Tag: prayer

Keep Believing

Posted on by Dorci

“And immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, ‘Lord, I
believe. Help my unbelief.’”
Mark 9:24

Twenty-seven and a half years ago I believed in Jesus Christ as my Lord and my Savior.

Since then I have had countless opportunities to believe in His love for me despite my circumstances, to believe He had a plan in the middle of confusing trials, to believe He heard every prayer, to believe He understood me in my pain, to believe He was not finished with me even when it felt like He was.

For some funny reason, it’s always been easier for me to believe in God for the “big” things rather than the smaller ones.

I knew God would provide us a place to live; I knew God would provide a job for my husband; I knew God would bless my little son at Christmas when we couldn’t.

But, oh, those countless “little” things…  When I’ve trusted in my eyes more than I’ve believed; when I’ve trusted in my understanding more than I’ve believed; when I’ve trusted in my own effort more than I’ve believed.

And I wonder how much I’ve missed out on, how many more blessings I would have had if I’d taken that same belief I had at salvation and applied it every, single time.

“Abram believed the Lord, and He credited it to him as righteousness. “
Genesis 15:6

God puts a lot of stock in belief.

It’s not about what we do, it’s not about who we are, it’s about Whom we believe.

And there is only One worthy of our belief.

If we are going to be followers of Christ, we will daily, consciously, make the decision to take the belief we had at the moment of our salvation, and believe Him for everything else.

Why would I ever believe that Christ died for the sins of a singular, unimportant, obscure little girl who lives 2000 years after His death and resurrection, called her by name, and then somehow think He forgot about her afterward?

He hasn’t, and He never will.

My belief in Him need not ever waiver.

He sees each and every one of us, and He is intimately acquainted with our comings and goings, with our every trial – big and small, with every tear, with every, single, solitary detail.

Nothing gets by Him.

The truth is, it’s a choice.  Every day we have the choice to believe in Him – to believe He’s there right by our side, to believe He’s with our loved ones, to believe He wants the best for us, to believe He’s in our futures, to believe He’s bigger, much, much bigger, than our past mistakes.

While we can’t lose our salvations, unbelief is as much a sin after we’re saved than it is before. 

The absence of belief in Christ for a particular situation will create a vacuum that’s usually filled with fear, and that can create a whole slew of messes in our wake.

Choosing belief in Christ or to be moved out of fear will determine the decisions we make and the roads we take.

I know it’s hard to keep believing sometimes when the trials seem out of control, when the world around us is a big, complicated mess.  

But keep believing anyway.

I know when I’ve stood in belief in my prayers for a situation, God has answered.  It’s when I waiver in my belief in prayer that He waits until I stand on faith in who God is – my Loving Savior – to answer me.  He desires belief because it is the pathway to our righteousness.

God knows we’re all a work in progress, though, that the sanctification of our souls is not yet fully realized, that it is what we and the Lord are moving toward.  

As with every sin, when we repent – when we turn around and do the righteous thing – in this case, choose to believe in Him, and ask God to help us with our unbelief, He will forgive us and set us back on the right path.

We then consciously walk on that path of belief, in full faith and trust in Him – in who He is, in His plans for us, in His love for us, in His grace and mercy that are continually poured out because of His goodness and faithfulness.

 

“Father, please help us when we are tempted to not believe in you.  To not believe in all you say you are.  To not believe in your love for us.  To not believe in your plans for us.  To give way to fear instead of believing in your holy perfection and your promises to us.  Please help us choose belief over fear, self, the world, or anything else outside of you.  May our constant belief in you be witnesses of your glory and power. In the Name of Yeshua Hamashiach, amen.”

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Posted on by Dorci

“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”  John 17:20-23

Jesus prayed this prayer for you and for me.  The abundant life Jesus had talked about stems from this one thing: that we yield ourselves to God with such fullness that we become one with Him.  That it is His life that flows through us – His mind we think and make decisions with, His heart we love unconditionally with, His eyes of grace and mercy we see others through, His strength we serve with.

I pray that Jesus’ prayer for us is answered more and more in the coming year, and that we come to live the abundant life He promises to us.  Everything we search for, everything we use in this world to try to fulfill our desires stem from our inherent need to be reconciled fully to Christ.

He is our abundant life.

And not only is that abundant life for ourselves, but the world needs to see us living it.  It needs to see a compass that points to true life.  The world desperately searches for hope and it needs to see that hope is found in Christ and in Him alone.  We are the chosen lights to point them to Him, if only we will.

May the Lord fill your lives in the coming year with faith and hope, strength and courage, love and peace.  May He be yours and you His.

In the mighty Name of Yeshua HaMashiach (Jesus, the Anointed One),

2016 National Day of Prayer

Posted on by Dorci

2016 National Day of Prayer
 

 

Friends,
Tomorrow, Thursday, May 5, is our National Day of Prayer.

If our beloved country were ever at a crucial crossroads, it is now.  And if we ever needed an opportunity to come together on one day to lift up fervent prayers to Almighty God on behalf of our cracked and crumbling nation it is tomorrow.

