Praise the Lord for this Wednesday. We will gather for our mid-week fellowship and study at 6 PM, followed by Choir practice at 7:30 PM. We are getting ready for our prayer and healing conference, expecting miracles and blessings . Those of you live in the region please join us at First UMC, Endicott on Friday evening and Saturday.
We worship and serve a God who answers
prayer. In Jeremiah 33:3 it is written, "Call to Me and I will answer
you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not
know".
According to pollster George Barna, almost 90% of Americans say they pray. Over 60% of unchurched Americans say they pray. Of those unchurched Americans, one in three believe that prayer makes a difference in their lives. Among “born again” respondents, nearly 70% say that God personally answers their prayers. But exactly how do Americans pray? Barna offers these insights:
95% express gratitude to God.
76% ask God to forgive particular sins.
61% make specific requests of God.
12% pray in tongues.
There are days when we seem to touch heaven with our prayers, and other days when our words seem to bounce off the ceiling. Regardless of how we feel, if we want to know God better, nothing matters more than our prayers. Nearly 1,400 verses in the Bible speak about prayer.
Bruce Goettsche points out a few facts that we all know about prayer:
Prayer makes a difference … we don’t know how … we just know it does.
Prayer brings wisdom.
Prayer provides strength for difficult times.
Prayer convicts us of areas in our life that need changing.
Prayer brings us assurance of our position in the Father.
We know these things by heart. We know by experience that “prayer changes things.” We know that prayer changes us and it changes the world around us. We know that God gave prayer to us as a wonderful gift. Colossians 4:2-4 is not a prayer by Paul for others, but a prayer request Paul made of his readers. “Devote yourselves to prayer” (Colossians 4:2a). The word “devote” means to grab hold of something and not let go. We must always be ready to pray, whether or not we feel like praying. We are to pray when we believe in it, and pray when we doubt it. We pray when our heart is filled with faith, and we pray when it is by habit. When we feel like giving up we must, as Paul says, “Keep at it!”
James 5:16 speaks of the “effective fervent prayers” of the righteous person. They “avail much” with God. They matter to God. Eugene Peterson (The Message) paraphrases, “Stay alert, with your eyes wide open in gratitude.” Gratitude is the doorway to every spiritual blessing." If we don’t know what else to do when we pray, we can always find reasons to be thankful.
Someone has said that there are only two basic prayers, and each is only one word: “Help!” and “Thanks!” If we say, “Thank you” to the Lord more often, we might get the help we need more often.
O Lord, make us a praying people.
In Jesus our Joy,
Brown
http://youtu.be/iPeVIuRjUi4
According to pollster George Barna, almost 90% of Americans say they pray. Over 60% of unchurched Americans say they pray. Of those unchurched Americans, one in three believe that prayer makes a difference in their lives. Among “born again” respondents, nearly 70% say that God personally answers their prayers. But exactly how do Americans pray? Barna offers these insights:
95% express gratitude to God.
76% ask God to forgive particular sins.
61% make specific requests of God.
12% pray in tongues.
There are days when we seem to touch heaven with our prayers, and other days when our words seem to bounce off the ceiling. Regardless of how we feel, if we want to know God better, nothing matters more than our prayers. Nearly 1,400 verses in the Bible speak about prayer.
Bruce Goettsche points out a few facts that we all know about prayer:
Prayer makes a difference … we don’t know how … we just know it does.
Prayer brings wisdom.
Prayer provides strength for difficult times.
Prayer convicts us of areas in our life that need changing.
Prayer brings us assurance of our position in the Father.
We know these things by heart. We know by experience that “prayer changes things.” We know that prayer changes us and it changes the world around us. We know that God gave prayer to us as a wonderful gift. Colossians 4:2-4 is not a prayer by Paul for others, but a prayer request Paul made of his readers. “Devote yourselves to prayer” (Colossians 4:2a). The word “devote” means to grab hold of something and not let go. We must always be ready to pray, whether or not we feel like praying. We are to pray when we believe in it, and pray when we doubt it. We pray when our heart is filled with faith, and we pray when it is by habit. When we feel like giving up we must, as Paul says, “Keep at it!”
James 5:16 speaks of the “effective fervent prayers” of the righteous person. They “avail much” with God. They matter to God. Eugene Peterson (The Message) paraphrases, “Stay alert, with your eyes wide open in gratitude.” Gratitude is the doorway to every spiritual blessing." If we don’t know what else to do when we pray, we can always find reasons to be thankful.
Someone has said that there are only two basic prayers, and each is only one word: “Help!” and “Thanks!” If we say, “Thank you” to the Lord more often, we might get the help we need more often.
O Lord, make us a praying people.
In Jesus our Joy,
Brown
http://youtu.be/iPeVIuRjUi4
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