Believing the Promises of God

I have little interest in formulas or methods for "making prayer work."  Sure, there are a lot of things that I ask God to do that I think might make my life better or the life of people I care about.  However, I know of no assurance from scripture that God will do what I ask and my lifetime of experience teaches me the same.  Sometimes God is pleased to answer my requests and sometimes he answers in other ways. 

As we studied this morning, the Prayer of Faith is different.  It's not asking God to do whatever it is that I think might be a good idea; it's asking him to fulfill his promises.  If God has promised that my life has been made new in Christ (Rom. 6:4), then I can pray in faith that he will help me live this new life.  That is a prayer that God has promised to answer. 

Praying the scriptures is one of the best ways I have found to pray the promises of God.  I particularly enjoy praying the prayers of the New Testament epistles.  Each week I send a form letter to those who visit our Sunday service.  I have five different letters I send depending upon how many times someone has visited.  In each letter I include a prayer from the New Testament and I pray that prayer before signing each letter.  I pray those prayers in faith believing that God will do exactly what I ask, because I am praying based on his promises.  An example would be from the book of Philippians, "And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ--to the glory and praise of God" (1:9-11).  I am confident that God will answer these prayers if the person is willing to receive God's help. 

Develop the habit of asking God to do what he has promised to do and then watch as he answers your prayers.  This can be a most enjoyable part of one's faith journey.  Believe God's promises.  Pray God's promises.  Then, watch as God keeps his promises.

Happy Father's Day

For the first time in well over three decades my father was able to celebrate Father's Day with all of his children in the same room.  My dad has three sons and each of us have one daughter.  The girls got together over a year ago working on a plan to get all their fathers together at the same time.  It was difficult to find a place and time but after a lot of effort, it was decided that we should all go high in the Rocky Mountains to Buena Vista, Colorado. 

Mom and Dad live in Fort Collins, Colorado which is about a 4 hour drive.  My brother Paul lives in Canton, Texas and he had to drive about 16-18 hours to get here.  My oldest brother, Barry flew in from Los Angeles and I few in from Houston.  Paul came with his entire family (including his granddaughter, minus his son-in-law).  My daughter Elizabeth and her husband Jaime flew in from San Antonio and Barry's daughter, Beverly flew with him.  Of course my mom is with us as well.

Since Paul had to leave at 5 this morning we celebrated Father's Day last night.  There were a few cards and presents given but the most special part of the event was that we were all together.  Thank you Beverly, Elizabeth, and Kelley for making it happen.  Fathers deserve to be honored and you have given my dad the greatest gift possible.

Abraham's Story

I saw this bumpersticker online and found it thought provoking.  As we saw in today's sermon, Abraham cerainly had enough failures to qualify for the guilt trip!
Thankfully, however, he continued his faith journey. 

Reflecting on Abraham's story, I'm once again reminded of how easy life looks when examined from the end.  In other words, since we know how everything will turn out, we have trouble truly appreciating the stuggle Abraham faced. "Of course God will fulfill his promises", we say to Abraham as he questions God's ability.  "Just hang on", we encourage him, "Everything will turn out fine, it's just going to take a few more years." 

I think that's what the Holy Spirit is continually whispering in our ears.  "Don't give up, don't give in.  I know how this is all going to work out and it will be so worth it if you stay on the journey."  As we continue our series this summer you will find this to be a common element in everyone's journey.  The struggles come because we can't see how things will turn out.  That's why living as a Christian requires faith.  We can't see the end from the beginning, but we trust the One who can.  Faith is living in that trust from day to day.