Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “Effective prayer”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who rely on horses, who trust in the multitude of their chariots and in the great strength of their horsemen, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel, or seek help from the Lord.” Isaiah 31:1 (NIV)

 

Our thought for today: “Our help comes from the Lord.”

 

In Isaiah 31:1 the prophet was warning his readers to avoid the mistake so many other Jews had made down throughout the history of God’s people and that is, looking to the world for solutions to their problems. As a nation, the leaders and the people had often turned to powerful allies for protection. At other times we read of individuals such as King Saul who did things like going to the witch of Endor for wisdom and advice rather than seeking it from God.

 

In the case we’re reading about here in Isaiah, Isaiah was warning the people not to look to their powerful neighbor Egypt for physical protection instead of trusting in the protection and provision of God.

 

As we read this it seems like a no-brainer. Of course those people in the Bible should have been looking to God for protection, provision, and counsel rather than to powerful neighbors, or to worldly wealth, or to military arms, or to the wisdom of the world. They knew better than to rely on such things rather than on God. But aren’t we guilty of doing the same thing?

 

Granted, often God will use other people or the resources of this world to achieve His purposes in our lives, but do we look directly to them or to God? Sometimes our deliverance from a dangerous situation will come from a Police Officer responding to an emergency call; or the healing will come through the skilled care of a medical doctor; or the financial relief will come from a generous friend; but who is the true source of those blessings and who do we look to first, to them or to God?

 

If we are going to be truly effective pray-ers, we must come to God in prayer with the understanding that He is our Protector, our Provider, and our Counselor. He is the source of every good blessing. It all comes from Him and it all begins with Him.

 

In the rest of Isaiah chapter 31 the prophet goes on to assure his readers that anything the world could do for them, God can do better. God’s protection is more complete, His provisions are more abundant, His blessings more amazing, and His victory more certain.

 

That was true for them and it’s equally true for us. Anything the world can do for you, God can do better.

 

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “Effective prayer”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, whose thoughts are fixed on you! Trust in the Lord always, for the Lord God is the eternal Rock.” Isaiah 26:3-4 (NLT)

 

Our thought for today: “In the midst of the storm stay focused on Jesus.”

 

When it comes to dealing with difficult situations, especially difficult situations that seem to go on for a long time, Isaiah 26:3 is some of the best advice the Bible gives us. Fix your thoughts on Him (that’s prayer), and He will help you to remain calm and peaceful. Why is that? Because He is the Rock upon which we can take our stand when the storms of life are raging. He is the One we can trust in when everyone else and everything else seems to be uncertain.

 

The writer of the letter to the Hebrews echoed this great spiritual truth in Hebrews 12:1-2 when he wrote, “Let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from start to finish.”

 

Commenting on Isaiah 26:3-4 the editors of “The Leadership Bible” observed: “This is the ultimate advice for stress management. Regardless of the storm swirling around the leader’s head, this internal conviction (of keeping our thoughts fixed on Jesus) becomes a haven for those who hold firmly to it.”

 

That reference to “the storm swirling” made me think of Peter in Matthew chapter 14. Peter and the other disciples were in a boat on the Sea of Galilee. A storm was raging around them and they were scared. Suddenly Peter sees Jesus walking on the water towards them. Peter was so eager to be with Jesus that he called out and asked Jesus to empower him to walk on the water to get to Him faster. Jesus said ok and invited Peter to do it. When Peter got out of the boat and began to walk on the water towards Jesus he was fine – as long as he had his eyes on Jesus he walked on the water and didn’t sink. But as soon as he shifted his focus off of the Lord and onto the storm, he began to sink.
The storm was the problem, Jesus was the solution. As long as Peter was focused on the solution rather than the problem he was ok. It was when he shifted his attention to the problem that he lost sight of the solution.

 

That’s true for us too and it’s exactly the point both Isaiah and the writer of Hebrews was making. In the midst of the storm it’s important to keep our eyes and our thoughts fixed on Jesus. Jesus is not only our source of strength and stability and peace, but He is the solution to whatever problem we’re dealing with. It’s essential that we stay focused on the solution rather than on the problem.

 

When it comes to effective praying one of the most helpful things we can do is to just stay focused on Jesus.

 

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “Effective prayer”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “O Lord, hear my prayer, listen to my cry for mercy; in your faithfulness and righteousness come to my relief.” Psalm 143:1 (NIV)

 

Our thought for today: “Sometimes the best prayer is a simple cry from the heart.”

