GBC Community Update: Want a mature prayer life? Memorize and pray scripture

​Good morning.  I’m spending a lot of time reflecting right now as we remember Margaret Bowman today and Iva Ralston tomorrow. Both ladies positively impacted so many people over the years including me. So, it’s a joy and honor to be able to lead both of their memorial services and committals.  May we all live as they did and let our lights shine.
 
 
GBC family picnic is tonight!
Our GBC family picnic is on tonight. Join us at the Guelph Bible Conference Center.  From 4:45pm to 5:30pm you can play mini golf or just hang out. Then we’ll enjoy a delicious BBQ dinner. Afterwards there will be games for the kids finishing with the always-popular candy scramble. It’s a fun night and I hope you can join us.  Cost is free will offering. Even if you’ve not signed up, please come out.
 
 
Thought for the day: Steps Towards a Mature Prayer Life-pray and memorize Scripture
Last time we looked at praying for others and that makes sense intuitively, I think.  Let’s change gears a bit.  To have a maturing prayer life, how about praying the scriptures?  When you pray scripture, you are speaking the Word of God back to Him. You are declaring His Word’s of truth. Three reasons we should pray the Bible is because Jesus did, the Word of God is completely truthful, and it brings honor to God when we do.
Let’s look deeper:
While on earth, Jesus prayed scriptures. One example is found in Matthew 27:46 when Jesus was hanging from the cross, he cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” This exact same prayer is found in Psalm 22. We can learn from Jesus praying from scripture and bring it into our own prayer time.
Secondly, the Word of God is true. When we pray the Bible, we can know what we are praying is completely truthful since it comes from God.
Lastly, when we pray from the scriptures we are bringing honor and glory to God. We are telling God we believe the Bible and will speak out His words that are filled with truth. Praying from the Bible is one way we can give God the honor He deserves. The Word of God is powerful and we can speak His words in truth during our prayer time.
We read in the Bible: For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. (Heb. 4:12)
Got that? Amazing!  Let’s take it up a level.  How about trying to memorize scripture passages?
We do this in Kid’s Church, we do it in Oasis. Most agree its important for children. Okay, how about for we adults?  We memorize scripture because it’s God Word and we want to bring His truth into our hearts. Once we have memorized passages of the Bible, we can pray it and have it hidden in our prayers (and hearts too!).
One practical reason to memorize scripture is that you can pray passages from the Bible without having a Bible with you. You are able to pray effectively wherever you are. Memorizing scripture is another way to honor God and then you can pray verses of the Bible when you don’t have access to one.  That leads to powerful prayer! Give it a try.
 
In His grip,
Pastor Chris