cunningham

Pastor, Author, Videographer

Currently serving as a bi-vocational, Intentional Interim Pastor in Gloucester, MA.

www.PastorKevin.net

www.EncourageAndEquip.com

www.TimeWithGodBook.com

www.VideoByKevin.com

Christian Grandparenting Network (CGN) is proclaiming National Grandparents' Day observed on September 9, 2018, as a Grandparents' Day of Prayer. We believe the battle for the hearts and minds of our dear grandchildren and their parents can be won only by praying grandparents who sense the urgency and unite to do battle in prayer. 

It is only 40 days until Grandparents’ Day of Prayer on September 9.I hope you have volunteered to organize an event or participate by praying for your grandchildren with the 30-Day Prayer Challenge. If you have not, I would like to invite you again to join grandparents throughout the world to take part in this special event. Will you ask God how He wants you to participate?

Jere Vincent, President, Family Builders Ministries, and CGN Board member wrote, “It is with great joy that I have the opportunity to recommend to you the Grandparent Day of Prayer. Grandparents that have lived their lives in Christ believing that the transforming love of God, the convicting and confirming ministry of the Holy Spirit and power of the Gospel will change their grandchildren’s lives and can impact an entire community.” 

This Grandparents’ Day of Prayer event could be in your church, in your home, in a retirement complex, or any meeting location you choose. CGN will provide step-by-step guidelines, resources, and online tools to help you create a successful event that will engage grandparents in prayer for your event. Invite another grandparent in your home and pray for your grandchildren together, it doesn’t have to be a big event.

If you have been thinking about starting a grandparenting group in your church or a prayer group for grandparents, this is a great time to start. Many churches have started their groups on Grandparents’ Day of Prayer.

On our website  christiangrandparenting.net/grandparents-day-of-prayer/, you will find two ways that you can participate in Grandparents’ Day of Prayer.

1. You can pray. Sign up and Download your copy of the 30-Day Challenge. Participants who register will receive an eBook “30 days of Prayers for your Grandchildren”. 
2. You can gather and lead other grandparents in prayer. Sign up as a volunteer if you are willing to organize a Grandparents’ Day of Prayer event in your church, home, retirement complexes, etc. Click “To find out more about becoming a volunteer” to follow the process. You too will receive the eBook “30 Days of Prayers for your Grandchildren”. 

Christian Grandparenting Network is prepared to provide step-by-step guidelines, resources, video, and online tools for creating a successful event. Check our website christiangrandparenting.net/grandparents-day-of-prayer/ for more information, testimonials, promotional materials, and free downloads. 

Again, the Grandparents’ Day of Prayer event is an excellent time to start a grandparenting group in your church if you want to start one.

Thanks for your consideration to join us at Christian Grandparenting Network.

May God bless you as you pray for your grandchildren.

Lillian Penner  lpenner@christiangrandparenting.net

Deborah Haddix  Deborah@deborahhaddix.com

Coordinators for Grandparents’ Day of Prayer

Perhaps the most famous cry of "Why" in the Bible came from the mouth of our Savior as he was dying on the cross.  "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46)

Jesus was quoting the beginning to Psalm 22, which we looked at previously.  In Jesus' case, of course, he had known in advance the agony he would suffer; in fact, he had prayed earnestly that he could be spared that agony (Matthew 26:36-42) - not just the physical agony of torture and crucifixion, but I suspect that he also knew in some sense the separation from the Father that would be required in order to truly take on the sins of mankind.

Jesus likely was not looking for an answer to this prayer.  About to die, he would not benefit from knowing any additional information about why God had forsaken him.  His cry was more one of an expression of agony than a request for God to justify himself.

Our "why" can also be this way.  Often it's not so much that we need God to explain himself to us (although we do like to understand); it's more that we need him to reassure us that he in fact has not forsaken us, that he's still there, that he still cares.  Sometimes the suffering we endure is more than the crisis itself - it's a crisis of faith, wondering where God is when we suffer and why he's not intervening to save us.  In fact, this is the kind of crisis that David expressed in the beginning of Psalm 22.

David ultimately came to the realization in the Psalm that God had not actually abandoned him; that the God he knew continued to be faithful - both in general and to him specifically. 

