Matthew 7:24–29 prayer
24“Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25“And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. 26“Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27“The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell—and great was its fall.”
28When Jesus had finished these words, the crowds were amazed at His teaching; 29for He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.
Focused Thinking: Focusing on prayer today.
Personal Application:
Interactive Prayer:
Father, I pray that I will always act on Your words. Your words are of no value to others and me if I don’t act upon them. Give me the ability to review the Sermon on the Mount and to make it really clear and concise in my life and in the lives of others. Father, far too many people hear Your words but don’t obey Your words. Help me to be the man who focuses on obedience. Help me to be the man of God You desire me to be. Help me to be what Karin needs me to be as well as what Mark and Annika need me to be. Help me to build my house on the rock. Help me to help others build their life on the rock.
Father, help really understand the seriousness of having Your Word. When you tell us something we must receive it as from You. When the Holy Spirit applies the truth to our life we must not take it casually. Father, we are far too casual with the Word. Forgive us for neglecting to read the Word. Forgive us for making excuses about reading the Word. Father, I fear that the majority of our people have already allowed the truths of the “My Priority Time” series to be forgotten. Father, show us that we cannot live without Your Word just like we can’t live without food. Father, it feels like we spend far too much time trying to get people to do the basics, but we must never give up. Give us the strength to not grow weary in doing good. Father, anoint our efforts and give us great creativity and tenacity in helping people “read the Word of God to know the God of the Word.” Father, I fear that we give up too early in this process. Father, we must become people of the Word to be people of God. The more we know Your Word the more we know You. The more we know You the more we love You. The more we love You the more we glorify You.
Father, help us help people prioritize building their lives and their families on the rock. Forgive us for not loving You enough and for loving the world more. We will never love the world less until we love You more. We will never love ourselves less until we love You more. We will never love and serve others more until we love You more. Father, I feel so discouraged by our people’s love of money and materialism. We are buying all the classic lies of the enemy. Every lie leads us to self-destruction. Please cause a fresh wind of revival to sweep through our church. Father, bring godly sorrow to our people for our casual walks. Father, give us the ability to see how far we have fallen from the biblical standard. Show us what it looks like to live for You in our culture. Father, raise up leaders who will be the example. Raise up connect group leaders who will model the life instead of just lead the group. Give us the ability as a church to redefine our groups to focus on mission and to live on mission. Give us the ability to focus on serving inside and outside the church. Give us the ability to see serving from Your perspective. Give us ability to see it as our lives in Christ as the dominant purpose of our lives, not a secondary purpose.
Father, give us the ability to be strong, bold and courageous Christians. Give us a holy discontent with the TAMED Christian life. Give us a passion to live an UNTAMED life for Christ. Father, give us the desire and commitment to count the cost of following You and serving You. Give us the understanding that we are sent out just as the seventy were sent out. Father, give us a passion for the harvest. I pray that You would call people to be laborers tomorrow. Father, I pray that You will surpass every excuse and cause people to sign up to take a test drive. Father, move in our people’s hearts tomorrow to be laborers for the harvest. Father, I know they won’t have all the information, but all we are asking for is a first serve. Give me the ability to communicate effectively for people to be convicted by Your Spirit and to obey. Father, do something beyond human ability tomorrow.
Give people a vision for the harvest tomorrow. Give people a personal commitment to the harvest. Give people a heart connection to the harvest. Give people confidence that they are gifted and called to serve. Give people the confidence to believe that they can make a difference and that we can make a difference. Call people to get personally invested in specific ministries. I pray for You to raise up people like the Kuhlmans. I pray that You will double our number of servants. I pray for people to get attached to specific ministries and to become passionate about those ministries.
I pray that You will meet the needs of our children’s ministry, our middle school ministry and our high school ministry. I pray that You will call people to our college and singles ministries. Give us families that are willing to adopt those ministries and completely invest their lives in the college group and the single’s group. Father, raise up leaders who will do exceedingly abundantly beyond all that we can ask or think tomorrow. Father, give people a vision for Connect. Call forth incredible teachers, leaders and connectors. Give us people who makes groups the expression of the Christian life. Give us people critical mass in our groups. Fill our groups up and give people the opportunity to make friends. Father, give people a passion for celebrate recovery, single parents, and Overton students. Father, give us gifted leaders. Give us experienced leaders. Give us the people who will take the ball and run with it. Give us more Bev Elliots. Father, give us people who are self-starter and who will take our church to the next level.
Father, give us people who will go out as lambs in the midst of wolves. Give us the ability to reach people who are disconnected from God. Give us the ability to be the “Friend of Sinners” that befriends the worst of the worst. Give us favor as a friend to the sinners and tax-collectors. Father, bless our vision to be “a perfect place for imperfect people.” Give us the ability to embody that message and to be a living expression of the gospel. Father, give us the ability to be light in the midst of darkness. Give us the ability to be expressions of faith, hope, and love. Father, make us a people who is awesome at loving people as You love people. Father, make us a church for the prodigals. Make a church that has the privilege and joy of celebrating when the prodigals come home. Father, help us bring both sons home, the one in the pig pen, and the one working in the fields.
Father, grow the core at Highpoint. Give us the ability to grow and mature our believers. Father, give us the transfer growth needed to come help us grow people. Father, give our people a passion to serve. Help us to eliminate excuses and to go with no money belt, no bag, and no shoes. Father, give us the ability to believe You and to tell people that “The kingdom of God has near to you.” Father, give us favor with people. Give us the ability to meet people of peace who are connector and open up new harvest to sow, to plant, and to reap. Father, I pray that the people of Memphis will be receptive to our message. I pray that You will anoint our message and give us favor as Your messengers. I pray that people will receive us, listen to us, and respond to You as their Lord and Savior.
Father, give us the encouragement of victories along the way. Father, the seventy returned with joy. Father, I beg You right now to give us encouraging experiences like this one. Give us the opportunity to see You work in and through us. Give us the privilege of making You happy. Give us the excitement of watching You watch Satan fall from heaven like lighting. Father, give us the ability to truly kick Satan’s you know what. Father, give us authority over evil and over the enemy. Give us the ability to truly defeat evil in people’s lives and in the city of Memphis. Give us the ability to overthrow the enemy in the city of Memphis. Give us to ability to literally destroyed domains that he has established here over the years. Give us victory over the racial issues. Give us victory over the drug issues. Give us victory over the divorce issues. Give us victory over the education issues. Father, make us a church that aggressively goes to battle against the enemy and kicks his butt. Your word tells us “nothing will injure you,” give us the ability to live on mission with the confidence that “nothing will injure us.”
Father, we desire to see all of that happen, but also give us the ability to rejoice in our position as children of God. Give us a true understanding of the riches of knowing You. Father, give us the ability to receive Your love and to respond to Your love with love. Father, make us a people who are grateful that we are sons and daughters of God. Give us the ability to rejoice in You regardless of circumstances. Father, give us the ability to live as UNTAMED instead of TAMED. Give us the ability to make Jesus rejoice greatly in the Lord. I pray that we would live our lives hoping to cause the Son to praise the Father.
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