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LifeSource Community Church A Seventh-day Adventist Ministry |
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 Pastor's Perspective
Our Mission:
"To reach people far from God and guide them into a life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ."
"Prayer Watered by Faith” The heat is on! The hot summer days of August beckon us to find the water that flows so abundantly all around us. Whether it’s floating the Coeur d’Alene River to beat the heat of a sweltering summer afternoon, water skiing, wakeboarding or tubing at any of the beautiful lakes all around us, swimming or jumping off the rocks at Tubbs Hill, or just running through the backyard sprinkler, weather like this and water to cool us is why we live here!
Like you, I’ve been enjoying our water resources too. Early morning workout swims at Sander’s Beach to stay in shape are a favorite of mine this time of year, especially since the water temperature is now 75 degrees (or warmer). Water in the midst of this heat is an oasis. Its refreshing, soothing, cooling to beat the heat. Despite the effect that sin has had on this world, God has made sure that we can enjoy water, which is another reminder of how He has provided for us. I hope you are taking time to “cool off” during these warm summer days.
Like summer, life can also “heat up.” Unexpected bills, decisions that affect our children or grandchildren, a change in jobs, marriage challenges, family adjustments when a new baby arrives, a crisis that relatives may be facing, to name just a few, can really raise our anxiety to a boiling point. We wring our hands, furrow our brow and begin worrying our way to a solution.
But Jesus had the best solution to living in the heat of life’s challenges. Prayer – soothing, strengthening, refreshing prayer. He told his disciples and the crowds one day that prayer was not about merely rattling off a mouthful of words to get God’s attention. Prayer was about focusing on the unquestionable love of our heavenly Father. “When you pray,” Jesus said, “go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what your need before you ask him.” (Matthew 6:6-8, NIV)
The trouble with us is that praying is often an effort of last resort. We pray only when life heats up to an intolerable temperature instead of making it an integral essential of our daily lives. I suspect that this attitude toward prayer may also indicate a diminishing faith, something we may not even realize is happening to us. Or it may be because we haven’t ever really cultivated a life of prayer. Prayer is much like a garden. If not tended and cultivated, it soon fills up with the “weeds”—the cares and worries of this life which choke out our prayer plants.
Lately, I’ve been soaking my undernourished heart in a classic book on prayer, “The Complete Works of E. M. Bounds on Prayer.” I’m discovering new depths and dimensions to understanding the more power and possibilities in my own prayer life. Listen to this comment on the essential link between faith and prayer.
Faith starts prayer to work—clears the way to the mercy seat. It gives assurance, first of all, that there is a mercy seat, and that there the high priest awaits the pray-ers and the prayers. Faith opens the way for prayer to approach God. But it does more. It accompanies prayer at every step she takes….
Yet faith is narrowed down to one particular thing—it does not believe that God will reward everybody, nor that He is a rewarder of all who pray, but that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Faith rests its case on diligence in prayer, and gives assurance and encouragement to diligent seekers after God, for it is they, alone, who are richly rewarded when they pray.
We need constantly to be reminded that faith is the one inseparable condition of successful praying.
Are you taking time in the heat of daily life for the cooling refreshment of prayer? Do you have faith in God and in the essential power of prayer? If you want to grow in this area of your spiritual life, here’s a reminder: “Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him, must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” (Hebrews 11:6) Like you I need a well-watered daily prayer that flows out of faith.
With Christian Love,
"Creating a Community Connected to the LifeSource" (John 15:5)
Updated: Aug 24, 2009 ________________________Additional links on this topic:
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