I am personally brokenhearted at the direction I see our country moving, at the lives being destroyed and the hatred being shouted.  We cannot continue to live as though there is no God, as if we can govern it or riot it or picket it or troll it all away.  We cannot continue to just hope it will somehow get better.  Hearts must be changed and only God, through faith in Jesus Christ, can do that.  

It is time to humble ourselves and repent of our own sins first, and then pray for God’s mercy on this land.

I believe there is still hope for God’s peace to return IF we will each – in faith – seek Him for grace and forgiveness.

I believe He is waiting for us to do just that.  

May His love and wisdom and discernment in prayer go with each of you.  

 

“…if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways,
then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”
2 Chronicles 7:14

The Only Way to Heaven

Posted on by Dorci

“Jesus is ‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone.’ Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” Acts 4:12

No other name. Not the allah of islam, not gautama buddha, not mahatma gandhi, not the pope, not good works, not self, not any other god. Regardless of one’s belief, the truth is that there is only one God – the Creator of the universe and of every living thing – on whom we can call who has the power, through His Son’s death, to forgive our sins and prepare a place for us with Him in heaven.

Many believe Jesus to be just another name in a long list of good men, prophets, whatever. But Jesus set Himself apart from all others.

He healed when no one else could, He loved when no one else would. He rose the dead and forgave sin.

Over and over He bucked the religious system – that of every other god – to do His Father’s will, to be the living logos of the Father Himself. He repeated “I and the Father are one.” John 10:30

Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6

Not a way, not a truth, not a life. He is THE only, and no one else can or ever has claimed that. No one. No one else is the bridge to the Living God but Christ who allowed Himself to be betrayed, whipped, tortured and nailed to a cross to be the sacrifice to pay for our sins.

And then His righteousness and power over death were proved on the third day when, despite the seal on the tomb, despite the strictly ordered guard, the stone was rolled away and the tomb was empty.

He had risen from the grave and the Bible tells us He appeared to His disciples and over five hundred people at one time before He ascended back into heaven.

And after He ascended, He appeared to Saul, one of the greatest persecutors of Christians at the time, and Saul believed in Him, his name was changed to Paul, and he became one of the greatest living proponents for the truth of Christ, and he wrote more that became the New Testament than any other author.

Because time has past doesn’t make the truth any less true.

No other god can forgive sins. No other god promises to be the way to heaven. No other grave of any god is empty.

That may sound narrow or restrictive. But in actuality, Jesus is the most inclusive way there is. Every other god says you have to do…this or that to earn forgiveness. Other gods say only certain people can go to heaven. The way of those religions is actually far more restrictive, and they are actually dead ends that don’t lead to heaven at all, but instead to an eternity far from the presence of God and everything that is of God: love, joy, peace and everything good.

Jesus says anyone can go to heaven if they will simply believe in Him. Doesn’t matter their age, their gender, their color, their past beliefs, their past religions, their past sins, their past anythings! If you will believe in who He says He was (and is), believe in what He said, believe that He is the Son of God who died to pay for your sins and who rose from the grave and has the power to give you spiritual life both now and after this life, tell Him right now, ask Him to come into your life, and you will be saved.

None of us has tomorrow promised to us. I think any of us can look around at our own families, to those of loved ones, and to the world to know that’s true.

Don’t wait. Believe in Him now. He waits at the door of your life and He knocks. What you do with Christ is the most crucial decision you will make your entire life. Your eternity depends on it. I promise you, you will never regret it. And you will have a Friend for life.

In Christ,
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Praying for America

Posted on by Dorci

Moses did it when God’s people turned away from Him and worshipped an idol of their own making. Nehemiah did it when the city of God had been overrun and lay in devastating and shameful ruins.

Esther, together with God’s people, did it when they faced annihilation by God’s enemies. Gideon did it when the Israelites had turned away from God and their enemies continually sought to oppress them.

Ezra did it when God’s people turned away from Him yet again.
And Daniel did it when the years of Babylonian captivity were coming to an end.

All these, and many others – men and women just like you and me – lifted up prayers to the God of all mercy to save and protect them and their beloved city, always when their enemy seemed stronger, when evidence seemed stacked against them, when they were few and weakened.

But God loves to show Himself strong on behalf of those who will humble themselves and seek Him with repentant hearts.

He is still El Roi – The God Who Sees Me, and El Shama – The God Who Hears Me.

He is still El Channun – The Gracious God, and El Hanne’eman – The Faithful God. He is still El Nasa – the God Who Forgave, and El Mauz – God My Strength.

He is still El Yeshuah – God of My Salvation, and Immanu’el – God With Us.

I believe God gave this land that we would be a people who would give Him glory and who would stand with His beloved Israel. But we’ve turned far away from Him.

It’s time to look up like so many did before us, and pray for forgiveness and mercy. I can’t imagine this country in another twenty years if we don’t come together and turn our hearts back to Almighty God and live holy lives worthy of the calling we’ve received.

Only God can do this and I believe He wants to. I believe He is standing by waiting for us to call on Him with sincere hearts.

Tomorrow I’ll be fasting and praying for the future of our country and for the body of Christ to rise up and be a light in this dark and dying world. If anyone wants to join me, we can lift our voices together to El Elyon – the Most High God.

“Unless the LORD builds the house, the builders labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain.” Psalm 127:1

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