GBC Community Update: Moving towards a mature prayer life

Good morning. I hope you’re making this a great week!  We’ll be staring a new teaching series on prayer so my ‘thought for the day’ over the next few weeks will focus on prayer as well. I hope it gives you Good morning. I hope you’re making this a great week!  We’ll be staring a new teaching series on prayer so my ‘thought for the day’ over the next few weeks will focus on prayer as well. I hope it gives you something to consider as we enter into the heat of the summer!

 
 
Join us on Sunday in-person or on our livestream as we start our new spring series “In focus”-God’s call on this church
Sunday we finish up our spring series “IN FOCUS”: God’s call for this church. 
We’ve been examining God’s calling for this church in 4 specific areas of ministry: outreach, small groups, prayer and our Sunday morning experience.
This Sunday I will wrap up and finish the topic of prayer.  What is the difference between the prayer of the Pharisee and the tax collector.  Find out on Sunday morning!
Remember, you can join us as we gather in-person or you can connect through our website www.guelphbiblechapel.ca  our YouTube channel as well as Facebook LIVE
 
 
Thought for the day: Steps Towards a Mature Prayer Life
We’re going to be looking at prayer over the summer on Sundays since its been a while since we’ve spent any significant time on this crucial element of living as a triumphant disciple of Jesus. So, for the next couple of weeks I’ll be sharing some practical thoughts that I hope will help you in your personal prayer life. Even if you already have a strong prayer life, we can always go deeper in our prayer time with God which ultimately grows our relationship with Him.  Here are the first thoughts:
Pray Daily and give praise
Praying daily will help you grow in your prayer life because you are prioritizing God each and every day. You are giving Him praise and seeking Him when you pray daily.
You can set a reminder on your phone, a sticky note on your mirror, or an alarm to go off at a certain time to help you remember to pray. After a while, it will become a habit and apart of your day. Try not to think of praying daily as a chore or something to check off your to-do list.  I find I pray first thing in the morning to start my day off.
Regardless of when, pray because you are able and free to do so. Pray with thanksgiving in your heart. Pray because God loved you so much He sent His son to die on a cross for you. Pray out of an overflow of gratitude from your heart.
When you don’t feel like praying, pray anyways. Pray and ask God to help your heart. You can make a verbal list (or better yet a written list) of all the blessings you have in your life to help you remind your heart that you are grateful.
By praying daily, it helps you to remember that God is the most important part of your life. You are sitting Him on the throne in your heart.  We read this in Psalm 116- “Because he turned his ear to me, I will call on him as long as I live.”  What a great reminder!
So once you get in the habit of praying daily, what should you pray?  How about starting with giving praise!
During your prayer, take time to give praise to God. He has blessed us greatly and the least we can do is thank and praise Him for who He is.
Don’t know where to start? Here are five ideas:
Praise Him for Salvation (John 3:16)
Praise Him for His Mercy (Psalm 86:5)
Praise Him for His Love (2 Chronicles 6:14)
Praise Him for Goodness (1 Timothy 4:4)
Praise Him for His Kindness (Titus 3:4-6)
Another idea would be to read a Scripture associated with a specific attribute of God. God is deserving of all our praise and we should be diligent about praising Him during our prayer time.  Psalm 117 reminds us:
Praise the Lord, all you nations;
extol him, all you peoples.
For great is his love toward us,
and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever.
Praise the Lord.
Yes, let’s remember to praise the Lord as we pray to him daily, that will lead to a mature prayer life!
 
In His grip,
Pastor Chris