We can have this same assurance when we approach God.  Hebrews tells us that we can approach the throne of grace with confidence (Hebrews 10:19-23).  In fact, it's exactly because of Jesus' agony that we have this confidence.  We may feel at times that God has forsaken us; but, unlike Jesus, we will never experience actual abandonment by God.  Though it's possible for us to walk away from God, he will never walk away from us (2 Timothy 2:12-13).

So if our cry of "why" draws us into God's presence, then it has served its purpose.  If our suffering forces us to our knees to seek God's face, then God has used it for our good.  We shouldn't be afraid to cry "why?"  The God whom we know and serve has heard this question before.  And he will answer it for us like he did for David and like he ultimately did for Jesus - he will answer it with Himself.

https://www.hisinscriptions.com/blog/you-can-know-the-holy-spirit

No one was more skeptical of the supernatural than I. Raised in a world governed by the intellect, I was trained from an early age to focus on learning and self-development while rejecting emotionalism and spiritual “fanaticism.” Truth was limited to what could be discerned through science or the five physical senses alone.          
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In fact, when I finally discovered the Holy Spirit, the very first “label” my family put on me was that of a “fanatic.” Never mind that I hadn’t actually done anything worthy of that label yet; my confession of faith in the third person of the Trinity was enough to worry them! 

Click to keep reading and download a free printable on the Holy Spirit.

Along with words to encourage you or help you to encourage others, I try to provide resources or training to help us live out our faith.  This is the first in a series on helps for our personal prayer life.  Coming tomorrow, helpful resources to pray for all the relationships in life, then for missionaries and pastors.  Today’s focus will be on a helpful pattern for prayer and using the Bible to help pray for friends who already know God and for friends who need to know God better with a simple but powerful bonus tip.

Many people have found prayer particularly challenging.  They muster up all their self-discipline and courage.  They get on their knees and then say, “What do I do now?!”  Personally, I have often found it helpful to have a variety of resources available to help me stay focused during prayer.  I share this not because I am a spiritual giant with much to offer.  I share these because I often find it such a struggle to get started in prayer and even after getting started to then stay focused.

Perhaps the most helpful resource I have ever found for prayer is God’s Word itself.  Sometimes we pray way too mildly because we may not be sure that something is God’s will.  When we turn Bible verses that we are reading into actual prayers for ourselves and others, we can be pretty sure we are praying in God’s will.  Keep reading for some helpful examples.

Photo: (c) Can Stock Photo / LincolnRogers (Link posted below)

I may be a little unusual, but I have often found a countdown timer extremely helpful.  If I have set aside a certain span of time for prayer, I found that I would be checking the clock way too often to make sure I didn’t go overtime—like that’s a real worry!  I found that if I set a countdown timer, my mind is no longer distracted by the clock.

Finally, I have often found a pattern of prayer has helped me to stay focused and balanced in my prayers.  It’s so easy to only come to God when we want something.  We all have friends that only seem to pop up when they are in need.  How do you feel when you see them coming?  I think you get the idea.  There are many similar prayer methods, etc.  The following pattern has been a tremendous help for me.

• Adoration:  Begin your prayer time praising God for who He is—not for what He has done for us—that will come later.  This helps us focus on our relationship with God himself.
  (Psalms 19, 29, 146 – 150)
• Confession:  After a time of focusing on the goodness and character of God, we can’t help but see ourselves a little differently. Ask God to reveal to us the areas of our life that need attention.  (Psalms 51, 32, 139)
• Thanksgiving:  Now is the time to thank God for the many blessings that we enjoy. Sometimes, this comes easily. Sometimes, we need to make ourselves intentionally focus on what God has already done. (Psalm 50:1; 92:1; 35:18; Phil 4:6)
• Supplication:  Now is the time to bring our requests to God. Supplication is not a word most of us use every day, but it’s a good word to use in this context. It has the idea of urgency or earnestness (seriousness). We don’t come to God indifferently but with a concern that has burdened our hearts and we bring those requests to God. (Many examples follow) (1 Pet 5:7)

 Praying the Scriptures for Friends who know God

• Ps 27:1.   LORD you are ________‘s light and salvation– help (him/her) to trust you and not to fear.  LORD you are the stronghold of (his/her) life– of whom shall (he/she) be afraid?
• Ps 27:2.  May you help ________ to be confident in the face of all attacks fully trusting in you.
• Ps 27:5. Lord when ________ has a day of trouble,
  may you keep (him/her) safe in your dwelling;
  hide (him/her) in the shelter of your tabernacle
  and set (him/her) high upon a rock.

