And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. Romans 8:26

Pray is one of the essential Christian lifelines and yet it is so often neglected. This may be for a number of reasons but includes, laziness, time management, busy social lives and not knowing what to pray for.
The great thing is that God in his infinite wisdom already perceived this need with the believer and has given us help and instruction through his word. Leaving us with no excuses. This isn’t because God wants to come across as the great disciplinarian, but rather he knows the impact of a regular and powerful prayer time.
Jesus himself always made time to pray, no matter what kind of a day he had had or was going to have. As man incarnate he needed that connection with the Father to bless him, uplift him and empower him.
Here Paul through the inspiration of God reveals that all believers are weak, and clearly one of these weaknesses is in relation to pray.

Isn’t is reassuring that when we don’t know what to pray for the Holy Spirit prays for us so that we have an opportunity to hear the Holy Spirit working through us to teach us and motivate us to pray and overcome the problems we face.
The original word for the Holy Spirit “helps” is to aid or assist. God is not wanting to take over but to share the burden with us. Those of us who have children or grandchildren know that when a child comes for help, it is much better to work with them than to do it all for them, mainly so that they learn and grow up, knowing how. God our father works with us in a similar way.

Often we can pray, but we can pray inappropriately, outside of the will of God. This is why we need his leadings from within us to prompt us of the right kind of prayers to pray. We don’t know what God wants us to pray, but God does. We must be careful to come before the Almighty with prepared hearts full of the truth through the saturation of his word.
When we are weak, or we feel that we are burdened or that our prayers seem unanswered the Spirit of God speaks into our spirit the peace and strength of God, which may not be at that time all that we have prayed for, but gives us strength for another day. It lifts us and keeps us. Don’t try and explain it, you can’t express it, just be thankful that God is there.

Labels: Holy Spirit, Prayer, Strength

Pray like this: “Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven”.
Matt 6:9-10

We have just faced another week of financial indifference and unprecedented action from our government. This is not exclusive to the UK; most of the Western world is looking long and hard about making massive decisions to strengthen and stabilize their own economies. What is God saying to us? Is he saying anything at all? Are these events just part of what is? Or is there something important to look at from a spiritual angle perspective? It is easy to reject God’s hand in these situations, but what IF God’s hand is in this, in some way.

Our first thought is often, if God is in this, then he is judging us for our godless behaviour, our worldliness as a nation and our immorality and greed.
The one thing that keeps Britain proud today (apart from the Olympians march around London, which will soon be forgotten) is its economy, this has held Britain in good stead and may it into one of the powers of the world. Manufacturing has mainly gone, but our commerce is up there with the big boys. But is it really as simple as that, is it God’s timing to judge us? Have we asked him? We can be so quick to get on our knees and speak out to God asking him to release us from this uncertain time, when we haven’t asked him “is this your will, Almighty God”

What if, God is allowing this to happen not out of judgement, but out of grace. When we discipline our children, we are not judging them, we are chastising them, we are trying to put them back on the right course. Britain has gone majorly off course. Could this be God’s hand allowing people to see that their wealth is not enough to satisfy and fulfil their lives? If God takes away their false securities it exposes the holes and emptiness in our lifestyles that we are so proud of. It seems we have little left if we haven't got our wealth. Is Almighty God trying to bring Britain to its knees so that his grace may be poured into our brokenness.

As a church let’s see times like this as an opportunity for salvation and pray that his kingdom may come into the lives of many who are facing difficulty. That they may find security, hope and peace in that which counts and matters. Pray into his will, not that which seemingly gives us the greater benefits

Labels: God's Will, Grace, Prayer

Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Phil 6:6

Three quotes on prayer:

Any concern too small to be turned into a prayer is too small to be made into a burden. Corrie Ten Boom

Work as if you were to live a hundred years, pray as if you were to die tomorrow. Benjamin Franklin

Nothing tends more to cement the hearts of Christians than praying together. Never do they love one another so well as when they witness the outpouring of each other's hearts in prayer. Charles Finney

How much do you pray a day? An hour, 30 minutes, five minutes, sometimes, never…

Pray is like an artery, it is the vital link to the heart if we remove the link we die.

Paul urges the church in Philippi to pray, not once in a blue moon, but all the time. In another version of the bible it says “pray without ceasing”. It doesn't mean you should never work, eat or watch TV, but be alert to prayer. If we believe that God is a a prayer answering God, how must God feel when we don’t pray. God is interested in everything that we do there is nothing too small or too big that He is not interested in. In fact if we believe what prayer is really about, we would never do anything without praying.

I don’t mean the basics about breathing or what we buy from Asda, but anything that needs guidance, council, direction etc. How often do we pray about our relationships, our work, our gifting, our service. When you are offended do you go to God, or do you react without his blessing. Don’t see prayer as an emergency escape plan, see it as everyday as breathing. It is not just for certain times or days but for every moment of each day. It is always sad to see prayer meetings neglected, or with low attendance, perhaps if we were more conditioned to pray individually that we would be more regular as a wider body. Practically we can’t get out to everything, but don’t let this stop you praying. If the time is not right for you, invite someone to your home so that you can pray together. It is not about where and when, it is about whether we do or don’t.

What Crestwood Church needs is to be a praying church, and not a prayer meeting church. If we prayed, really prayed, then prayer would become so real and so more purposeful that we would want to come and pray together more than anything else.

As Charles Finney quotes above, it’s here we build relationships and love for each other. It is also where kingdoms fall and the impossible is made possible. Be a praying church...

Labels: Attitude, Prayer

Open for me the gates where the righteous enter,
and I will go in and thank the Lord.
These gates lead to the presence of the Lord,
and the godly enter there. I thank you for answering my prayer
and giving me victory! Psalm 118:19-21

There is a place in God that is the best and right place to be.; and that is in his presence.
It is a place that is only reserved for his people. But it is not exclusive to knowledge, years of maturity or service. It is open to all who would desire to come closer and walk through the gates that lead to his throne room.

God, the King of Kings is waiting to hear our concerns, delights, requests, adoration and worship. He is one who delights in relationship with his children, one who wants us to know our privileged position.
We are his family, his children- his prince and princess, not because of our works or personalities, but because of his amazing grace and love for his church.

Each day we can miss out on an audience with the King of Heaven, who is not judgmental and vindictive, One who will not treat us harshly or condemn us. One who will lord his power over us to belittle or intimidate us, or frustrate and devour us. But one who beckons us to draw near and ask questions from his treasury of infinite wisdom and lavish his gifts from the glorious unlimited resources of his unending kingdom.

Dear Brother and Sister, friend, seeker, don’t miss out on what God wants to offer you, knowing him is the greatest joy we can ever have, and desiring to go “DEEPER” into his courts is the greatest journey we will ever make.
Once we have come deeper to his presence, let us all live up to our responsibility of being a part of the family of God

“Now go out where it is deeper, and let down your nets to catch some fish.”

Labels: Desire, Prayer, Presence