GBC Community Update: Want to grow in prayer? Pray without ceasing

​Good afternoon! I hope you’re making this a great week. We had an excellent session on listening prayer last night. Thanks Patrick for organizing it.  Want to grow in your own prayer life? Check out the thoughts below.
 
 
Attention Sewers: Oasis Craft help needed this Saturday!
As I mentioned in Tuesday’s update, we need help this Saturday from those who are able to sew to help get ready for Oasis.
As part of our craft prep party for Oasis, we need sewers to bring your sewing machines and fabric scissors.  If you have ironing boards and irons that would be great too.  You will be assisting in the sewing of a bandana for each of the kids to tie dye on the Monday afternoon, during camp week.  We hope it will help them remember the Joseph story that they will learn that morning. 
The craft party starts at 1pm but if you want to come early there will be pizza at noon and will go to 3pm (or as long as you can stay!). If you’d like to help with sewing but can’t make it Saturday, please connect with Krista Schito, our camp craft leader.
Also, don’t forget, if you can’t sew, but would like to help out, there’s work for you too. We’d love to have you out!
 
 
Join us on Sunday in-person or on our livestream as we continue our summer series “Hear my prayer, Lord”: Great prayers of the Bible
Sunday we continue our summer series “Hear my prayer, Lord”: Great prayers of the Bible.    What do we mean by great prayers and what do they look like?  Find out this summer!
This Sunday Patrick is continuing our study and will look at another great prayer of the Bible and what makes it so.
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- Pray Without Ceasing
Prayer is not just for a special time of day, Sunday morning, or a prayer gathering.  In 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 it says, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” God calls us to pray without ceasing. As followers of Jesus, we should be praying all throughout our day.
While this Scripture may seem impossible to achieve think about it like this: you are creating a lifestyle of prayer. You can pray no matter where you are, at work, school, in the car, the library, and so on. If you are out in public, you can pray in your heart. God still hears the prayers you say in your heart.
This does not mean you should stop setting aside time to pray each day, but rather to pray throughout the day including your prayer time. The more we pray, the more we realize how great God is and how we need Him to be with us every second of our lives.  The early church father Augustine wrote this:  Whether we realize it or not, prayer is the encounter of God’s thirst with ours. God thirsts that we may thirst for him.
I think this is appropriate being in summer since often the heat causes us to thirst.  Does our ‘heat’ for God cause us to thirst?  Satisfy that longing, regardless of what is going on, through prayer.
 
In His grip,
Pastor Chris