The Gospel

Struggles with Prayer?

The other night I went to a house to house meeting with some of my Church family. Every fortnight we get together to fellowship, share what’s been happening in our lives, discuss and learn the word of God and we pray.

Now Prayer is an important part of every Christians walk in Christ. This is how we speak with our Father in Heaven. I have been feeling a little down lately about my prayer life. I haven’t been able to find the right words to say or even know what to pray about at times, and have been feeling condemned and guilty. I know that condemnation and Guilt are not of God but this has been a very hard thing for me to deal with.

At the meeting, the prayer in the room was fantastic and I could feel the Spirit moving. But then all of a sudden I got distracted by guilt. Everyone there where praying amazing prayers and were declaring with such passion. I wanted to stand with them and pray something amazing as well but I couldn’t get anything out. My mind started saying to me, “What’s wrong with you? You call yourself a Christian yet you can’t stand with your Brothers and Sisters in Christ and pray to your Heavenly Father”. I was completely shattered by these thoughts. There have been times over the Last 4 years since my Salvation where prayer for me has been amazing, to the point where people have said to me they felt the ground move as I spoke.

Anyway, after the meeting I went home and said to my wife,” I don’t know what’s happened but I can’t pray”. She said to me, “You can pray!! You probably don’t know what to say”. I thought about that and wondered, what happens in this situation when your heart desires to pray but you don’t know what to say or what to pray about?. I got into the word this morning to find out and God showed me this scripture:

Romans 8:26-27

(v 26)   In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.

(v 27)   And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the Saints in accordance with Gods will.

If anyone reading this has had this same problem, take comfort in this scripture. We have no reason to feel condemned or Guilty because God also says this:

Romans  8:28

(v 28)   And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

God is good all the time. He has shown us Grace and Mercy by sending Jesus to take our sins to the Cross, to die and rise again so we can be set free from the bondage of Sin and have Eternal Life. He also sent the Holy Spirit to dwell within us, to help teach and Guide us in Truth. He has worked for the good of us even in our Prayer Life.

 If I don’t know what to pray about, the Holy Spirit sure does.

Thank You Lord God.

Don’t Look Back

How many of us who are saved, have looked back while walking with Christ at our old worldly ways, and have found themselves missing their sinful life? I admit that I have a number of times. I think what I missed the most was doing what I wanted to do when I wanted to do it. I remember thinking to myself that my old lifestyle meant freedom, compared to living as a Christian where I felt I couldn’t do anything that I wanted to, without being judged for it. But the reality is, I was lacking wisdom and was some what immature, not realising that my Old lifestyle had me in Bondage to death.

Romans 6: 6-7 says “Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin”.

                          7. ”For he who has died has been freed from sin”.

Romans 9:10 says   “For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all, but the life that He lives, He lives for God.

These Scriptures show us that our old sinful lives died on the cross with Christ. We are no longer slaves to our old ways, and we have been freed from the bondages of sin though our Lord Jesus. When we look backwards, although we are free in Christ, it can prevent us from moving forward. Jesus set the example by living for God, for us to copy his example we must move forward and let go of our past.

Luke 9: 61-62 says  “And another also said, Lord, I will follow you, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house”.

                       62.    But Jesus said to him,”No one, having put his hand to the plow,and looking back, is fit for the Kingdom of God”.

When we gave our lives to the Lord, we died to our old selves and became new in Christ. For us as believers, there is no looking back. What was is no longer.

Romans 6:21  “What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death”

As a Sinner, everything I did was leading me to death, of which I have felt shame for. But as a Believer in Christ, I have been cleaned and set free through the Blood of Jesus. So why look back at a life that bared no fruit? As Christians we are to be a decisive people. The decision to receive Eternal Life through Jesus Christ and serve the Lord is our first, but we also need to decide whether we look forward or whether we slow down our progress by looking backwards.

Galatians 5:1   “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with the yoke of bondage”.

As enticing as it can be at times to do what we used to do, we all need to remind ourselves that we have been set free. Freedom for us is moving forward in God and learning to live righteously. Dwelling on the past only pulls us back into Bondage and hampers our walk with Christ.

Let’s all Celebrate having Freedom in Christ and enjoy the Truth about our inheritance, ETERNAL LIFE.

God Bless yall