Does God answer prayer? (part 1)

Is your prayer life filled with POWER and EFFECTIVENESS?  

James said that "the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective".  

Things I hear from people about prayer:

• I do not know how to pray - I ask God for things and they do not happen
• I read the Bible but praying isn't for me.
• I do not have time to pray because I am too busy with life.
• I don't pray because I don't feel like God is listening. 

This is the first of several blogs to address these issues from the experience of many people that have gone on before and from the Word of God. 

But first:

Can I share with you about a group of people that are wrestling in prayer each week for Osceola Grace and our community?

Each Wednesday night in the church office after the Driven Student Ministry and Highway 180 begin, a group of us meets to look at a principle of prayer from the Word of God and then we spend time praying.  

We don't take a lot of time collecting prayer requests - we spend time praying for what is on our hearts and whatever God has laid upon our hearts that week  - we pray and pray and pray.  

We want to see God move and praying together has helped us to catch the vision for what God can do!  

We have seen God moving!

• We prayed for visitors and we have seen more people that need more of Jesus in their life 
• We prayed for community and we are seeing relationships develop
• We pray for lives to be changed and I just heard of someone turning over their life to Jesus Christ for real last week and I hear many stories of people that are planting seeds of the gospel in their fields each week.
• We ask God for joy and contentment while we wait upon him and he gives it!
• We ask him for more passion to pray and we experience it.
• We ask for forgiveness and he grants it
• We ask for more people to pray and he has been bringing more in.  

God is in the business of answering prayer - If you want to be a part of the prayer movement at Osceola Grace then join us at 7pm.

• I have found that my heart is changed as we pray for others.
• I have found that I experience a humility and brokenness before God as we pray together and I hear others share their hearts with God.
• I have found that I am more sensitive to the sin in my life 
• I have discovered a more compassionate place in my heart for others. 

God is changing me as I have the chance to pray for others - it just reminds me that it is not about me at all!

Wrestle with us - Wednesdays at 7PM.

Stay tuned for the the rest of this series "Does God Answer Prayer?" 

Blogging With Purpose

I am not a consistent blogger.
There - I said it and for the nine of you that read my blog - you already know this!
However, I am committed to changing that pattern because I want to increase the impact of sharing how God works in our lives as believers.
 
It is my hope and prayer that God will use my musings to motivate people to be:

• more fervent in their personal prayer life
• more passionate to serve others - in and out of the church
• more intense in their "farming" efforts to plant seeds of the gospel and see a harvest 

So - I will schedule this into my routine - like I am scheduling the above items into it also!

I have discovered that my prayer life is the key to seeing God move.  Truthfully, it is not so much the key to seeing Him move but it is the motivating and driving force in my life to watch Him move and to know when and where He is moving! 

 

I do not pretend to think that by my prayer - God decides to act.  But I do know that the more that I intentionally pray and the more that I let God speak to my heart through listening to His Spirit, I tend to find myself in the right places at the right time to be His instrument!

Second - I have also discovered that I get a great joy out of serving others.  I have found that those that I know who follow God the closest and most wholeheartedly also serve others and lift them up before themselves!

Third - When the first two things are happening - I find that I am more bold in noticing opportunities and speaking into people's hearts about what an amazing God I get to serve.  In other words: When I pray regularly and stay in tune with God's Spirit in me AND when I look for ways to serve others first, I run head long into chances to share about God and to plant the seeds of the gospel.  Lately, it has happened more and more often.

Rather than sit and regret what could have been - I am excited about what is!

I hope to share with you the importance of building your schedule around prayer, service and farming!

What can you do today?

• Start praying and asking God to open your eyes to what He has for you (every day)
• Start looking for people that you could help (invest some time)
• Start thinking about what God has accomplished in you and think about how to verbalize that to others!

Train like you want some results other than what you have always been getting!