Month: October 2015

Day 11 – The Prayer Cafe “31 Day Challenge”

October 17, 2015

SELF-RELIANCE

Day 11

 

For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them. – Matthew 18:20

 

“What the Church needs to-day is not more machinery or better, not new organizations or more and novel methods, but men whom the Holy Ghost can use — men of prayer, men mighty in prayer. The Holy Ghost does not flow through methods, but through men. He does not come on machinery, but on men. He does not anoint plans, but men — men of prayer.” – E.M. Bounds

 

Let us pray:

There are many of us, women and men, who are looking for answers and looking for guidance Lord. We need You. Sometimes we stumble along the way with our best designed plans. We are brilliant people, but the truth is we don’t see everything. We need You.

There is a sect of us who hold our sacred allegiance to self-reliance. Help us to find our alliance and reliance in You. Help us to be MIGHTY merely because we find our MIGHT in prayer, through prayer, and with prayer. Help transform the lens through which we see prayer in this season. Help us to be found in You because of prayer. 

This is our prayer today. Amen.

 

#Prayer #Strength #Mighty #Reliance

 

Morning Leaders – Champion

October 16, 2015

Morning Leaders. “To be a champion, I think you have to see the big picture. It’s not about winning and losing; it’s about every day hard work and about thriving on a challenge. It’s about embracing the pain that you’ll experience at the end of a race and not being afraid. I think people think too hard and get afraid of a certain challenge.” – Summer Sanders

Why Don’t I…

October 16, 2015

freelance-writer

 

Why don’t I write more often?

Writing was an escape for me as I was growing up. It was a place for me to be in my head. In my world of imagination. Where I lived. Where I survived. Where I thrived. No one could reach me there. It was the perfect hiding space.

And now I am before people. There are various platforms for me which have been designed by my writing. This grace God has given me with the pen is my destiny. Dare I share my hiding space with the world? That is a tall order to ask.

How do you take your private domain and make it public? What safe space would there be left? I don’t know but I’m going to experiment with it in boldness.

 

Day 10 – The Prayer Cafe “31 Day Challenge”

October 16, 2015

bedtime-prayer-sterling-brown_grande

Day 10

 

Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. – Jeremiah 29:12

 

A Prayer for the Grace of Devotion

O Lord, my God, you are my all and every good.  And what am I, that I should presume to address you?  I am the poorest of your servants and a wretched worm, far more poor and worthless than I can ever realize or express.  Yet, Lord, remember that I am nothing: I have nothing, and can do nothing.  You alone are good, just and holy; you can do all things, fill all things, bestow all things, leaving only the wicked empty-handed.  Remember your mercies, Lord, and fill my heart with your grace, since it is your will that none of your works should be worthless.  How can I endure this life of sorrows, unless you strengthen me with your mercy and grace?  Do not turn your face from me; do not delay your coming, nor withdraw your consolation from me, lest my soul become like a waterless desert.  Teach me, O Lord, to do your will; teach me to live worthily and humbly in your sight; for you are my wisdom, who know me truly, and who knew me before the world was made, and before I had my being.

Amen.

– Thomas Kempis

 

Let us pray:

Share with God what is in your heart.

 

#Honesty #Grateful #Mercy #Grace

 

 

Day 9 – The Prayer Cafe “31 Day Challenge”

October 15, 2015

doorway-closet-prayer1

 

Day 9

 

And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. – Matthew 6:7

 

“The real sermon is made in the closet. The man — God’s man — is made in the closet. His life and his profoundest convictions were born in his secret communion with God. The burdened and tearful agony of his spirit, his weightiest and sweetest messages were got when alone with God. Prayer makes the man; prayer makes the preacher; prayer makes the pastor.” – Oswald Chambers

 

Let us pray:

What has prayer made you?

 

#Honesty #Communion #Closet

Morning Leaders – Rise

October 14, 2015

Morning Leaders. “When you challenge other people’s ideas of who or how you should be, they may try to diminish and disgrace you. It can happen in small ways in hidden places, or in big ways on a world stage. You can spend a lifetime resenting the tests, angry about the slights and the injustices. Or, you can rise above it.” – Carly Fiorina

Day 8 – The Prayer Cafe “31 Day Challenge”

October 14, 2015

healing_of_steve-meyer-by-the-finger-of-god

Day 8

 

The Lord is near to all who call on him,
to all who call on him in truth.

– Psalm 145:18

 

“Few Christians have anything but a vague idea of the power of prayer; fewer still have any experience of that power. The Church seems almost wholly unaware of the power God puts into her hand; this spiritual carte blanche on the infinite resources of God’s wisdom and power is rarely, if ever, used—never used to the full measure of honouring God.” – E.M. Bounds

 

Let us pray:

Praying in this moment would be presumptuous of me. Let’s just marinate in what E.M. Bounds shared.

I know there will be some people who will shout how they know all about that power and glory. My first reaction is to ask us to refrain from shouting.

Maybe Mr. Bounds is talking about a prayer level we know nothing about. Some of us start shouting when we get to the rooftop of a private house and I think Mr. Bounds is speaking on a skyscraper level. Maybe there is more. Maybe the answer is found deep in God. Maybe there are untold riches of grace and miracles we don’t really know about because we don’t see them regularly manifesting in our lives and in the sacred places we congregate.

And I am not talking about emotion. We can manufacture that very well. I am talking about true power.

Maybe we are in need of a new normal. What about a miracle-working prayer life where cancer flees bodies and dead people rise from the grave? What about an intimacy with God where the peace that passes all understanding falls on those who stand within our presence without us saying a word? What about a contagious joy that envelops the hearts and bones of those we interact with on the daily?

Thank you Mr. Bounds for challenging my imagination. Thank you for enlarging my territory for a prayerful thirst.

How about you? Where are you challenged?

 

#Honesty #Power #Levels #Pause

 

Day 7 – The Prayer Cafe “31 Day Challenge”

October 13, 2015

il_570xN.357512093

Day 7

 

Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. – Colossians 4:2

“As the engine never moves until the fire is kindled, so preaching, with all its machinery, perfection, and polish, is at a dead standstill, as far as spiritual results are concerned, till prayer has kindled and created the steam. The texture, fineness, and strength of the sermon is as so much rubbish unless the mighty impulse of prayer is in it, through it, and behind it. The preacher must, by prayer, put God in the sermon. The preacher must, by prayer, move God toward the people before he can move the people to God by his words. The preacher must have had audience and ready access to God before he can have access to the people. An open way to God for the preacher is the surest pledge of an open way to the people.” – Oswald Chambers

 

Let us pray:

Father as our lives are the stories people read, may we spend time with you in prayer in such a way that our lives will be the greatest sermons people will ever experience. Grant us opportunities to live our lives out before people in such a way they will experience you and know there is truly a God in heaven. Be glorified.

#Truth #Grace #Prayer #LivedOut #Intimacy