It often happens that points made in the sermon on Sunday
morning coincide with points made in Sunday School in the next hour without any
coordination between the preacher and the teacher. Pastor Rick and I have marveled at this for years. The Holy Spirit frequently weaves
together influences to push us in a particular direction to accomplish the
Father’s purpose in us. Many times
in my life I’ve heard a particular truth from one source only to hear the same
thing the next day from a different source and then from a friend and then from
another source, etc. I know that
others of you have experienced this kind of thing because so many of you have
told me.
The same phenomenon is happening once again at Providence. Earlier this summer as I began to
consider and pray about what to teach on Wednesday nights in the Fall, I became
burdened that we needed to focus on prayer. Not just talking about it, but doing it together on Wednesday nights. (This Spring and Summer have been for me the most vibrant
season of prayer I have ever known.
And I received more specific answers to prayer in that short period of
time than ever before.)
Then when Pastor Rick came back from the FBI Academy in June, he told me he was working on
choosing a book for the Home Fellowship Groups for the Fall and was looking
exclusively at books about…prayer. Again, no coordination other than the Holy Spirit working in
both of our hearts.
So I wonder where the Holy Spirit might be leading us? Perhaps it is to become a people
passionate about prayer!
I trust that this will be timely news to a good number of
us. Who among us has not struggled
in this area of life? Some of us –
maybe most of us – are struggling right now. If we’re being honest, some of us might admit to being in a
season of complete prayerlessness.
But it may be that the Lord is graciously working to free us from that
difficulty through the HFG study and our new Wednesday night service in order
to turn a weakness into a Spirit-empowered strength.
PBF has a reputation as a Bible-focused church. Being students of the Word, we should
have no problem answering this question: what happens when God’s people
pray? For His kingdom to
come? For each other to grow in
godliness? For the lost to be
saved?
What might happen if our Bible-focused church gave itself to
impassioned prayer? Wouldn’t you
love to find out?
Each week, we’re going to take a very brief look at the
Scriptures and talk about prayer.
Initially, we’ll be looking at the typical difficulties we have getting
into prayer and the best ways to overcome those difficulties. Then
we’re going to pray. I’ll give
you more details this Wednesday night, Sept 13 at 6:30 at the church. Please make every effort to come!
Comments