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Praying the Heart of God

Written by TimMaynard on January 19, 2016. Posted in Pastor Tim's Blog.

God wants us to pray His heart. I don’t think that means just TO His heart. I think He wants our hearts to beat as one with His. I think He wants us to love the things He loves; to care about the people He cares about; to hate the things He hates. He wants our prayers to resonate with His heart.

Pray, “Your kingdom come, Your will be done” Jesus taught us. The thing that most resonated with the Father’s heart is the Kingdom coming in power. “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 3:1) . When we pray for God’s kingdom to be realized on earth as it is in Heaven, we are praying the Father’s heart.

Pray for the harvest. Jesus said, “Pray the Lord of the harvest to thrust forth laborers into His harvest.” We pray the Father’s heart when we pray for workers to be sent out, to help the last days harvest that is now ripe and ready.

Pray for the hurting. Jesus looked with compassion on the people of Israel as “sheep without a shepherd.” (Matthew 9:36) Whenever we pray for the hurting, the lost, the broken, we have prayed the Father’s heart.

Pray for reconciliation to come. It is our Father’s heart that we find a way to healing in our relationships. Many have been wounded and hurt unjustly by others. While forgiveness in such cases is commanded, reconciliation is desired but not mandated. If you can find your way to reconciliation, however, it is pleasing to the Father’s heart.

You get the focus of this. When we pray things that don’t occupy a place in the Father’s heart, our prayers are dry and powerless . But when we pray His heart, I believe God “leans in” to hear us and delights to respond as we walk with Him and share that which is on His heart.

How do we find out what the Father’s heart it? He has shown us in His Word. We do the things He taught us, we pray for the things Jesus prayed for (see John 17) and then it is the Father’s delight to answer. We need to pray, believing we are praying the Father’s will and not seeking to impose ours on Him.

At the end of it all, prayer is about fellowship and communion with God. We become one heart with Him, and one voice crying out together. We are One. And ultimately our hearts, desires, and wants, needs and aspirations, are aligned with His.

And then REAL praying can begin!

“I would that all men everywhere lift up holy hands in prayer, without quarreling or anger.” (1 Tim2:8)

FOR REFLECTION: The next time you pray, pause for a moment to consider AM I PRAYING THE FATHER’S HEART OR MY OWN?

Are You a Praying Parent?

Written by Melissa Goodman on January 18, 2016. Posted in Uncategorized.

Lamentations 2:19 says, “Pour out your hearts like water before the presence of the Lord! Lift your hands to him for the lives of your children”

Parenting can be a scary venture and we feel overwhelmed at times. There is advice and instructions coming at us from all directions. Some of us had great parenting role models while others did not. No matter what your experience was or is, there is good news: We do not have to parent alone! As believers we have our Heavenly Father to help us through the journey.

In Stormie Omartian’s book, The Power of A Praying Parent, she reassures us that: “We don’t have to be tossed and turned by the winds of change. Our children’s lives don’t ever have to be left to chance. We don’t have to live in fear of what each new phase of development may bring, what dangers might be lurking behind every corner. Nor do we have to be perfect parents. The key is not trying to do it by ourselves, but rather turning to the expert parent of all time – our Father God – for help.”

I believe that it is important to pray for our children and for our children to know that we pray for them regularly. When our children know that we pray for them, they will gain the assurance that we care about them, they feel that they are important to us as well as important to God.

In my own life I have experienced the many benefits of praying for my own children along with the joy and honor of praying with other parents. At some point I came to realize that if God gave me children to raise, it was my responsibility and privilege to come to Him often on their behalf. By joining with other parents to pray for our children we were able to share all the joys of answered prayers and growth in each of our prayer lives. We were also able to support one another through difficult times when we may not know what to pray or may not be able to pray ourselves. I highly encourage everyone to have an army of prayer warriors.

You can start right now. It is never too early and never too late. Every aspect of our children’s lives should be prayed over. Nothing is too trivial nor too big to be lifted in prayer to our God. He cares about even the smallest of our concerns.

Bless Your Heart

Written by Guest Fruit Cove on January 17, 2016. Posted in Uncategorized.

For many of the last few years of her life, my grandmother lived with her children. A couple of times each year, we hosted her in our home for three to four months at a time as her health and mental abilities gradually declined. As a highschooler and later college student, I reflect back on the experience now and realize how much I took those opportunities for granted.

