Praise God for the wonders of life He bestows on us. I’m in a truly reflective mode today. I’m going to share a little snapshot of things that have happened in my life over the last few years. First we will pray.
Today’s Prayer
Dear Heavenly Father, I come before you this day standing in the gap for my brothers and sisters in Christ to ask that You forgive us for passing hurriedly over “forgive us our sins,” while cheerfully thinking, “I have not committed murder, or stolen, or cheated on my income tax, etc.” Remind us that for a “growing Christian”, worry, doubt, fear, ill temper, despondency, impatience, selfishness, insensitivity, and lack of love are “sins,” in that they separate us from You. Help us turn to You in order to receive the insight and strength that we need to walk as Jesus walked. Help us call upon the name of Jesus that we may be saved from our sins. It’s in His wonderful name we present this and all things, Amen and Amen.
Let’s eat.
Shine Brightly for Christ
Ephesians 2:12-18 –
12 Dear friends, you always followed my instructions when I was with you. And now that I am away, it is even more important. Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear. 13 For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him. 14 Do everything without complaining and arguing, 15 so that no one can criticize you. Live clean, innocent lives as children of God, shining like bright lights in a world full of crooked and perverse people. 16 Hold firmly to the word of life; then, on the day of Christ’s return, I will be proud that I did not run the race in vain and that my work was not useless. 17 But I will rejoice even if I lose my life, pouring it out like a liquid offering to God, just like your faithful service is an offering to God. And I want all of you to share that joy. 18 Yes, you should rejoice, and I will share your joy.
The scripture above really jumped into my spirit to remind me of a serious situation I had to deal with years ago. As a lot of you may remember, my wife had back surgery on 01/12/15 and as I sat in the surgery waiting room I heard in my spirit “your ministry is 24/7/365 so get to work.” I lifted my head from prayer and there were 4 groups of people sitting and waiting on information from their individual doctors on the result of their love ones surgery.
One particular family was sitting in the same section of the waiting room as me. I spoke to them and asked if I could pray with them for their love one and they said yes; complete strangers. After prayer they proceeded to share some of their life story starting with the fact that their 15 year old daughter was having hip replacement because of a fall. They also shared that they she had to change high schools because she was being mentally bullied by some former friends. We spent the better part of 2 hours talking about the new school she was in and how important being centered on Jesus is for us all. We then noticed that others had come into our section of the room and were listening and sharing about Christ. I gave them all my contact information and over a five day period, I spent time speaking with them as we saw each other in the Hospital break rooms and hallways.
The bottom line is this; we all had love ones who were going through painful surgery and other painful situations. They were going to need our love and support. We also had our faith in Jesus in common to lean on.
I came to this conclusion; Love and ministry don’t take a day off no matter how tense your situation may be so put in the work people!
QUOTE OF THE DAY
You have trusted Him in a few things, and He has not failed you. Trust Him now for everything, and see if He does not do for you exceeding abundantly above all that you could ever have asked or thought, not according to your power or capacity, but according to His own mighty power, that will work in you all the good pleasure of His most blessed will. You find no difficulty in trusting the Lord with the management of the universe and all the outward creation, and can your case be any more complex or difficult than these, that you need to be anxious or troubled about His management of it?~Hannah Whitall Smith~
WITH HOPE AND FAITH
REV. ELDER G E STERRETT
FOUNDER
GCKRS HELPING HAND FOUNDATION – THE RELATIONSHIP FACTORY