 

Not all prayer needs to be structured and strategic. Sometimes the best prayer can be a simple spontaneous cry from the heart. It just pops out without much thought or preparation and comes from some deep place within us. As John Eldredge notes in his book “Moving Mountains”, “Some prayers just happen; they are a cry from the heart … It’s a beautiful expression of prayer, rising from the deep places in us, often unbidden, always welcome to His loving ears.”

 

A cry from the heart can take many forms. As an accident is in the process of unfolding, without even thinking, you cry out “Jesus save me.”  Or you have just received bad news about a loved one with a life-threatening illness and with no thought or preparation you’re on your knees pouring your heart out to the Lord about it.

 

But not all cries of the heart are cries of despair. A cry of the heart can also be joyful. I was hiking on the Appalachian Trail in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee just last week when I came around a bend and saw a view that took my breath away. My first thought was “Lord, you are awesome! What a beautiful world you have created.” It was a simple and spontaneous prayer of joy and worship that just popped out.

 

Another form of spontaneous prayer was made famous almost 75 years ago by that great prayer warrior and author Frank Laubauch. Frank developed the habit of “shooting” prayers at people as he walked down the street. As someone was approaching him from the other direction Frank would glance at them, attempt to quickly get a sense of a need they might have based upon their appearance and probable situation, and then he would “shoot” a prayer at them. He reported occasion after occasion when the recipient of the prayer would have an observable physical reaction, as if they actually felt the impact of the prayer.

 

A simple, spontaneous, “cry of the heart” prayer can be a very effective means of praying because it comes from your heart instead of your head. And the more your heart is in-tune with God, the more “cry of the heart” prayers that will be popping out of you. Jesus said in Matthew 12:34, “For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.”

 

So cultivate a heart that is in-tune with God; then let those prayers come popping out.

 

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

 

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “Effective prayer”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my concerns. See if there is any offensive way in me; lead me in the everlasting way.” Psalm 139:23-24 (HCSB)

 

Our thought for today: “Effective prayer must include confession of sin.”

 

Nothing will hinder our prayers more than unconfessed sin. The Old Testament prophet Isaiah explained this truth to the Jews in blunt, stark terms in Isaiah 59:2, “But your iniquities have built barriers between you and your God, and your sins have made Him hide His face from you so that He does not listen.”

 

Wow! Unconfessed sin creates a barrier, a wall, between us and God. Unconfessed sin causes God to turn His face from us and refuse to listen. That’s what Isaiah teaches here, and this is not an isolated verse. It’s a truth that’s taught numerous times in the Bible.

 

The good news is that God wants to hear our prayers and answer them, and He is prepared to forgive our sins if we will just confess them, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say, “We don’t have any sin” we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.” 1 John 1:9-10

 

Confession of sin is an essential starting place for effective prayer. The sin issue has to be dealt with first, or there is no effective communication with God because those unconfessed sins create a barrier between us and God. That’s why the Psalms are filled with cries of confession and repentance. In Psalm 139:23-24 David actually invited God to search him in the deepest part of his heart, “Search me, God, and know my heart …”

 

I sometimes use the acronym “ACTS” to help guide my own times of prayer:

 

A = Adoration. I begin by thinking about who God is and what He is like. I acknowledge His majesty and His sovereignty, but I also worship Him for his goodness, His mercy, and His grace.

 

C = Confession. Then I pray David’s prayer from Psalm 139:23-24. I ask the Holy Spirit to search me and reveal to me any unconfessed sin so that I can confess it and be done with it.

 

T = Thanksgiving. Once I have reestablished in my own mind who God is and I have settled into a spirit of worship, and once I have confessed my sins, I then proceed into a time of thanking God for all He has already done in my life.

 

S = Supplication. It’s only then that I’m ready to present new requests to Him. But none of this would be possible, or at least not effective, without confession.

 

Confession clears away the barriers that hinder our relationship with God and it’s only then that we are prepared to engage in effective praying.

 

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

 

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “Effective prayer”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “Don’t be afraid, Daniel,” he said to me, “for from the first day that you purposed to understand and to humble yourself before your God, your prayers were heard. I have come because of your prayers. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia opposed me for 21 days.” Daniel 10:12-13 (HCSB)

 

Our thought for today: “The battle must be fought and won before the prayer can be answered.”

 

Daniel had a problem. He was faced with a difficult situation that he did not understand and he had no idea what he was supposed to do about it. So he did the right thing, he prayed to God and asked for understanding and clarification. But understanding didn’t come. So Daniel kept praying. Not for an hour, and not for a day, and not even just for a couple of days. He prayed and fasted and waited for three weeks. (As we’ve already learned from the example of Elijah, effective prayer is often hard work and it takes time.)

