Tag: prayer

The Prodigal’s Pain

The Prodigal’s Pain

Isaiah 66:9

“Shall I bring to the point of birth and not cause to bring forth?” Says the Lord; “shall I, who cause to bring forth, shut the womb?” Says your God.

This verse is powerful, God is saying why would I cause pain and not let something good come out of it. Why would I waste a trial in a persons life? why would I let the test not be a testimony? Why would I let the very pain that my child is experiencing not have any good come from it?

I have been brought to this verse many times in the past. With the passing of a loved one, a broken relationship, we’ve all experienced pain. And there was always a purpose behind it.

You see, “…He has put eternity into man’s heart…” – Ecclesiastes 3:11. God put in our heart, eternity. There’s nothing that this World offers that replaces, fills, permeates the desire that our hearts long for — the Creator, God. Your friend or family member who has once tasted and seen and felt the love of God at one time who is now living life to the fullest, so they think. In the World. They feel the pain, and so do we. But we have to remember that there is a purpose with the pain.

Much like the Prodigal in Luke 15 who packed all his belongings and moved to a distant land. He spent all that he had carelessly, and he began to starve. He persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and the man sent him into his fields to feed the pigs. “When he finally came to his senses” the pain had finally caught up with him and he said to himself “At home even the hired servants have food enough to spare, and here I am dying of hunger!” So he returned home to his father.”

But today, as I was praying for a family member who have strayed away, who once knew Him, the Lord showed me an analogy of Isaiah 66:9 of the person who I was praying for.

A pregnancy is nine months, nine long months of having discomfort, sick, carrying extra weight that they have to carry until the time of the birth. Much like the Prodigal, they too are experiencing pain, discomfort, the shame and guilt. But remember that God has to cause the pain, the discomfort to lead them back to Him. His love is relentless, He is always pursuing the hearts of those who have known Him and have not yet known Him. It’s His kindness that leads us to repentance. It’s all part of His plan.

If you know someone who is a prodigal, don’t stop praying, don’t give up. They are of the Lord’s, He sees them where they are, even if they have forgotten Him, He has not. There is purpose in the pain, your prodigal is coming home!

COMPLETE SOLITUDE

COMPLETE.jpg

Genesis 32:23,24

23 He took them and sent them across the stream, and everything else that he had. 24 And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day.

Jacob was left alone and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. It seems as if the man waited until Jacob was alone, until he was separated from folk who knew him, until he was secluded from things that might have been his source of comfort or strength, until he was at his most vulnerable.

The man waited until Jacob was alone and then came to wrestle with him. The moments before the big moment that come to change our entire form happens; a breaking and shifting of ages, a transition. The ground begins to shake.

This is what happens when we are in complete solitude with the father. Our culture trains us for motion and multitasking – not for slowing and simplifying. We know solitude means confrontation. You see, solitude removes distractions and leaves us, for a few minutes, alone with God. He might ask us to stop doing something or start something we don’t want to. But if we avoid his confrontation, we’ll miss His companionship, counsel, comfort, restoration and so much more. Let’s take some time alone with God.

cropped-cropped-gfj-logo.jpg

Call Unto Me

CALL UNTO ME

Jeremiah 33:3

“Call to me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things which you do not know.”

 

The God of the Universe, who spoke the stars into existence, who spoke things into being. Who made man, and made a way for us all to know Him, yearns to hear from His children and for Him to display His power. He is always inviting us into His presence.

Damp, cold and most likely dark; This is where Jeremiah was at, in a jail cell at the time that God spoke to him these words. After Jeremiah prophesied to king Zedekiah that the Babylonians would destroy his army, king Zedekiah took it personal.

We may not be in a prison cell, we may at times feel like we are in solitude. But sometimes that’s what God has to do. In order for us to hear Him, He sometimes places us in situations where we have no choice, but to wait to call upon Him and seek His face.

We don’t know it all and we never will. He has all the answers. That’s why we have to call upon Him

 

Psalms 102:17 “He will regard the prayer of the destitute and not despise their prayer.

 

cropped-cropped-gfj-logo.jpg

 

STANDING ON THE PROMISE

STAN DING ON THE PROMISE

 

Is there a promise that God has for you but yet you haven’t seen it come to pass?

