This week Jesus teaches us to be bold and persistent in prayer. He talks about grace and about the attitude we should have as we approach God. Finally, he will remind us that his earthly ministry was always meant to end at the cross.
Here is a link to the livestream video:
The interaction between Jesus and the father of a demonized boy is highly instructional.
23 And Jesus said to him, “‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.” 24 Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!”
Heavenly Father,
We know that you are all-powerful and all-good. You deserve every bit of faith and trust that we can give. Sadly, however, that faith and trust is still sometimes sorely lacking. We believe and yet we don’t. We trust you, but not completely. We have faith, sort of, but it wavers almost uncontrollably.
We believe, Lord; help our unbelief! If the faith we have is no more than a mustard seed, please respond by moving the mountains that we face. It may look as if our chances and hopes are dismal, but they are no worse than the hopes of this father with the demonized son. Our challenges are no greater than those of the disciples on the Saturday after Good Friday when your body, Jesus, was still in the tomb.
Please act, Lord! Please hear our prayer! Please pull us up from the depths of our unbelief, doubt and despair, and teach us to trust more fully in you.
It is in your name we pray,
Amen.
Heavenly Father,
Thank you for the love that you expressed by sending your Son to save us from our sins. We are forever grateful that our salvation depends upon your love and Christ’s death and not on anything that we can do for ourselves. He alone has conquered sin and death by rising from the grave.
Left to ourselves, like Peter, we would deny him.
Left to ourselves, we would sleep rather than pray.
Left to ourselves, we might even betray him.
But because of what Jesus did, we can come to you and call you Father. We can put our trust in you when we know that we cannot trust ourselves.
Help us to always give to you that which is most precious to us. Thank you for your great love.
In Christ’s name,
Amen.
Ben Morrison was here from Svitlovodsk, Ukraine a few weeks back. Here is his message based on Psalm 107. Below is a link to the church website and the video that Ben showed us when he was here.
Psalm 107.mp3 (Ben Morrison)
Calvary Chapel Svitovodsk Website
Central Reflections 