Holy Prayerful Life

 

Prayer and a holy life are inter-connected.  They act and react with another.  Neither can thrive alone.  Obviously, Jesus taught us to use our personal prayer “closet” (chamber or specific place) to pray.  But a holy life must not, it cannot, be lived in the closet.

Monks hidden away in a monastery never touch the outside world.  How can our light shine if it is hidden?

The danger for us, for the modern-day church, is ceaseless activity and tons of ministries, minus effective prayer.  Surely we can find a way to balance the two.

My burden is to see us “come out of the closet” with vocal, corporate prayer and learn to lead our church members into gathering for prayer and then hitting the streets with ministry, backed by the power of God.  This is the pattern we see merge in the book of Acts.  In Acts 4:31-33 they prayed together corporately, then God endued them with His power.  They then went out, they witnessed, they won souls and the church expanded.

As we learn to cry out to God, God will respond to our cries, He will move among us and help us to do ministry. In Acts 12 the whole church cried out to God for a common purpose, a specific purpose (Peter’s dilemma) and they saw results.

Let’s live for God and work for God. Serve the Lord, but let’s not neglect to pray!


The Pastor's Pocket

Pastor Bruce Freeman


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Not Home Yet

Image
 As Christians, we’re destined for something much better than what this world has to offer!  As the old song says, “This world is not my home, I’m just a passin’ through, my treasure is laid up somewhere beyond the blue…And I can’t feel at home in this world anymore.” The Bible tells us our time on earth is brief (Psalm 103:15 / James 4:4).  If we’ve trusted Jesus as our Savior, our eternal home is heaven.  Therefore we are seen as pilgrims just passing through here.  We are aliens, strangers to this present, evil world system. Isn’t it silly? We spend so much time trying to “have it all” here and now, when in reality we already have it all “in Christ”.  Abundant life that Jesus told us about doesn’t have anything to do with having an abundance of things.  It has to do with the quality of life we possess with all the spiritual riches that come from knowing Christ. God warns us not to love this world.  We must never get too attached to “stuff”....
Read more

Humbly but Boldly

Image
  Fervent prayer goes way back.  We know that prayer was a distinctive priority for the early church (Acts 1:14, 2:42, 3:1, 6:4 and many other verses). Calling on the Lord is seen in the life of the prophets; Habakkuk 3:1, Jonah 2:7, Daniel 7:17 and 9:13, Nehemiah 1:6 and 4:9, David in Psalm 4:1, 6:9 and 17:1. But prayer goes back even before Moses and Abraham!  In fact, the first mention of men calling upon the Lord occurs in Genesis 4:25 and 26. Yes, right in the book of Genesis – the book of beginnings. Before there was anything called the church, before there was a Bible, a choir, or any kind of “service” like we have today, men were calling upon the name of the Lord.  From the godly line of Seth, men somehow sensed they could call out to God and He would answer, He would listen and He would respond! The first prayers had sound! It was the sound of men expressing their needs, desires, and praises to God. My point is this: crying out to God in prayer is not some n...
Read more

Thank You

Image
Hello everyone, Pastor Bruce here with an important announcement regarding our daily devotionals known as “The Pastor’s Pocket.” After today, these will be discontinued.   I am so thankful to each of you who have enjoyed reading these devotionals and I trust the Lord has encouraged you through each one. I challenge you, as Peter does, to “grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18).   It is my desire that you will continue in your own personal study of the word of God. Learn the Word, Love the Word, Live the Word!   There may come a time when I can write these again, but for now, I will devote my time to other areas of ministry and ways to serve Him! “To HIM be all the glory both now and forever. AMEN!”   The Pastor’s Pocket Pastor Bruce Freeman
Read more