Psalm 84:5a Happy are those who are strong in the LORD,...
I love this verse. Well I love all the verses but this one, even though it is really the first half, has a dramatic impact on my mind. As most of you know, for most of my life, I was in a pastoral position, either as an associate or senior pastor. They were challenging years and those spent as a youth pastor were the best of my life. I can't explain how blessed I have been to work with High School and Junior High School students. If you were one of them, and many of you were, thank you for coming to the ministry and thank you for the impact you had on me. OK so I have digressed. I am supposed to be reflecting on our verse for today. Well I brought ministry to mind because for about 18 years, I had people asking me what was the reason for the success of our ministry called His House.
I was never exactly sure what to say because I knew that they were looking for some practical thing that we were doing that set us apart from the other youth ministries in the area. There were so many things that could have been said, that it almost wasn't a good idea to get into them or we would have been talking all day and all night. What I finally concluded was that our strength of ministry was in the Lord. We were faithful to Him. We declared His gospel every week and saw young people come to faith in Christ almost every week. We had no real strength. We were just like all the other youth ministries, run by great guys. We were blessed, that is really the bottom line.
I remember times of difficulty, you can be sure of that, and I remember spending hours in prayer over one or more of the students there. I remember someone reminding me of the power of prayer and I have referred to that myself. However, as I look at this verse today I am constrained to say that there really is no power in prayer. OK please keep reading an don't tune me out. Consider this: the only power that exists is in the Lord and nowhere else. It is not the power or prayer that accomplishes anything. It is the power of God that does. We have no magic power in the words that we pray. We cannot demand, bargain, barter, plead, promise, cajole or anything else in order to get God to do what we want. We lay our praise and petitions at His feet and then He does what He knows is the best for His plan which, in turn, is the best for us and everyone else. When He then acts, we observe and learn more about His ways and desires which then have to opportunity to become our ways and desires. As our ways and our desires, become more closely entwined with His, our prayers appear to become more powerful but, in fact, remain as powerless as ever. It is the target of our prayer, the all powerful God, that holds the power.
Why is this so important? Because there will be times when you don't feel like praying. Times when you may think that if you pray a certain prayer you will be hypocritical. You may think 'what's the use?' Well when those feelings fall on you, and they will, just remember that the power needed to answer prayer does not come from you: how you feel, what you think or how difficult the situation is. Your strength is in the Lord and, when you finally understand that fully, you will find the happiness that you have been looking for because you will be able to rest, relax and let God be God. Let Him take the corrective steps that will straighten out any difficulty.
Do you have something that you have been wrestling with? Stop. Stop wrestling. Talk to God. Give it to Him and find rest. No matter what happens please remember that He will answer you prayer the second you say Amen. It might be yes, it might be No or it might be wait but it will always be right.
May He bless you today and thanks for subscribing to Theos Devos. Do you know someone who might like to receive these devos? Please ask them to drop a note to ted426@gmail.com and simply say: subscribe to Theos Devos and they will begin receiving them the next week. Always free and always confidential. Do you have a prayer request? Please simply respond to this email and share the request and I will be sure to pray for you.
Theo
Dear Small Group Leader (or soon to be Facilitator)
Please allow everyone in your group to answer the Quick Question. It will get things started on the right foot, encouraging quieter ones to open up. Please do not require everyone to answer every question. They may not be ready to share yet. Also please allow at least 5-10 minutes at the end of your study so as many as would like to can respond to the REFLECTION question. This may be the most important time in your small group study. Thank You
SMALL GROUP BIBLE STUDY
Please Read: Psalm 84:1-12
QUICK QUESTION: Apart from people, what is the one thing you like the best?
What lesson from life did this Psalmist miss?
Why did this writer want to return to God's house?
What did this Psalmist think about the temple?
What did the Psalmist finally conclude?
Do you ever feel like not going to a church meeting? If so, why?
REFLECTION: How can you prepare yourself for worship this week?
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