 

Finally, after three weeks of praying and fasting and waiting, an angel appeared and gave Daniel the answer he had been waiting for. And we read in Daniel 10:12-13 that the Lord had dispatched the angel to deliver the answer to Daniel on the very first day he started his prayers, but Satan opposed the delivery of that answer. As a result there was a battle that had to be fought and won in the spiritual realm before the answer could be received and experienced in the physical realm.

 

This is the very lesson we learned from Paul yesterday in Ephesians 6:10-20. There is a spiritual battle raging, you and I are in it whether we want to be or not, and the battle has to be won in the spiritual realm first before the effects of it can be experienced in the physical realm. The continued, persistent, effective prayers of God’s people are a key element in winning the battle.

 

Thank God Daniel didn’t give-up and stop praying. If he had, there’s a good chance the battle would not have been won and the answer would not have come! And that is the lesson here for us. I can’t help but wonder how many battles were on the verge of being won, and would have been won, if I had just kept praying.

 

If we go back to yesterday’s lesson in Ephesians chapter six again, we read in verse 13 Paul says, “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.”

 

“Take your stand.” The implication is that you plant your feet and you refuse to be moved. You are steadfast and determined. You won’t budge and you won’t give-up. That’s the way Daniel approached his prayer and as a result, the battle was won and the answer came.

 

The battle must be fought and won in the spiritual realm before the answer can be experienced in the physical realm. So put on your armor, take your stand, pray, and don’t stop praying until the answer comes.

 

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “Effective prayer”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “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.” Ephesians 6:10-11 (HCSB)

 

Our thought for today: “There is a battle, you are in it, and prayer prepares you for it.”

 

As I explained yesterday, in Ephesians chapter six the Apostle Paul makes it crystal clear that there is a battle raging in the spiritual realm and you and I are part of it – and that’s true whether we want to be part of it or not. Events in the physical realm are directly linked to the battle taking place in the spiritual realm, and the battle in the spiritual realm is heavily influenced by activities in the physical realm. The battle is especially influenced by the prayers of God’s people.

 

In Ephesians 6:10 Paul instructs us to be strengthened by the Lord and by His vast strength, thereby making it clear that not only can we be strengthened by the Lord in preparation for this battle, but we are expected to be and we need to be.

 

Then in 6:11 he tells us how to be strengthened and prepared – by putting on the full armor of God. If we do it, we will then be able to stand strong and courageously against the Devil and his schemes. And the implicit understanding here is that if we do not put on the armor of God as Paul is about to explain, then we will not be strengthened and prepared to stand against the devil and his schemes.

 

In verses 12 and 13 he forcefully drives home the truth that our real battle is against evil forces in the spiritual realm and this is why it is absolutely essential for us to take the time to put on the full armor of God, it is so that we will not be overwhelmed and defeated by Satan and his evil forces.

 

In verses 14-17 he describes six pieces of spiritual armor the Lord provides us with for our defense against Satan, and also one offensive weapon to be used by us to actually take the battle to the evil one. Then, once the subject has been fully covered, in verses 18-20 Paul urges us to use the defensive armor and our offensive weapon and to pray, to pray hard.

 

This subject of spiritual warfare and the armor of God is too important to treat lightly or to address superficially. Therefore these brief devotional messages are not a suitable forum for dealing with it. The subject requires a more thorough treatment than I can provide here in a single page. Therefore I want to ask you to commit and extra 15-20 minutes sometime today to look at an expanded teaching on this subject. If you have a copy of my book “Walking with Paul”, you will find that expanded teaching in chapter fourteen. If you don’t have a copy of that book then please go to my website at www.JimMersereauBooks.com, click on “Free articles” and select the article “The Armor of God”. You can read it and download it for free.

 

Folks, this subject right here is the crux of the issue. Paul’s teaching about spiritual warfare and the armor of God here in Ephesians 6:10-20 is the most important lesson you will ever learn regarding effective prayer. If you get this, you will be an effective pray-er. If you don’t get this lesson, your prayers will always be minimally effective at best.

 

Please take the time to study this subject further. Nothing else you could spend that extra 15-20 minutes on could possibly be more important.

 

God Bless,
Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “Effective prayer”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “For our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against authorities, against the world powers of darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens.” Ephesians 6:12 (HCSB)

 

Our thought for today: “You are in a battle and prayer is one of your weapons.”

 

The Bible is clear that there is a great battle raging in the spiritual realm for the hearts and souls of men and women, boys and girls. Behind the veil that separates the physical realm from the spiritual realm the forces of good and evil, light and darkness, are at war. Also, there is a direct link between the two realms. What happens in the spiritual realm impacts and influences what happens in the physical realm, and vice-versa.

