Down for the Count

“25About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, 26and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s bonds were unfastened.” Acts 16:25–26 (ESV)   Paul and Silas had just been beaten, and arrested for preaching about God.  Their track record was not good; they had been beaten on more than one occasion, arrested, derided, and threatened regularly.  They saw more struggle than success, more obstacles than encouragement.   Sound familiar?  You are asked to work more hours and produce more for less pay.  Something always seems to break at just the wrong time around the house, stretching your already thin finances even more.  You feel like for every step you take forward, you are pushed two steps back.  You feel like you got hit with a sucker punch in the gut and you are struggling to breath.  You wonder how you will get back up.   Paul and Silas’ reaction is clear.  They turn to God.  They don’t pretend that everything is ok, but turn to God honestly in their struggle.  They open their heart to God and cry out in the midst of their circumstances for God to intervene.  Their worship is heartfelt and honest, they pull no punches, and God hears their cries.  God intervenes in a powerful way to set them free from prison.  God frees them from prison but makes no promises they won’t get knocked down again.  They will still get beaten, discouraged, arrested, and mocked, but they were survivors.   Life will knock you down, you will hit tough patches, you will get discouraged, and breaks will not go your way.  But God will be there to pick you up, dust you off, and get you back on track.  God made you to get back up, to keep your eye on the prize, to run the race of faith with all of your being.  So on that day, when you are looking up from ground, turn to God, cry out in prayer, put your Hope in a God who hears his people’s prayer and answers them immeasurably greater than anything you could have ever asked for.   Pastor Bill   Discussion Questions Is there something in life that is knocking you down, discouraging you, and pushing you to your limits? Take time before you walk away from this to pray, to honestly open your heart up to God and be vulnerable. How can you support others who are struggling right now?

Count the Cost Pt.2

Each of us has had opportunities that we’ve passed up.  For some, you may even wonder, what could have been?  What would skydiving have been like?  Would I have flourished at that job, did I miss out on a great relationship?  Since we chose no, we never found out what could have been.  There are times that we get the feeling we passed up something good.

Would you believe that each day God presents each of us with opportunities to bless us, and use us to change our own life as well as others lives?  Opportunities to encourage someone, start a conversation, invite someone to church, or see miracle happen.  Often we don’t think of the opportunities God has placed before us as something we missed out on, it’s just something we chose not to do, or didn’t see.

Scripture is clear though that God is at work all around us, and ready to do amazing things, but we have to be ready, and sometimes we have to ask.  Jesus says it this way to his followers, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” (Matthew 7:7, TNIV)  Jesus is not suggesting God is an ATM who just gives you all that you want on demand.  Jesus is reminding the disciples of something important, if you want something ask for it, if you want to experience something, you have to engage.  We also hear from 1 John, “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.” (1 John 5:14-15, TNIV)

Do you want to see transformation in your brother who struggles with self-confidence, and hasn’t been to church in 20 years?  Pray and ask God to transform his life in a way only God could.  Pray that God would connect your brother with people who would share their faith with him in a meaningful and relevant way.  Pray daily, and pray with confidence, that God will hear your prayer.

Do you want to grow in knowledge of God’s word, to know the bible better to help you in your life?  This may sound silly, but get out the bible and start reading it.  Talk with other Christians about passage that challenge you, or leave you with questions.

Maybe you have a passion and heart to see people come to know God who has never met him before, but you have never done a evangelism class.  Great!!!  Invite them to come with you to church.  Pray that God gives you an opportunity to tell them your story of God’s grace in your life.

I don’t want to look back on my life and think, what could have been?  Instead my prayer is that we can all look back and say WOW, look what was, look at all the powerful ways that God worked in our midst.  And think, it all just started with a little asking and doing.

 

Pastor Bill

 

Discussion Questions

1. What is one opportunity God has placed before you that you need to engage, or ask God for help and guidance in?
2. What might cause you to hesitate or pass up the opportunities God places before you?
3. Who could walk with you on the journey as you seek to ask God in prayer, and follow God in action?

Prayers that Rock

I remember learning to pray as a kid, and learning not just how you pray, but what you are supposed to pray about.  You should pray to God about “small” things, but not too small, God is busy you know, so don’t bother Him with things that are too little.  On the other hand, you should pray about “big” things to God, but not too big; I mean if everyone asked God for a million dollars or to win the lottery, what would happen?  As I continue to grow, this model of prayer just did not seem to fit with the biblical model of prayer laid out for us in the Bible.