Though at times it may seem that God is silent to our prayers but I can assure you that He hears it. It may be a lost loved one that you are earnestly seeking the Lord for their salvation. It may be a healing that you are waiting to receive. Whatever it may be the Bible tells us that the “fervent prayer of a righteous man availateh much. ” – James 5:16

 

Matthew 7:7 “Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you.”

 

In Acts chapter 12 we read that Peter is thrown into prison and later that night he was planned to be executed by King Herod. As soon as the church heard that he was in prison they started praying. Then an angel of the Lord appeared standing beside Peter who is chained up, the angel said “Arise, quickly” and Peter was freed. He didn’t know if he was dreaming or seeing a vision but he walked to the house where Mary lived and inside that house was where the church was praying for Peter. Peter knocked on the door and a woman from inside the house asked who it was, “It’s me, Peter” not believing of what she is hearing she turns around and tells the people inside that it is Peter.

 

The very thing that you are praying for is going to knock on your door, whatever the prayer, don’t give up. It’s going to be knocking very soon.

 

GFJ LOGO

 

 

 

Why Keep Praying?

why keep praying

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. – Matthew 7:7-8

We live in times of instant gratification. We are so accustomed these days to a “vending machine” mentality, that we no longer have the patience to wait or not to find what we need immediately. Unfortunately, I have noticed that sometimes we carry the same mentality into our prayer life.

Let’s think about vending machines for a moment. We have a pocket full of change and we stand in front of a vending machine trying to decide what we want, we look at all the options. Once we make up our minds, we put in the change and voila! We get what we want.

The same thing may be happening in our prayer life. Unconsciously we think of God as the ultimate vending machine. Our thought process goes like this: Jesus promised that whatsoever we ask in His name He would do. Then we pray for what we need or want in His name, and we may continue to pray thus for few days expecting that God will do what we want. but whenever an answer comes not exactly in the way we expect it, we become mad at God. Some people believe that God does not love them because He did not give them what they had asked! Seriously?

We must realize that even when we ask good things, sometimes the answer is “No”.

“God is not a vending machine where we can go and purchase with prayer our every desire and whim”

If every prayer you ever prayed were instantly answered, two things would be true. Prayer would become a weapon of destruction in your life and you’d never think about God because He would become a vending machine.

Why be persistent? When you pray a prayer request over and over, it’s not to remind God. He doesn’t need to be reminded! It’s to remind yourself who the source of your answer and all your needs is.

Prayer is a faith builder. In the waiting God begins to grow you even more. So don’t let go of your prayers, keep on trusting

So Why Keep Praying?

Without prayer you will be powerless.

Without prayer you won’t build faith.

Without prayer you have no insight of what God is doing in your life.

Prayer prepares us for what is yet to come, what we aren’t ready for perhaps. Prayer humbles us, takes us off the throne, and puts God in His rightful place.

cropped-cropped-gfj-logo.jpg

A Prayer of Urgency

uI’ve been praying more than I ever have because I have been asking God more than ever to create in me a burden for the lost. And I’m starting to get His attention. I’m feeling an urgency to pray more, not that I have to but I’m wanting to. For Him to create in me a pure heart and actions that follow.

A couple of days ago God had directed me to Matthew 9:13 “For I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” Got it God! I asked Him ” Show me what this really means…in Gary terms.” He spoke ” I AM Mercy.” God is love, and love comes from God. Like the prodigal son who went away for a while, lived his life the way he wanted to and found out that the grass isn’t greener on the other side. God, just like a parent who would want His child back uses His people who are in Him to call out to those who are lost. Simple, but some of us have a hard time with this.

We become busy bees losing track of the time. We have to ” Work while it is day; night is coming, when no one is able to work.”

On a Thursday morning at 6 a.m. out of no where my computer started playing worship music. I staggered into my office still half asleep to turn it off. The presence of God was strong but I was so tired and did not feel like praying. As I began to walk back to my bed God spoke to me and said ” I am coming very soon.” Should I have prayed? Of course but that bed sounded pretty good and the comforts of life got to me that time. What does all this mean? It means that God so desperately loves His children so much that He wants them to be saved. It’s not God’s will that any should perish but have everlasting life.

GFJ