Prayer

Our church is doing a class for new believer's called, "Christian Concepts." Actually many of us are going through it even though we aren't all "new" Christians. It is packed full of really great information.
On Wednesday night the lesson was on prayer. It was basically just a lesson to get you started on praying. I think it is great for everyone to hear so I am going to share it with you.
The first point is that it is good to set aside a certain time each day when you will not be interrupted. Set aside at least 15 minutes at first. Once you get in the habit of this your prayer time is very likely to grow.
There are five basic points for a good prayer time. You can do this on one hand, remembering each thing with one of your fingers if you want.

#1. Worship - Worship can be so many things but basically it is taking time to tell God how great and awesome He is. You can use some of His many names while worshiping Him.
For example, "Father, I worship you, I bless your Holy Name. Thank you for being my comforter, my healer, my Redeemer, etc." You can sing to Him or just tell Him in your own words how much He means to you.
#2. Actually, I almost always do this step first. It's repentance. Repentance actually means "turning away from". During this step you ask God to forgive you of all your sins. If any particular ones come to mind ask for forgiveness for those. Then ask God to help you to stop doing this particular sin and make up your mind to do your best to turn from it. By the way, it is nearly impossible to stop committing a particular sin without the help of God! So ask for help.
#3. Pray for your leaders. This means your president, governors, congressmen, judges, leaders in the schools, etc. It also means your pastor.
#4. Pray for your friends and family.
#5. Pray for yourself.

Then take the time to read at least one chapter of your Bible. Hopefully as you grow in this you will be spending more and more time in prayer and more time in the Word of God.
Some other thoughts on prayer are:
1. Pray the Word of God back to Him. As you learn His promises repeat them back to Him in prayer! The Bible says that God's Word does not return void. When it is spoken out, power goes forth. These are some of the most powerful prayers!
2. It is good and important to set aside a special time to pray each day but don't limit your prayers to this time period. Have a mind set of prayer all day. Constantly thanking Him, asking Him for help, worshipping Him, or praying for a need that you see before you.
3. It is good to keep a notebook with you during prayer time to jot down those things that you remember you have to get done that day. That way you can write it down and get back to focusing on God.
Satan will try to get you distracted in any way he can!
Ok, go for it!

Two World views: Whom will you serve?

1 Corinthians 18-26:

For the message of the cross is foolishness to them who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written:
I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.

Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know Him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength.

There are basically two world views. There is the worldly view and the Biblical view. Very few people truly look at life through God's eyes.
The worldly view says, "look out for yourself, get all you can get, get as much education as you can, get as much wealth as you can, you are only important if you have lots of education and lots of money, do what makes you happy at all costs".
The Biblical world view says, "Follow after God with all your heart, give Him your life, seek in all things to do His will, give your life away to to others, spend your time learning of Him then all things will fall into place".
In the worldly view, education is a god. But isn't it funny that God says the wisdom of this world is foolishness to Him?
Yes education is important to a point. For example, if God has called someone to be a doctor then they need to get the education that is appropriate for being a doctor, if God has called someone to be a missionary then the education they need would be different. What I am saying is each of us should follow God's plan for our lives and not let the world dictate our lives.
God's way is higher. The Biblical world view is the "true" world view. God created the world and everything in it. He is the King of science and mathematics! He created English and the other languages.
We need to examine our thinking! Is all our information coming from the world and the worldly perspective? If so then it is time to put on the mind of Christ! How do we do that? Through His word! We need to spend more time filling our minds with His word (the truth) than we do filling our minds with the world's word! What are you filling your mind with today? Do you spend hours watching t.v. and reading worldly books and only minutes reading your Bible? Ouch, I know! But what we put in is what we will get out! I challenge you to examine your thinking today, and make it a priority to fill your mind with truth.

Lean Not on Your Own Understanding

Proverbs 3:5-7 says:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes: fear the Lord, and depart from evil.

I love this verse because it encourages us to "lean not on our own understanding." It means that we can't always figure everything out but if we trust in God and acknowledge Him in everything then He will direct our footsteps and everything will work out!
Is there something going on in your life that you just don't understand? Well, God is giving you permission to NOT try and figure or reason it out. Just acknowledge Him and let Him take care of it. You may understand clearly later or you may never understand this side of Heaven. But one thing you can be sure of is that God is Good and He is Faithful and He loves you and is working all things together for your good! I love what Joyce Meyer says, "You may not know but it is good enough that you know the One who does know."

God's Favor

Just a little bit to chew on today.

"One moment of God's favor is worth a lifetime of your labor."

Evangelist Mike Brown says this a lot. God really gave me revelation about this statement. I have this statement written and posted all around my house!
Just think about it, what may take us a lifetime of work to accomplish God can do in a moment!
We so often say that we just don't have time for God. But if we take the time for God, then with his anointing, everything we do can be accomplished much easier and faster than without His anointing.
God can give us one idea that could make millions. He can give us organizational strategies that make house cleaning easier and faster. Etc. etc Do you see what I am saying?
Meditate on this today. Let it become a revelation for you! Think about what you have been struggling with, couldn't God's anointing bring it all together in one moment?

Forgiveness

Mark 11:26 says:
And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.

Did you know that verse was in your Bible? If we don't forgive others then God will not forgive us! Wow! That's serious.
God wanted me to write to you today about the importance of forgiveness. It's not always easy to forgive but it is essential. Forgiveness doesn't start with a feeling, it starts with a choice. We choose to forgive, then we choose to give our negative emotions to God. When I forgive someone I say, "Person, I choose to forgive you. You no longer owe me anything." Then I pray to God and tell Him exactly how I feel. I ask Him to take the bitterness and anger and turn it into love. The Word says that God will give us beauty for ashes. So I ask Him to make beauty for my ashes.
Then if the negative feelings come up again I just remind myself that I have already forgiven them.
Another really good and Biblical thing to do is to pray for them and then do something to bless them if possible. This can be really hard to do! But it is amazing how it helps.
So let's walk in forgiveness today! If someone offends us or does us wrong let's immediately begin the process of forgiving them. Also, ask God to bring to your mind anyone that you need to forgive and go through this process with each one.
You can do it!

True Love

Many times, we tend to think of love as a feeling. We say, "I love you" to many different people. Often, we say it just because we have a gushy feeling towards them at the time. But true love is "agape" love, the God kind of love.
Agape love is not a feeling, it is choice with actions following.

1Corinthians 13 is the perfect description of agape love.
All of the chapter is good and vital but I will start with verse 4:
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.

I challenge you this first month of January 2009 to study love. How about we read this section of scripture every day during January and really meditate on each word? For God is love. When you are reading the Bible you can replace the name "God" with the word "love" and you may get some new revelation!
Learning to love is the first and most important lifelong goal of every Christian. And remember we must start with those closest to us!