Tuesday, September 27, 2011

God Wants You to Pray Bold Prayers

Psalm 67:1-2 “May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine on us—  so that your ways may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations.”

How bold are you in your prayer life? I believe that God wants us to stop holding back and wants us to start praying bold prayers for our own lives. Prayers that will shake the up the way we live changing it forever and turning our world upside-down.

Many time we are willing to pray bold prayer for others because they don’t seem selfish to us, yet we hesitate to pray anything close this when it come to those things that impact our own life.

Why this hesitation? I believe that it is connected with motive. When we pray regarding things that impact us our focus us usually inward focused, what will be best our own comfort or desires. But if we just follow what this passage it shows why we should not only pray like this but to do so on a regular and consistent basis. Bold prayers for God’s goodness and blessings in our lives should be prayed so that the character of God may be seen clearly in every aspect of our daily lives. The world desperately needs to know God, His ways and His salvation, yet for most this will never happen unless they see is clearly through our lives. We truly are the only Bible they will ever read.

So pray boldly that God will bless you, being gracious to you, while His presence in your life is obvious and undeniable as the noon-day sun. So that the world will know how real God is.

Saturday, September 10, 2011

Obeying or Performing ... How do you relate to God

I thought that the following was very though provoking on helping us understand the difference between performing in live compared to living a life of obedience. What do you think? How is God asking you to adjust your life?

Obedience is seeking God with your whole heart. Performance is having a quiet time because you’ll feel guilty if you don’t.

Obedience is finding ways to let the Word of God dwell in you richly. Performance is quickly scanning a passage so you can check it off your Bible reading plan.

Obedience is inviting guests to your home for dinner. Performance is feeling anxiety about whether every detail of the meal will be perfect.

Obedience is following God’s prompting to start a small group. Performance is reluctance to let anyone else lead the group because they might not do it as well as you would.

Obedience is saying yes to whatever God asks of you. Performance is saying yes to whatever people ask of you.

Obedience is following the promptings of God’s Spirit. Performance is following a list of man-made requirements.

Obedience springs from fear of God. Performance springs from fear of failure.

My prayer is that we all learn to obey God more.