With All Prayer

With All Prayer

Bible Reading: Ephesians 6
Focus verse: "with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints" Ephesians 6:18

Do you ever wonder if prayer works?  Does it really make a difference?  Prayer is our connection to God!  God has planned for and ordained prayer and that He will work through our prayers.  The effective praying person will put on the armor of God before praying. (vs 10-17)  Another effective way to pray is to use scripture as you pray.  You can pray any time of day or night for as long or as short as you like.  Pray in all trials and joys of your life.  Pray for others.    An effective praying person knows how to pray in agreement with the scriptures, in the Spirit, watchful, alert, perseverant, devoted and by submitting their life to God.

Do you use all parts of prayer?  It is good in Kenya to start a conversation by a proper greeting of the other person and ask, "How is the day?", the family, the parents and the cows.  In the same way, you begin the prayer by greeting the heavenly father with some words of adoration and praise.  Such as God's faithfulness, creation, power, love, forgiveness, holiness and more.
Second, you can confess humbly who we are in our failures to live up to God's standard.  We remember our weakness, our sin, and we agree with God about it.  We can not do this life without God and we acknowledge it.
Third, we are to remember our blessings and be thankful to God for them.  Even in our trials, there are things to be thankful for.  Can you be thankful for your salvation, your family, your friends, your church, your country, your relationship with God and even we can thank God for the trials in our lives because of the growth that it brings (James 1:2-4)
Fourth, we will be bringing our petitions, our requests, to God.  This is prayer for others and for yourself.  God has asked us to bring our requests to Him. (Philippians 4:6)  There are three ways God can answer.  God might say, "No" if it is not the best thing for us or if we didn't ask according to the correct interpretation of scripture.  God may say "Yes" if our petition is based on God's principles and we are praying in the Spirit.  God may say, "Wait" when the timing isn't right.  We are always learning more of God's ways and the way He answers our prayers.  We can be sure that if we are in a right relationship with Him, that we are never alone and He always hears us.

Can you focus on prayer this week?  What part of prayer can you strengthen in your life?  Is it using all the parts?  Is it learning more of the scriptures?  Is it devoting more time to prayer?  Is it praying for others more often and faithfully?  Is it finding joy in your trials and having thankfulness?
"Seek the Lord while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near."  Isaiah 55:6

~Page Johnson

Angels Around Us

Scripture Reading: Psalm 34

Focus Verse: Psalm 34:7

“For the angel of the Lord is a guard, he surrounds and defends all who fear him.”

Angels are mysterious beings.  With all the problems that go on in the world today it’s comforting to know that God has His angels watching over us.  The Bible does tell us quite a bit about angels.  But there is one story in the Bible about  angels that caught my attention.  Greg Laurie writes about this story:  

"The Book of Daniel gives us an interesting behind-the-scenes look at angelic involvement in the prayer lives of God’s people. The prophet was praying on one occasion, and immediately, his request was heard in Heaven, and an angel was dispatched with the answer. But while the angel was on his way to Daniel, an apparently high-ranking demon power opposed him.This angel sent from Heaven was unable to subdue this demon power, so the Lord called out one of the higher-ranking angels, Michael, and sent him to intervene and set the other angel free.  Meanwhile, Daniel wasn’t even aware of what was going on. All he knew was that he offered his prayer to God. But instead of getting an immediate answer, he waited and waited.  Sometimes, we pray for something that we believe is the will of God, something that we think God should do, and then we wait and wait. We might be praying for the salvation of a loved one, for physical healing, or for divine guidance.  Yet we hear no answer. And we falsely conclude that God isn’t listening. But we never know what is going on behind the scenes. There may be an angelic battle happening, even while we’re praying.  For twenty-one days, this angel was hindered, but finally, the praying prophet received an answer. This Old Testament account makes clear that delays are not necessarily denials. If something doesn’t happen as quickly as we would like it to, it doesn’t mean that God isn’t listening. It just may be that something else is happening.  We don’t know how many times angels intervene in our lives, getting us out of tight situations, protecting us from harm, and even speaking directly to us. They are indeed, as Billy Graham referred to them, God’s secret agents."

Bobby Johnson

Interlocking Ministries

Greg Laurie 

Harvest Ministries

Jesus is Our Example of Integrity

Scripture reading: Luke 4:1-13

Focus verse: Hebrews 4:15 "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin."

Jesus was tempted in every way as a man is. After He was baptized and full of the Holy Spirit, he was led by the Holy Spirit into the desert and fasted for 40 days.  He was tempted by Satan, but He remained resistant to every temptation and faithful to the Father.  Alone in the wilderness, hungry and weakened, He maintained integrity.  There was no corruption in Him, but a wholeness, perfection, uprightness, complete and honest.

Do you compare yourself to other people to decide if you are doing good?  Who is our only true example? As someone who has surrendered their life to Jesus, the Saviour, we are called to walk with Him as a child who is learning to walk like their father.  There is no true example of integrity than Jesus.  Luke 4:13 says that the devil ended every temptation.   Could it be that means that Jesus was tempted in every temptation ever to exist? According to our focus verse, it seems to be true.  Our Jesus, Lord and Saviour, knows about temptation and can sympathize with our weakness, though he never sinned.  He can teach us when we stumble how to resist the devil.

What kind of temptations have you faced?  Born Again Christians have the Holy Spirit to help us in our weakness. Jesus has prayed for us (John 17) so we can have hope for sanctification (spiritual growth).  When we are tempted to do something corrupt, something sinful, we have the choice on our action.  Our failures should push us to seek the Lord.  The more we surrender all in Christ, the more He will mold us to be like Him. I pray that you will be strengthened in the Lord to walk in integrity.

Page Johnson

Interlocking Ministries