Thoughts for Life: GOD BLESSES WHEN YOU UNITE IN PRAYER

GOD BLESSES WHEN YOU UNITE IN PRAYER

Dr. Wesley L. Duewel: Perhaps we should distinguish between being united in prayer and being in united prayer.

When a call for prayer is issued, people can join in praying for the same need or request wherever they are. All whose hearts cry to God are thus united in prayer.

Thank God, we can unite with others in prayer whatever our circumstances. Here are examples of how this has been done:

1. Make the Lord's Day a time of prayer. Even if circumstances prevent us from joining in public worship, we can and should be uniting with God's people by our prayer on the Lord's day.

His day should always, as far as humanly possible, be a day when extra time is set apart for prayer.

Those imprisoned for Christ's sake, though very alone, have reported being specially blessed as they prayed on the Lord's Day, knowing that millions of God's children were praying around the world.

(Rev. 1:9-10 tells us of John's experience on the Lord's day)

2. Make available a prayer list or prayer requests to as many Christians as possible. Then all can join in daily prayer or prayer at set times for the needs listed.

During World War II, Christians throughout South Africa stopped wherever they were, in streets or stores, for a moment of silent prayer at noon.

3. Make prayer chains. A congregation can organize one or more prayer chains among its members. Each person in a prayer chain can inform the next person on the list. Thus in a short time the church can all be uniting in prayer for the same urgent request. Most prayer chains are done entirely by phone.

4. Pray around the clock. People can pledge to pray for half an hour or an hour and be assigned particular times of prayer so that prayer continues for an urgent need all night or even twenty-four hours around the clock.

It is reported that the Moravian Pentecost that God gave in a prayer meeting at Herrnhut in 1731 resulted in unbroken payer day and night for a hundred years and was part of the key to God's tremendous blessing upon the Moravians as they scattered the message of Christ around the world.

Used by permission of the author and Duewel Literature Trust, Inc., Greenwood, Indiana (With Jean's impressions added)

Mighty Prevailing Prayer

#75 God Blesses When You Unite in Prayer

by Dr. Wesley L. Duewel
(pp. 124 -126) Zondervan

Let's pray-

Father, help us distinguish between being united in prayer and being in united prayer. When a call for prayer is issued, help us join in praying for the need or request wherever they are. May our hearts unite with them in prayer.

Even if circumstances prevent us from joining in public worship, help us unite with You and Your people by prayer, especially on the Lord's day, or when we've set aside extra time for prayer. Help us also make a prayer list of our friends and loved ones, and then pray for them daily.

When specific needs come up, help us to pray for Your involvement!

We ask this in the name of Jesus, that You will be glorified! Amen.

My weekly advice from the book, Praise the Lord and Pass the Chemo by Elaine W. Miller: (p.3)

"In the early days of dealing with my diagnosis, I wrote in my journal, 'Why me? Because God trusts me to glorify Him in this.' No other explanation made sense. God was honoring me with His trust that through my cancer I and others would see Jesus, be encouraged, receive hope, and learn to live and love more like Jesus."

#132 Quote- A. W. Tozer From The Root of The Righteous

"Undoubtedly the redemption in Christ Jesus has sufficient moral power to enable us to live in a state of purity and love where our whole life will be a prayer. Individual acts of prayer that spring out of that kind of total living will have about them a wondrous

power not known to the careless or the worldly Christian."

1806-1810 One-line Scriptures for those of you who want to learn some more verses this week- or to review them from when they were first posted-

1806- Ez. 11:19a "And I will give them one heart."

1807- Ez. 21:7c "Behold, it cometh, and shall be brought to pass', saith the Lord God."

1808- Is. 41:2a "Who raised up the righteous man."

1809- Pro. 11:31a "Behold, the righteous shall be recompensed in the earth."

1810- Pro. 30:12a "There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes."