She played the piano. Her hymnal and her Bible traveled with her from house to house as she moved. I remember hearing her struggle with tempo and accuracy, but each song was recognizable. Her hymnal, dog-eared and filled with hand-written annotations, is in my office.

Grandmother rocked… in a rocking chair in the living room beside the “pi’tur winder” where she read her Bible, sang to herself and watched the world go by. The wild- and plant-life outside fascinated her.

And, of course, she prayed. For her children, her grandchildren, her pastor and her friends. For hours. Sometimes, I thought she was asleep, but her lips were moving.

She did not like my mustache. Several times, she would try to buy it from me. “I’ll give you a dollar if you’ll shave that thing,” she said. My response was most always the same: “Grandmother, it wouldn’t look good on you.”

She also thought I was “too busy.” As I would walk out the door, having asked where I was off to, she would smile, shake her head and say, “well, bless your heart.” Teasingly, I would pause and reply, “don’t stop with just my heart.”

I know now, that in some awkward, teenage way, I was asking her to fit me with what Paul described as the “full armor of God” so that I would be covered and prepared for the battle to be faced each day.

We are still at war. Each and every day, we need to prepare for the spiritual battles we face. Begin each day with a song, the Word, a prayer and then dress for battle with truth, righteousness, the gospel, faith and salvation.

Finally, be strengthened by the Lord and by His vast strength. Put on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the tactics of the Devil. For our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world powers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens.

This is why you must take up the full armor of God, so that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having prepared everything, to take your stand. Stand, therefore,with truth like a belt around your waist, righteousness like armor on your chest, and your feet sandaled with readiness for the gospel of peace.

In every situation take the shield of faith, and with it you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.

Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is God’s word.

Pray at all times in the Spirit with every prayer and request, and stay alert in this with all perseverance and intercession for all the saints.

Ephesians 6:10-18 (HCSB)

Bless your heart – and soul, mind and strength as you grow closer to Him today.

PRAY WITH FAITH

Written by TimMaynard on January 16, 2016. Posted in Pastor Tim's Blog.

And I said, “O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, 6 let your ear be attentive and your eyes open, to hear the prayer of your servant that I now pray before you day and night for the people of Israel your servants, confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against you. Even I and my father’s house have sinned. 7 We have acted very corruptly against you and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, and the rules that you commanded your servant Moses. 8 Remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples, 9 but if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there I will gather them and bring them to the place that I have chosen, to make my name dwell there.’ 10 They are your servants and your people, whom you have redeemed by your great power and by your strong hand. 11 O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servants who delight to fear your name, and give success to your servant today, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.” (Nehemiah 1:5-11)

“Faith is believing what you know ain’t so!” So a young boy replied in Sunday School one day when asked how to define faith. Do you pray in faith? When you pray, AS you pray, do you really believe God is hearing you… that God is inclining His ear to you… that He is turning His face toward you in favor? When you ask, in prayer, for God to do something amazing, something even miraculous, do you do so as though He is really going to respond to you in this way? How much faith do we act in as we pray?

Few prayers are found in the Bible that were prayed with more faith than the prayer in Nehemiah 1:5-11. In that prayer are four powerful ways to pray in faith… believing what IS so:

Pray persistently. The fact that God did not immediately answer Nehemiah’s prayer (he prayed this prayer for four months!) built Nehemiah’s faith. He was about to undertake an incredibly difficult role… he needed great faith to accomplish it. Sometimes God delays, not to be cruel or capricious, but to strengthen our faith and resolve as we continue to pray.
Pray with purity. Nehemiah not only was persistent in his prayer, but he prayed with purity. He confessed his sins and the sins of his people before the Lord. We need to pray with purity as we pray.
Pray the promises of God. Nehemiah not only prayed reminding God of Who He was, but He prayed reminding God of he promises He had made… even promises He had made to Moses in days past!
Pray particularly. We need to pray specifically when and when God answers the prayer we will know it’s His answer because the ask was so detailed. Nehemiah prayed for success and favor as he approached the king. Your prayer may need to be far more specific than it is. It takes little faith to pray generally, but much faith to pray in specifics. Be bold enough, by faith, to ask God to do what only HE can do for you. And then, taking Him at His Word, relying on His character, asking with purity in our lives and praying persistently, we can see God do great and glorious things through our life!

