Blog
How’s Your Faith
Read more...
The Good News
Read more...
Run Your Race
I want to take a moment in this blog to encourage you about your life and what you will do with it in the New Year. Hopefully you already have thoughts and expectations of the good things God has for you as His son or daughter. So today I want to remind you that God tells us in His Word we are in a race. Hebrews 12:1 tells us, “wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses let us lay aside every weight, and sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us”.
This scripture tells us we have great examples in the Word of how to live this life of faith. Then it tells us we are to do some spiritual housecleaning, which means to get rid of anything that will slow us down or stop us from really doing God’s will. Then lastly it exhorts us not to give up on the race we are in. Did you know that we each have a race to run? Not just pastors or ministers, but we each do as believers. God is saying our Christian life is like a race we run for Him and He wants us to run it to win. So now that I have reminded you about your race, I want to give you 5 things our Christian life or race is about.
5 Things Our Christian Life or Race is About
Read more...
GROW Leadership Blog Pt 2
In the last GROW Leadership Blog I left you with 5 important things that will help you in fulfilling God’s plan for your life. Fulfilling that plan and becoming the leader God wants you to become begins by you leading yourself. In this blog I want to leave you with some important thoughts concerning those steps.
1) Daily Read God’s Word
But Jesus answered and said, “It is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. – Matthew 4:4
Read more...
GROW Leadership Blog Pt 1
Read more...
Winners in Christ
Read more...
The Deity of Christ
It should not come as a surprise to us today, that who Jesus Christ is, has come under attack again. Throughout history His Name and teachings have brought either praise or criticism from mankind. However one thing remains the same, it is only through His Name that salvation comes to mankind (Acts 4:12). As believers we should not be confused about who Jesus Christ is. Therefore, in this short blog I want to look at a few things concerning the deity of Jesus Christ (Deity meaning God and identifying who God is).
Read more...
God Is
Read more...
Effective or Ineffective Prayer Life: The Choice is Yours, Part 3
Today I want to go over a few important things we must know about prayer if we are going to have an effective prayer life. These are all things found in God’s Word about prayer. So many in the world today pray because they know it is the right thing to do but they are only hoping God will hear and answer them because, in reality, they don’t know if He will. Prayer isn’t to be a “hope so thing” but it is to be a “know so thing”. In other words, you have confidence or assurance in knowing God hears and answers your prayers because you have learned to pray prayers that are based upon His Word and His promises to you.
Here are five things you need to know in order to have an effective prayer life. You could call them fundamentals or foundations of effective prayer.
1) All effective prayer is based upon a relationship with God.
- Jesus made the way for us to have a close relationship with God Himself and part of that relationship is built upon prayer.
- All religions pray, but you need a personal relationship with God the Father and that begins by making Jesus the Lord and Savior of your life.
2) Effective prayer prays to the Father in Jesus’ Name.
- In John 16:23-24 Jesus instructs us to pray to the Father, or ask the Father, in His Name.
3) Effective prayer is based upon a relationship with God and His Word in our lives.
- Read John 15:5,7.
- To “abide” implies a relationship. So, our fruit-bearing is dependent upon our relationship with Him.
- Notice verse 7, “. . . abide in Him and His Words abide in you.” Know the Word and pray the Word.
4) Effective prayer is based upon praying or asking according to God’s will.
- Read 1 John 5:14-15.
- God’s Word is His will.
- Our confidence in prayer comes from knowing what it is His will to do for us.
5) Effective prayer believes it receives what it asks for in prayer.
- It does more than just ask, it is confident it receives.
- Faith takes or receives what it asks for in prayer.
- Possibly the greatest words Jesus taught on receiving in prayer is in Mark 11:24.
- Mark 11:24 says, “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”
- God gives, but man must receive.
- Jesus tells us when we will have the answers to our prayers, after we pray and believe we receive those things.
- When are we supposed to believe we receive those things? When we pray and before we have it.
- Jesus calls this faith in God, and faith in God is necessary for our prayers to be answered.
These five steps will help you have an effective prayer life and get your prayers answered. So, learn these and start praying in faith today.
– Pastor Chris Morgan
Effective or Ineffective Prayer Life: The Choice is Yours, Part 2
Praying effectively or getting answers to our prayers is something every believer must learn to do. Our confidence in prayer comes from knowing God’s will, which is His Word, and then trusting God to do for us what He has promised in His Word. 1 John 5:14-15 says, “And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us: and if you know He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions (prayers) that we asked of Him.” So our confidence in prayer must come from the Word of God and what God said to us about prayer.
Even though most believers know prayer should be a part of their lives, there are still misconceptions that keep them from praying. I want to share a few of them in this blog. Many times unanswered prayer stands between the believer and a vibrant prayer life. Then Satan comes and lies to them about prayer and says things like this to our minds:
- God won’t hear and answer your prayers. He didn’t before and He won’t now.
- Prayer is just a waste of time. You’re busy and really don’t have time for that.
- You can pray tomorrow, (tries to get you to put it off or delay it, but most of all not do it).
- Don’t bother God with all your problems and requests; He has more important things to do.
- Prayer is something people do that are more spiritual than you.
- Prayer is not really that big of a deal. God is God and He will do what He wants to do anyway.
- What’s the use; you don’t know how to pray.
You don’t have to feel alone in this! Probably every believer has experienced some, if not all, of these same lies from Satan designed to keep us from having an effective prayer life. You don’t have to let the unanswered prayers of your past, or not knowing how to pray, keep you from having the prayer life you desire. You can learn to pray and have an effective prayer life and you can start learning today!
– Pastor Chris Morgan