 

That means that you and I are involved in a war – a spiritual war that is linked to and impacts life in the physical world. That was Paul’s point in Ephesians 6:12. In the rest of that passage Paul describes resources the Lord provides for us and strategies we are to use as we engage in the spiritual warfare. We’ll take a look at that tomorrow. Today we just want to get the point that there is a war going on and we’re in it.

 

That understanding should impact how we pray. The role of prayer in this war is crucial. For one thing, as has already been discussed, when we come to God in prayer He will often clarify our thinking and help us to see things as they truly are. That’s important. Satan is a master deceiver. Therefore things we encounter in day-to-day life are often actually different than they appear at first. In prayer God can help us see through the fog of deception.

 

But also in prayer God will often help us to see the way forward and what steps to take next. Again this is important. In this battle Satan would like to keep us confused and misdirected. God can and does use our times of prayer to strategize with us and help us to understand His plan for dealing with our current situation.

 

In prayer we also get outfitted for the fight. It’s in prayer that we put on the defensive armament that Paul describes in this passage of Ephesians six and which we’ll talk about tomorrow. That armor protects us as we engage the enemy. It’s also in prayer that we take-up the offensive weapons Paul will teach us about in Ephesians six and which enable us to take the battle to the enemy.

 

Finally, prayer itself can be a weapon in our arsenal. We can and should use our prayers as a means of striking the enemy, actually beating him back and recapturing ground previously held by him.

 

If this is how we think about prayer then it changes everything. No more kiddie prayers like “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep …” No sir! This is war. This is serious stuff. Prayer prepares us for the battle and prayer often is the battle.

 

How we think about prayer determines how we actually pray. We’ll spend more time with Paul’s instructions about this in Ephesians chapter six tomorrow.

 

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “Effective Prayer”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “Brothers, stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be adults.” 1 Corinthians 14:20 (NIV)

 

Our thought for today: “God wants us to grow-up”

 

Up to this point in our consideration of effective prayer I’ve been writing mostly about how we need to think about prayer. This is important because how we think about prayer will determine how we actually pray. Therefore I have pointed out that first of all, the Bible repeatedly calls us to pray. It is something God wants us to do a lot of. I’ve also noted that the best prayer is hard work. It takes time, effort, and concentration. And yesterday we thought about how it is that God uses our prayers to adjust our perspective and attitude about things.

 

Later this week we will begin to think about specific strategies for effective praying but before we get there, there are two additional points that need to be made regarding our thinking about prayer. We’ll look at one of them today and the other tomorrow.

 

One of things God wants to accomplish in us, and which prayer helps to facilitate, is our spiritual growth. Make no mistake, God wants us to grow-up spiritually. He does not want us to remain immature spiritual babies. In 1 Corinthians 14:20 the Apostle Paul makes that very point. So does the writer of the letter to the Hebrews in Hebrews 6:1 “Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity …”

 

As I explained in one of the earlier messages on this topic, one of the things God accomplishes in us through our prayer time is that He teaches us and helps us to understand things from His perspective rather than from our own. It’s exactly like when a human father talks through a situation with a young son or daughter and helps them to come to a more mature understanding of it.

 

In his excellent book “Moving Mountains” John Eldredge writes, “And how does God provide for growing us up? What are his means? Situations that stretch us, strain us, push us beyond what we thought we could endure – those very same circumstances that cause us to pray.”

 

Yes, those difficult situations that we don’t understand, don’t want, and wish weren’t there, are the very things that drive us to our knees in prayer and place us in a position before God whereby He can talk to us, teach us, stretch us, and grow us. The thing that you and I are thinking is so terrible and so unwanted is the very thing God is using to bring about greater spiritual maturity in us.

 

And seriously, would you be praying so hard if that situation did not exist in your life? Probably not.

 

So when you bring your tough times to God in prayer do so with the understanding that this is a teachable moment. Ask Him what He wants you to learn as a result of this situation. Our times of prayer can be the schoolhouse in which we learn some of our best and most valuable lessons.

 

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “Effective prayer”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.” Ecclesiastes 12:13 (NIV)

 

Our thought for today: “Prayer helps to adjust our perspective and attitude.”

 

This morning I was re-reading Solomon’s long, sad lament which we have come to know as the book of Ecclesiastes in the Old Testament. Whenever I read Ecclesiastes I’m always struck by the fact that this was written by the wealthiest and most powerful man in the world in his day.

