“God, we thank you for the inspiration of Jesus. Grant that we will love you with all our hearts, souls, and minds, and love our neighbors as we love ourselves, even our enemy neighbors. And we ask you, God, in these days of emotional tension, when the problems of the world are gigantic in extent and chaotic in detail, to be with us in our going out and our coming in, in our rising up and in our lying down, in our moments of joy and in our moments of sorrow, until the day when there shall be no sunset and no dawn. Amen.”
– Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
This past weekend, I had the privilege and opportunity to head to Caswell with our youth group. Big thanks to the Brotherhood and the men of our church for covering the service this past Sunday, freeing me up to travel with them. Phil Talbert brought a great, humble message about how God is always at work in us and through us throughout the chapters of our lives. I hope you will take time to listen and watch this week’s service.
On the winter retreat, our group of 67 (67!!!) stayed at a large house together where we slept, ate, and had our sessions. Church, you would have been so proud of our youth. They are a great group of kids. They listened well, asked insightful questions, and were sensitive to what God was doing throughout the weekend.
This weekend we focused on prayer as our theme was, “Without Ceasing.” Our theme verse was 1 Thessalonians 5:17, which simply says, “pray without ceasing.” Pray without ceasing… pray continually… pray all the time… As we discussed with the youth this weekend, prayer is not a checklist of things we have to do. Prayer is something we get to do. Prayer is how we get to know God. Prayer is how we hear from God. Prayer is to God, but it is for us. It is not about whether we sit or stand; hold our hands together or a part; get on our knees or walk around…it’s not about our posture. It’s not about our location; we can pray anywhere. It’s not about how we feel; we can pray happy, angry, sad, confused…we can pray with any emotion. We just need to pray without ceasing…for our own sake. The power of prayer brings us close to our Creator God who wants to be in relationship with us.
God always hears our prayers. Sometimes the answer is “Yes.” But other times the answer is “No,” or simply, “Wait.” We need to forget about doing it “the right way” or being worried about God not wanting to hear from us. Get to know Him through the scriptures and you will see a Heavenly Father who has been chasing after and redeeming His creation, His people, since the beginning of time.
It was a great reminder for me to pray without ceasing. I hope it encourages you to do the same.
Prayer: Dear God, thank you for hearing our prayers. In Jesus name, Amen.
Grace and peace,
Aaron