FOR REFLECTION: Think about the prayer you prayed or will pray today. How specific is it? What are you really asking God to do?

Wait on The Lord

Written by TimMaynard on January 15, 2016. Posted in Pastor Tim's Blog.

No one likes to wait. At least, no one I know. Few of us fight to get in the longest lines at the grocery, or gravitate toward the slowest moving lane of traffic. We don’t like to wait. By the way, if waiting really frustrates you, the quickest lines in the world are found in Sweden. Average wait time: 4.4 minutes. Just saying.

But really waiting frustrates us all. There is something inside us that’s always on, that needs to move to the next thing, that hates the idea of standing or sitting doing nothing. We are in a hurry. To do… what?

Whether we are waiting for a repairman to come for an appointment or a doctor’s office to call back regarding a medical test or waiting for your cup of coffee at Starbucks we want what we want… now.

That happens in our prayer life too. We don’t want to wait on the Lord. We’ve prayed. We’ve done our part. Why doesn’t He respond more quickly? H.B Charles in a little booklet on prayer told about a lady who had gone to a favorite produce stand to buy some grapes. There were several people in line in front of her, and the man who owned the stand moved them through rather quickly. But when she got to the counter to order her grapes, the man disappeared into a back storeroom.

After he had been gone for several minutes, the lady was fuming! She was a loyal customer… she wouldn’t go anywhere else for her produce but to him. How could he treat her like this?? She waited and fumed, and finally he reappeared and laid some of the most beautiful grapes on the counter she had ever seen!

“I’m sorry to keep you waiting,” he apologized, “but I had set these aside just for you when they came in this morning. I had to put them somewhere special where they wouldn’t get sold to just anybody!”

Sometimes God makes us wait. Nobody volunteers for it and few of us have any choice about it. But what we can choose is our attitude while we wait. Do we wait trusting… or fuming? Could it be that, as we wait, God is preparing His very best to give to us if we will just wait on the Lord?

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“Those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength….” (Isaiah 40:31)

FOR REFLECTION: The next time you find yourself waiting for something, thank God for what He is preparing for you and in you.

Praying the Names of God

Written by Guest Fruit Cove on January 14, 2016. Posted in Equip The Church, Uncategorized.

Post written by Linda Warne

From Genesis to Revelation, God has chosen to reveal His character and nature through His many names. Whether Elohim, Yahweh, Abba, or Bridegroom, Advocate or Comforter…

God invites us to approach and enter the throne room of the Almighty, where we can experience through prayer the presence of our Father, God.

As a young believer, I learned to pray the names of God as a part of my personal worship time. It wasn’t long before I realized that not only was my prayer time greatly impacted by knowing Him by His many names, but I was being changed. It was impossible to spend time in His Presence and not come away conformed & transformed to be more like Him. As I prayed using the names of God, I found myself becoming less concerned with my own needs as I became surrounded by His power and majesty and experienced His faithfulness. I came to know an intimacy with God that made me long to be in His Presence, to discover at new depths who He was and who I was in Christ.

To this day, I pray the names of God, realizing that there are days I need Him to be my Prince of Peace, to calm my spirit and keep me focused. Sometimes I ask Him to be my Shepherd, to guide me and protect me. He is always my Advocate and Helper, dwelling within me and keeping me close. He is the Lord who Heals, My Rock, the God who Sees me, the Lord my Righteousness, my Shield, my Refuge, my Hiding Place and so much more.

1 Corinthians 13:12 (TLB)

In the same way, we can see and understand only a little about God now,

as if we were peering at his reflection in a poor mirror;

but someday we are going to see him in his completeness, face-to-face.

Now all that I know is hazy and blurred,

but then I will see everything clearly, just as clearly as God sees into my heart right now.

A Spiritual Marker

Written by Ginna Ashby on January 13, 2016. Posted in Equip The Church.

In Experiencing God, Henry Blackaby writes about spiritual markers. He says “a spiritual marker identifies a time of transition, decision, or direction when I clearly know that God has guided me.” My first big spiritual maker happened in the summer of my eleventh year while I attended church camp. The theme for the camp was on prayer. My counselor, Aunt Peggy (all the counselors were called aunts or uncles) lead daily devotions on prayer and our relationship with God. It was there in that primitive camp cabin that I learned that I can have a personal relationship with God and Jesus and that relationship is strengthened through prayer.