• Ps 27:6. When ________ serves you may (he/she) do it with shouts of joy; may (he/she) sing and make music to you, LORD.
• Ps 28:1. May _________ call to you, O LORD my Rock;  and may you hear (his/her) prayer.
• Ps 28 7. LORD, you are our strength and our shield; may ________’s heart trust in you and be helped. May _______ leap for joy and give thanks to you in song.
• Ps 29:1. May _______ ascribe to you O LORD, glory and strength.
• Ps 29:2  May _______ ascribe to you O LORD the glory due your name;
• Ps 29:3  May _______ worship you in the splendor of your holiness.

Strategic Prayer Focus for Friends Seeking God

Identify two or three people in your sphere of influence that you believe desperately need Jesus. List their names below so that you pray for each of them.

 _____________   _____________    _____________

1. Lord, I pray that you draw these to Yourself. (John 6:44)
2. I pray that they will seek to know You. (Acts 17:27)
3. I pray that they hear and believe the Word for what it really is. (I Thes. 2:13)
4. I ask You to prevent Satan from blinding them to the truth. (II Cor. 4:4; II Tim. 2:25-26)-
5. Holy Spirit, I ask You to convict them of their sin and need for Christ’s redemption. (John 16:7-14)
6. I ask that You send someone to  share the Gospel with them. (Matt 9:37-38)
7. I pray that they would put all of their trust in Christ. (John 1:12; 5:24)
8. I pray that they confess Christ as Lord and grow in faith and bear fruit for Your glory. (Rom. 10:9-10)

(Excerpted from Search & Rescue: Becoming a Disciple Who Makes a Difference, Neil Cole, Baker Books, a division of Baker Publishing Group, © 2008)

Have any of these inspired you?  Any tips you can share with us?

Kevin Cunningham

Pastor, Author, Videographer

Currently serving as a bi-vocational, Intentional Interim Pastor in Gloucester, MA.

www.PastorKevin.net

www.EncourageAndEquip.com

www.TimeWithGodBook.com

www.VideoByKevin.com

Image Credit: (c) Can Stock Photo / LincolnRogers https://www.canstockphoto.com/praying-hands-over-a-holy-bible-1610641.html

This post originally appeared on the Encourage and Equip blog at http://www.encourageandequip.com/prayer-life-help/

Filled with hope! Filled with joy! Filled with confidence! Turn on the faucet and let yourself be filled! God is ready willing and able to fill you with all that you need to redeem your life and move forward into a new lifestyle filled with promise, His promise!

God Himself seeks out the wounded and the broken hearted. He desires that we be healed and redeemed. He desires that we live in abundance of security, hope and love. He desires to inspire all of us to do His will, and by doing so, live in His promise of a new life.

This new life is up to you. He calls you, but He does not force you. He also will not beg you, but He will open the opportunities for you to follow. Ultimately, it is your choice.

Fill your heart with the Word of God and watch your life change in so many ways! Stay in His word, live the lifestyle of a believer and witness the change in your own spirit and mind. See where this new life takes you!

We gather together as believers to share what the Lord has done for us. We share His Word! We seek out the truth and walk in His Love. God is waiting! He is waiting for you to want to change your life! He is waiting for you to make a choice. He is watching for you to arrive at that place in between and make the decision to follow Him and have a better life. God is for you! He is not against you! He has a plan for you, to give you a hope and a future! (Jeremiah 29:11) Do not hesitate! Call on Him! Give your heart to Him! Give your plans to Him! Seek out His will and follow His Word! You cannot go wrong if you are walking in the Word of God! Share His love and His heart and see the blessings He pours out over you!

Take the leap! Fall into His Word! The sincere heart for God will not be disappointed! Those who are insincere, woe to you. You will be more than disappointed. God is not a magic potion to be used and done. He is the Way, the Truth and the Light! Without Him we are nothing! Do not allow another day to go by without picking up a Bible and reading of the mysterious wonders of the world and its history. You will be transformed! You will be filled with joy! You will be able to become one of His chosen!