The Power of Prayer

Men ought always to pray, and not to faint. Luke 18:1

Lord teach us to pray. Luke 11:1 

Being on the prayer chain I have said to dozens of people in the church, “We are praying for you or your child or husband.” I’ve also had dozens of people thank me with a quiver in their voices for the prayers. Someone said to me the other day, “It was the prayers of this congregation that helped my baby get well.”

There are many different kinds of prayers...prayers of petition, prayers of thanks, prayers of confession, and prayers of praise. We need to include all kinds of prayer in our conversations with God.

A woman whose son was having brain surgery said that the boy had the best brain surgeon in the country. “But,” she said, “unless we have the prayers of those who care, we don’t feel like we have the whole team in the game. God needs us to be members of his team and we can only do that through communication with him every day."

Living a life without prayer is like building a house without nails. Prayer is releasing the energies of God. For prayer is asking God to do what we cannot do ourselves.

Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for listening to our foolish requests and for answering them. We thank you for being available to us every day. What a gift you have given us to be able to talk to you. May we remember to praise you, to confess our sins and to ask for your forgiveness. May we remember that prayer shouldn’t always be about asking for something. Amen.

Gerry Draney (reprinted from the Eastridge Daily Devotion book, 2008)

I Will Not Be Shaken!

 

I Will Not Be Shaken!

 

Psalm 16:8 I keep my eyes always on the Lord. With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.

 

1 Peter 5:8-9 Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.

 

Ephesians 6:10-11 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.

 

2 Corinthians 10:4-5  The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.  We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. 

 

I've talked to Christians that have felt so defeated by the negative thoughts that take hold in their minds. I've been frustrated by them sometimes, too. Those mental strongholds are tough to defeat, but we most certainly have the power to do so within our grasp.  We must depend on God's strength, using the mighty weapons he's given us—like prayer, faith, hope, love, His Word and the Holy Spirit.  When we “put on the full armor of God” we can “take our stand against the devil's schemes.”  And scheme he does...he “prowls” around, watching and waiting for a vulnerable moment to attack.

 

I'm most vulnerable when I'm tired and/or have a lot on my plate.  In those moments, I let my guard down and take my eyes off of God.  Before I know it, I've let the Enemy fill my head with his lies—those all too familiar, negative, self-defeating thoughts.  Soon, my doubts, fears and anxiety begin to take over. When I finally discern what's happening, I immediately speak the name of Jesus and ask for His help to redirect my thoughts. I also ask for forgiveness and command the Enemy to “get lost!” 

 

During a recent attack, I defiantly quoted, “I will NOT be shaken!”  He left me alone for a bit. But I knew he'd be back, so I looked up the rest of Psalm 16:8 and announced loudly: “I keep my eyes always on the Lord. With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken!”  I had to speak it several times, because sure enough, like the relentless bully he is, he came back to try and pull me away from God again and again. Eventually, I spoke it enough times, and so confidently, that the Enemy fled (see James 4:7). 

 

I continue to speak Psalm 16:8 each morning, along with a few other verses I like to call my “power verses”.  I've found they get my day off to a good start.  I figure filling my head with His Truth leaves little room for the Enemy's lies.  I have much work to do in filling my head with God's Word—and making sure that it's properly understood and applied.  However, my progress has given me a confidence I can't explain.  I encourage you also, when you're under attack, to “take a stand” and  confidently exclaim, “I will not be shaken!”

 

Prayer: Almighty God, forgive us for taking our eyes off of you and believing the lies the Enemy fills our head with. Please give us the discernment to recognize his lies and the courage to “take a stand”.  And thank you for the mighty weapons you give us to fight this constant battle. Amen.

 

Sharon Irvin

More like Christ, Leading to Christ

 And when they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd around them, and scribes arguing with them. And immediately all the crowd, when they saw him, were greatly amazed and ran up to him and greeted him. And he asked them, “What are you arguing about with them?” And someone from the crowd answered him, “Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has a spirit that makes him mute. And whenever it seizes him, it throws him down, and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid. So I asked your disciples to cast it out, and they were not able.” And he answered them, “O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me.” And they brought the boy to him. And when the spirit saw him, immediately it convulsed the boy, and he fell on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth. And Jesus asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood. And it has often cast him into fire and into water, to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” And Jesus said to him, “‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.” Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!” And when Jesus saw that a crowd came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “You mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him and never enter him again.” And after crying out and convulsing him terribly, it came out, and the boy was like a corpse, so that most of them said, “He is dead.” But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose. And when he had entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, “Why could we not cast it out?” And he said to them, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.” Mark 9:14-29

Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and all that is within me,
bless his holy name!...
The LORD works righteousness
and justice for all who are oppressed.
He made known his ways to Moses,
his acts to the people of Israel.
The LORD is merciful and gracious,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. Psalms 103: 1, 6-8

Many things are broken in this world, and many good people are upset by injustice, cruelty, and suffering. I’ve noticed that in many instances this awareness of injustice and cruelty then leads good people to become angry, cruel, and unjust to other people – lashing out with accusations and name-calling, and a spiral of anger, cruelty, and injustice perpetuates. It makes my heart so sad. I have to admit that BOTH the injustice AND the anger make me angry too. I see many places in the Psalms where the Lord’s wonderful ways are extolled, and His ways look quite different from ours: merciful, gracious, compassionate, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. As Christ’s disciple, I want to be more like God than like the angry mob, but I also know I am to be Christ’s hands and feet in the world. How can I do both? In my despair about this, I cried out to the Lord, and in one week was led to both these passages – through a sermon and in my wonderful Bible study class.