 

Ecclesiastes was written towards the end of his life and in it Solomon records that he had everything a man could hope for in this world. He was fabulously wealthy, he was widely admired, he was a powerful leader, and he had thousands of beautiful women who literally belonged to him (wives and concubines) and whose sole purpose in life was to please him.

 

Any yet Solomon writes that those decades of wine, women, wealth, and song ended up being painfully empty and totally unsatisfying. His story reminds me of the sad final years of Elvis Presley. Shortly before his death he made an entry in his diary which was later published and became famous. It was late at night after a show, he was in a penthouse suite of a Casino in Las Vegas, and Elvis wrote about how lonely he was and how unhappy his life had turned out to be. Despite all his fame and fortune Elvis was a sad and lonely man.

 

I could fill pages with similar stories about Howard Hughes, Kurt Cobain, Robin Williams and so many others who, by the standards of the world seemed to have it all, but in reality were sad and empty and lonely, to the point of despondency and even suicide.

 

A thousand years after the time of Solomon the Apostle Paul wrote, “But godliness with contentment is great gain.” (1 Timothy 6:6). That’s also the conclusion Solomon finally arrived at by the end of his life. It’s the very point he was making in Ecclesiastes 12:13. It’s also the point Spanky from the Little Rascals was making when he told his friend Buster, “Buddy, if you ain’t got Jesus you ain’t got nuthin.”

 

What does all of this have to do with our theme of effective prayer? Well, in prayer God helps us to get our heads screwed on straight regarding the things that really matter – and about those that don’t. In effective prayer He helps to clarify our thinking, change our perspective, and adjust our attitudes.

 

Effective prayer involves sincerely asking God to help you see things from His perspective and then inviting Him to adjust your thinking accordingly. It’s a matter of bringing your worldly concerns before Him, laying them down at His feet, and asking Him to help you see it all clearly.  “Lord, help me to see how important this thing I’m so worried about at the moment really is, or isn’t.” “Jesus, in Matthew 6:25-33 you taught me to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and to trust the concerns of life to my heavenly Father. So to the best of my ability I do that now and I ask You to give me a sense of peace about it.”

 

Effective prayer has a wonderful way of clarifying our thinking and adjusting our attitudes about the cares of life. I encourage you to bring it all to Him in prayer – and then leave it there.

 

God Bless,

Pastor Jim

Good Morning Everyone,

 

Our theme for this month: “Effective prayer”

 

Our Bible verse for today: “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 saints.” Ephesians 6:18 (NIV)

 

Our thought for today: “God chooses to work through the prayers of His people.”

 

Have you ever wondered why we bother to pray at all? Why is prayer even necessary? Well first and foremost, prayer is intended to be an ongoing conversation between a Father and a child. Therefore prayer is a necessary and important part of establishing and maintaining a healthy relationship with God.

 

But another reason we are to pray is because God chooses to work in this world through the prayers of His people. Ephesians 6:18 is just one of numerous verses in the Bible where we are exhorted to pray about all things, and then to keep on praying. One of the most common and oft repeated themes in the Bible is of God’s people praying, and of God hearing, and then God acting based upon the prayers of His people. It really is true that when God’s people pray, things happen.

 

But why would God choose to work that way? Obviously, since He is all-powerful, He could easily do it without us.

 

One of the great joys of my life has been to be a father to my four children. They’re all adults now and therefore have lives of their own, but when they were small we were together constantly and we did things together all the time. And I loved it. I loved having them there with me, doing things together. I always tried to involve my children in as many of my activities as I could, especially yard work and simple construction and repair projects, etc. Although I could have done all of those things myself – faster and better, I derived deep joy from having my children do them with me. Those were activities that kept us involved in each others lives and our relationship was strengthened by doing them together.

 

So there you have another one of the answers to why we pray. Through our prayers God involves us in His activities, and it brings Him great joy to do so. In prayer not only are we talking through the issue with Him (just like I did with my children when they helped me), but then we are also handling the situation with our Father. Not only does that please Him and bring Him joy, but it’s also instructive for us and helps us to grow-up as Christians. Through our participation with Him in prayer we gain experience, spiritual wisdom and insight, and our faith grows stronger.

 

The more time you spend working through a tough issue together with God in prayer, the deeper and more developed your relationship with Him becomes. Those times of leading you through the complexities of dealing with the issue is satisfying and pleasing to Him, and of great benefit to your spiritual growth. For that reason, God chooses to work through the prayers of His people.

 

So, your Father in Heaven is waiting for you to come to Him in prayer. He wants you to talk through your issues with Him. Spend as much time as it takes, and enjoy your time with Him as together you figure things out and get them done.

 

God Bless,

Pastor Jim