Jesus taught His disciples to pray for daily provision (daily bread), a seemingly small prayer.  Jesus teaches the disciples that prayer can cast out demons (Matthew 17:21), and that God will give them great gifts and answers to prayer if they just ask (Matthew 7:11).  One verse on prayer that stands out to me is Matthew 21:21-22, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt…but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done.  If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”

I do not want to suggest God is our holy ATM, giving us all sorts of stuff if we ask right.  Instead I wonder if we ever pray like these verses suggest.  Take a moment and think about your prayers.  How many of our prayers would make heads turn if God answered them?  How many of our prayers require God’s supernatural involvement?  How many of your prayers are BIG?  I believe this is the kind of prayer Jesus is talking about.  The kind of prayer where God’s answer is so dramatic, people would not even consider giving you or another person the glory, but instead would just look and say WOW God.

Consider lifting up a prayer to God that requires an answer only God could provide, and God would get the glory and honor from.  Don’t be mistaken these prayers don’t have to be “big” in terms of money, numbers, or influence. 

A family prays for a sister dealing with cancer, praying God it is only you who could heal her, may her life be a witness to the medical staff by your healing touch.  She was healed of her cancer, and was a powerful witness to the staff at the hospital.  Her healing left doctors and specialist scratching their heads wondering, how could that happen?   But the family knew, by God’s power alone. 

Jesus makes it clear, ask whatever you want in prayer, and have faith that God will answer.  Pray big, and have faith that God will answer, and God will show up.  Pray big because God wants to show up in our lives.  Pray big because we worship a God of unlimited possibilities.

 

Pastor Bill 

Discussion Questions

1. Why do think we hesitate to pray big prayers?
2. If you had to look at your current prayers on a scale of 1 (small request) to 10 (only God could do that, it would make people’s heads turn), where do most of your prayer fall?
3. Take time to consider what might be a BIG prayer you can lift up to God for your church, your family, and your relationships.  Pray that same BIG prayer for at least 3 months, and journal about how you see God answering it.

Selling God Short

Scientists know that human beings are capable of doing far more then they believe they are capable of.  When it comes to endurance activities (running, lifting, etc.) most people can do 20-30% more than they have ever done before.  Think about that for a moment, you can do 20-30% more than you have ever done.  If you have lifted 10lbs, you likely can lift 12lbs, if you have biked 10 miles, you could do 12.  We continually sell ourselves, short, underestimating our ability to do a number of things. I believe that is not the only arena of life that we underestimate.

In Matthew 19:26 Jesus is talking with His disciples and he says this, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”  With God all things are possible, but with us, of course there are a number of things that impossible.  Do we sell God short though?  Jesus was speaking to the disciples because they knew what Jesus proposed was impossible by human standards, so how could God do it?  We often ask the very same question.  We talk about the importance of humility, of not being boastful, but in reality what we are often doing is selling God short.  For someone to say, it is impossible for me to lift 400lbs is both humble, and a realistic statement.  To say that God could not move those 400lbs, because I cannot do it, is not humble, it is almost prideful.  Essentially it is saying, “God can’t do that because I said so, because I can’t understand how it would even work.”  Remember though, faith is not believing what we have already seen and done or what we can comprehend and put parameters around, “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” (Hebrews 11:1 NIV)

Scripture is filled with story after story of God doing things that have never been done before: making the sun stand still in the sky, changing water into wine, raising people from the dead, restoring sight to the blind, and providing food and refreshment in the middle of a barren desert, just to name a few.  God has a habit of reminding His people not to place Him in box, because God will just show us how much bigger He is than any box we could construct.

The next time you look at a circumstance or even think it can’t, it won’t.  Stop for a moment and think, just because I can’t or am not able, who says God can’t or won’t?  Faith looks at challenges and instead of seeing trouble and challenge, instead understands an opportunity to learn greater dependence on God, and to see God at work in a powerful way.

Pastor Bill

Discussion Questions

1. What is one place or situation in your life that seems impossible?
2. What are your greatest challenges to believing that God can?
3. Where are you eager to see God do “impossible” things in your life?  Take a moment to lift that up to God in prayer.