I was privileged to be able to hear the Stated Clerk of the PCUSA preach at our church, using the passage from Mark, above. He used the passage to point out that Scripture teaches us not to lean on our own ways, for they are faulty – both as individuals and as the Church. This passage teaches us that the faithful pray and lead others to Christ, and Christ heals. Through Christ, we can make things happen that we can’t do through our own power, or by our own ways.

One of my favorite passages of Scripture is helpful to me here, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understand; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.  Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil.” (Proverbs 3: 5-7). When I find myself becoming angry at either the injustice OR the anger, I pray to God in trust and ask to become more like Him: merciful, gracious, compassionate, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. Does it always work? No, but God isn’t finished with me yet.

Prayer: Lord of my life, please make me more like you - merciful, gracious, compassionate, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love - and through this to point more people to you. For you, alone, can solve the problems this world faces. So many are hurting; so many are angry. You died and rose again so that we could be restored to you and reconciled to one another. Yet we throw that away in our anger. Please reach down to this hurting world that needs Your love, and help us to reach up as well. Amen

Lori Snyder-Sloan (reprinted from 2017 Lenten devotional)

Persisting Together

Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 (NIV)

That there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. 1 Corinthians 12:25-27 (ESV)

In our current Wednesday morning Bible study (From Daughters to Disciples by Lynn Japinga), we’re focusing on women in the New Testament. In the chapter on The Book of Acts, the author points out that the early Christians, following the death and resurrection of Christ, had to “persist together”. They did this to make sense of Jesus’ direction to “make disciples of all nations” in light of the fact that he was no longer with them physically. The definition of “persist” is, in part: to continue firmly in a course of action in spite of difficulty, opposition, or failure. 

Author Lynn Japinga says: “they were bound by their love of Jesus and their curiosity about the future, and by the desire to stick together and see what would happen next.” She discusses how, after Jesus told his disciples to “make disciples of all nations”, that message may have seemed broad to them, and may have caused uncertainty. “They shared the same passion for Jesus and the gospel. They were committed to Jesus and to each other. They were not sure what would come next, but they knew enough to stay together and draw strength from each other”. Japinga points out that it is the same for Christians now. She lists high levels of conflict, violence, disease, and pain in the world. “When it feels like the world is falling apart, it is even more important to persist together”.

Japinga goes on to explain what it might mean to persist together. She shares something of which we are perhaps all aware: the fact that, as a church or body of Christ, we do not always agree. It would come as no surprise that they did not always agree in the early church, either. However, we are "still called to make a difference in the world."

I think of us a bible study, “persisting together”. As a church, “persisting together”. As a community, “persisting together”.  As the body of Christ in the world, “persisting together”. Wherever we exist in fellowship and community and draw strength from one another through Christ, we “persist together”.

Prayer: Dear Lord, even in uncertain times, we can draw strength from one another, and from You. Help us to know that as Christians we are stronger when we, as believers, persist together. Amen.

Donna Gustafson

Words from Isaiah

 

 Listen to me, you islands;

    hear this, you distant nations:

Before I was born the Lord called me;

    from my mother’s womb he has spoken my name.

He made my mouth like a sharpened sword,

    in the shadow of his hand he hid me;

he made me into a polished arrow

    and concealed me in his quiver.

He said to me, “You are my servant,

    Israel, in whom I will display my splendor.”

  But I said, “I have labored in vain;

    I have spent my strength for nothing at all.

Yet what is due me is in the Lord’s hand,

    and my reward is with my God.”

 

 And now the Lord says—

    he who formed me in the womb to be his servant

to bring Jacob back to him

    and gather Israel to himself,

for I am honored in the eyes of the Lord

    and my God has been my strength—

  he says:

“It is too small a thing for you to be my servant

    to restore the tribes of Jacob

    and bring back those of Israel I have kept.

I will also make you a light for the Gentiles,

    that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.”

This is what the Lord says—

    the Redeemer and Holy One of Israel—

to him who was despised and abhorred by the nation,

    to the servant of rulers:

“Kings will see you and stand up,

    princes will see and bow down,

because of the Lord, who is faithful,

    the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.” 

“In the time of my favor I will answer you,

    and in the day of salvation I will help you;

I will keep you and will make you

    to be a covenant for the people,

to restore the land

    and to reassign its desolate inheritances,

 to say to the captives, ‘Come out,’

    and to those in darkness, ‘Be free!’  Isaiah 49:1-9

Words from Corinthians

As servants of God we commend ourselves in every way...by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love; by truthful speech, and the power of God. 2 Corinthians 6:4, 6-7 ESV

The Armor of God

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 

And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. Ephesians 6:10-18