Tuesday, October 23, 2007

For SCC - Steve at Lee Memorial "Praying Expectantly" 10-21-07


Lee Memorial and Sunrise Community Church are moving into a ministry partnership in which the two churches will remain as two churches doing ministry together. The leaders from each church have been meeting together since early August and it was recently decided to serve Christ as partners. For more on this see the Blogs dated 10-21-07.


As followers of Jesus Christ we are to pray expectantly. We are to ask of god and watch for the answer. Prayer is not passive. Prayer is active. Praying is not to be done lightly it is to be done with purpose, thought, and anticipation. In order to begin to pray with expectation we have to realize that God is able to answer our prayers and is bigger than us, has the power to move in us, around us and through us, and we must pray in and by faith (See Ephesians 3:20-21, Matthew 6:9-10, Hebrews 11). As we begin to realize that god is able we also need to pray with more purpose. We need to be more intentional in our personal prayer life and in our community prayer life. We need to remember what we have requested and watch for the answer. Praying with purpose takes thought, discipline, effort, work, and time. Intentional praying is wonderful and is preceded by thought about God, His Word, His Way, His Will and seeks to honor God. Expectant prayer watches for the answer throughout the day. When we are praying expectantly we will remember what we requested and we will live and watch with anticipation for the answer to our request. We will also begin to align our lives with the answer. We will begin to live in such a manner that our lives are already in tune with the answer to our request of God. Our living is in line with our request. Our lifestyle matches up with our prayer. We not only begin to watch for the answer with hope, but we also begin to live in hope and passion. Asking God for something and living opposite of that request is not expectant praying. Calling out to God and then living in faith for the answer is praying expectantly. When we pray in this way we will experience positive life change and we will live a life of personal metamorphosis towards Christ likeness.

For more see: Jeremiah 33:3, Philippians 4:6-7, John 15-17, Matthew 7:7-11, Psalm Chapters 3, 4, 5, 6.

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