#132 Hymn- Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus

Helen Howarth Lemmel was born in England in 1863, into the home of a Wesleyan minister who immigrated to America, when Helen was a child. She loved music, and her parents provided the best vocal teachers they could find. Eventually Helen returned to Europe to study vocal music in Germany. In time, she married a wealthy European, but he left her when she became blind, and Helen struggled with multiple heartaches during midlife.

At age 55, Helen heard a statement that deeply impressed her: "So then, turn your eyes upon Him, look full into His face and you will find that the things of earth will acquire a strange new dimness."

"I stood still," Helen later said, "and singing in my soul and spirit was the chorus, with not one conscious moment of putting word to word to make rhyme, or note to note to make melody. The verses were written the same week, after the usual manner of composition, but nonetheless dictated by the Holy Spirit."

Helen had no way of writing the hymns down, so she called a friend at all hours and he'd rush down and record them before she forgot the words. "Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus" was among them.

Helen Lemmel, who wrote nearly 500 hymns during her lifetime, died in Seattle in 1961, thirteen days before her 98th birthday."

The information about this song, is taken from the book by Robert J. Morgan, THEN SINGS MY SOUL (pg. 283)

Some encouraging words-

"Do you wish you had a new house to call home? Give thanks for how God is your True Shelter and thank Him for providing the home you currently have. You can trust the character of God with contentment and pray for growth and change. And when you do, the way you speak of your right-now circumstances begins to change."

(Taken from pg.146 of THE WAY of the WILD FLOWER, GOSPEL MEDITATIONS TO UNBURDEN YOUR ANXIOUS SOUL By Ruth Ghou Simons

(Great book, Jean highly recommends it!)

Church Notes: WE HAVE A GREAT RESPONSIBILITY

As senior citizens, God has plans for this age.

Younger generations do not know what we do.

Times of rest, yes, but we're to continue to embrace changes, trusting God to help.

We're not to have a critical spirit or to worry.

We'll need to down size so we can still be bearing fruit for the Kingdom.

We're to put into action our desire to obey God, and to do His will.

Some temptations are just our personal distractions.

As Jesus had a mind to go to Jerusalem, we must have a mind to do God's will.

Our job is to obey our calling and endure hardships.

God puts in our hearts our individual destinations.

We're not to lose track of where we're going, but follow through with what He directs.

3 Steps to Focus on Jesus and the Resurrection

Karen Girl Friday- (1.) Insert your name in John 3:16 (read it out loud). For God so loved ____________, that He gave his only Son, that if I believe in him, I will not perish but have eternal life. (ESV)

(2.) Remember all of God’s benefits and bless the Lord (Psalm 103:1-5). Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not ALL his benefits, who forgives ALL MY iniquity, who heals ALL MY diseases, who REDEEMS MY LIFE from the pit, who CROWNS ME with steadfast love and mercy, who SATISFIES ME with good so that my youth is renewed like the eagle’s. (Emphasis mine, ESV)

“And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. But the angel said to the women, ‘Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he is risen, as he said. Come see the place where he lay.’” Matthew 28: 2, 5, 6 (ESV)

(3.) Proclaim your redemption story.

My name is ____________ and this is my redemption story. I was lost, now I’m found. I was blind, but now I see. Jesus rescued me from myself, other gods, sin, spiritual death, and the enemy.

The blood of Christ covers me. God saved me. I’m redeemed. The heavenly Father gave me eternal and everlasting life. I’m a new creation. I walk in freedom and victory over the power of darkness.

Abundant life is mine. Jesus is mine. The Holy Spirit lives in me. There’s an empty tomb and a risen Savior center stage in my story. Because Jesus is alive and well, it is well with my soul.

Jesus Rose From the Dead: What This Means:

The triune God canceled our eternal punishment and death. The resurrection gave us everlasting life.
Jesus’ blood canceled our sin debt. The resurrection gave us grace.
God canceled our former life. The resurrection gave us new life.
Our Father canceled the enemy’s bondage. The resurrection gave us freedom.