Up until that camp, my prayers mainly consisted of a recited mealtime blessing and a bedtime prayer of asking God to bless my parents, my sisters, my grandparents, my aunts, my uncles, and a boatload of cousins. After camp, I realized I could talk to God about anything! I had two sisters, and I had always wanted a baby brother. So beginning at camp, I prayed for a baby brother. Philippians 4:6 had become real to me as I let my requests be known to God.

After coming home from camp, I announced to my parents that I was praying for a baby brother. My parents said, “That may not happen,” but I kept on praying for a baby brother. Eight weeks later my parents announced that my mom was going to have a baby, but it would probably be another girl. On February 23, 1966, my baby brother was born. When Daddy told me mom had a boy, I said, “Of course. God heard my prayer and answered me.” What a powerful lesson God taught me that year!

Prayer Driven Ministry

Written by TimMaynard on January 12, 2016. Posted in Pastor Tim's Blog.

Ronald Dunn wrote, “The Book of Acts is filled with prayer meetings; every forward thrust the first church made was immersed with prayer.

Take another look at the church at Pentecost. They prayed ten days and preached ten minutes and three thousand souls were saved. Today we pray ten minutes and preach ten days and are ecstatic if anyone is saved.” His words, though cutting, are true. I wonder if the barrier between the church today and God-sent revival is not an enemy who wishes to keep us in the darkness of sin, but a neglectful church that does not want to do the hard work of intercessory prayer?

I’m afraid we have become prayer-phobic. We are afraid of what might be required of us if we truly pray. We are afraid of what it might cost us if we are awakened in the middle of the night and are called to pray for a missionary couple in a Muslim country. We are afraid of what it might mean to our comfort zone and our predictable religious experience.

In your life, personally, how have you advanced in prayers in recent days or months? Would you say your prayer life is much the same as it was… or worse than a year ago? We are losing the culture around us, not because we lack churches, or sermons, or Christian music. We are losing the culture around us because we have lost our desire, our focus, our willingness to pray.

In an old booklet entitled “The Warfare of Prayer,” Brother Andrew wrote “God invites us to influence our community, our nation, and the world…to literally impact history while we’re on our knees.” I wonder, sometimes, if we truly believe we can do that. Often our prayers become automatic, rote statements of things we may or may not believe. They become “vain repetitions,” according to Jesus, that really don’t reach the heart of God. I have often said if our prayer life bores us, it probably bores God too!

I wonder what would happen in a community…in OUR community….if one church woke up to the potential, the power, the possibility of prayer?

How would life around us change… homes would be healed, children delivered from abuse, families reconciled, crime reduced, the lost saved… as darkness is pushed back by the prayers of God’s people?

“Every forward thrust the first church made was accompanied by a movement of prayer.” And why would we not believe the same is possible…

… today?

“The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” (James 5:16b)

FOR REFLECTION: How could your prayers today bring change in the community and culture around you? What are you asking God to do toward that end?

Got Fruit?

Written by Brian Woofter on January 11, 2016. Posted in Equip The Church.

For many people it is a very hectic season of life right now. Christmas breaks have just ended for students and families are once again juggling the busy schedule between working all day and juggling multiple family schedules. I know because I have been there! With all this being said it makes me wonder…?

The Question:
With our busy lives, I wonder what type of fruit are we producing? Also, what kind of vine are you drawing nutrients from?

Read the passage below…

John 15:1-8
GOD’S WORD Translation (GW)

Jesus, the True Vine
1 Then Jesus said, “I am the true vine, and my Father takes care of the vineyard. 2 He removes every one of my branches that doesn’t produce fruit. He also prunes every branch that does produce fruit to make it produce more fruit. 3 “You are already clean because of what I have told you. 4 Live in me, and I will live in you. A branch cannot produce any fruit by itself. It has to stay attached to the vine. In the same way, you cannot produce fruit unless you live in me. 5 “I am the vine. You are the branches. Those who live in me while I live in them will produce a lot of fruit. But you can’t produce anything without me. 6 Whoever doesn’t live in me is thrown away like a branch and dries up. Branches like this are gathered, thrown into a fire, and burned. 7 If you live in me and what I say lives in you, then ask for anything you want, and it will be yours. 8 You give glory to my Father when you produce a lot of fruit and therefore show that you are my disciples.