Good day to ya everyone. I am compelled by the Holy Spirit to send out a heart felt prayer for all of you and your families this morning so I will be obedient to the leading.
Today’s Prayer
Father, I stand in the gap for all of my brothers and sisters in Christ as I profess that every person who is sharing in this time devoted to You has loved ones who don’t know You. I pray for them and their loved ones, as well as my own loved ones, who need You. I pray that You will work in the lives and circumstances of those who are lost. I pray that the Holy Spirit will prick their hearts and draw them to You. I pray that believers will behave as they should and will be a witness to them. I pray that You will lift up the poor, the backslidden, the rich and lonely, the addict, the every-day person who just doesn’t see their need for a Savior. I pray for anyone and everyone who doesn’t yet know You, that opportunities will come to them to change their lives, to give themselves to You, to repent and be saved and serving You. Bless the prayers of family and friends, reach down and out to these lost souls. Save them I pray, in the name of Jesus, Amen.
Let’s eat.
Be as Little Children
How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! – 1 John 3:1.
Over the years my wife and I have discussed the fact that I don’t use an alarm clock to wake myself on any given day and have not used one for years. I explained to her that I left that to God. Now I know that there is someone thinking that God doesn’t deal with such trivial things but I beg to differ with that train of thought. We were discussing this because she had to be at work earlier than usual and wanted to be sure to set her alarm for a much earlier time. I said “Oh, that won’t be necessary. Just tell the Lord what time you want to wake up. He does it for me all the time”. She said that she would feel more comfortable if we set the alarm. So I said to her “Okay, ye of little faith. But just to prove my point I am going to ask the Lord to wake us up just before 5:30.”
The next morning I awoke before the alarm went off. I looked at the clock. It read 5:15. I looked at my wife, who had just awakened at the same time with an I-told-you-so smile on my face.
Sometimes we wrongfully view God as someone we go to for only the “big things.” The idea of “bothering God” for such a trivial matter seems foolish and presumptuous. However, when you were a child and had to get up in the morning for school, didn’t your mother or father come wake you up? They are your parents, and you could come to them with the most trivial concerns or requests. Why would our heavenly Father be any less approachable? Maybe our problem is that we simply haven’t developed a level of intimacy with God so that we feel the freedom to approach Him at these daily, routine levels. We often operate with an unwritten code that says our needs must have a certain degree of importance or crisis before we come to God with them. This isn’t God’s character towards us.
Does the Lord desire this level of intimacy with you and me?
The apostle Paul exhorted us to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17) . There is never a caution to pray only about matters of greater importance.
Today, go to God with matters that you might view as trivial and would normally avoid bringing to Him. Ask Him to increase your level of intimacy with Him. You may even be able to get rid of your alarm clock.
Quote of the Day
In some ways, it’s those of us who are most familiar with the Spirit’s promises who are in the greatest danger. Someone has said that familiarity may not breed contempt, but it takes the edge off of awe. Something like this is true about the rich texts and glory-filled promises that drop the jaws or widen the eyes of newcomers but provoke no more than a raised eyebrow in the old-timers who have ceased to dream.
Jim McGuiggan
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REV. ELDER G E STERRETT
FOUNDER
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James H. Taylor Sr. – Kankakee City News has published my Daily meal message for a decade.