Skip to main content

Prayer And Preaching

"A prayer of the prophet Habakkuk" (Habakkuk  3:1) - Prayer and prophecy go together. Pray before preaching God's Word. Let the prayers go up to the Lord. May the power come down from the Lord. Keep on praying after the Word's been preached. Pray that the Lord will follow His Word with His blessing. "... renew... reveal... remember... " (Habakkuk 3:2). Pray that God will remember us - "remember to be merciful." Pray that He will reveal Himself to us as the living God, the God who works in our lives to change us and make us more like Himself. Pray that He will renew our life so that we are no  longer walking in our own weakness. Now, we are living in His strength. "Praise... power... paths... " (Habakkuk 3:3-6), "His praise fills the earth, His brightness as the sunlight. Rays of light stream from His hand. That is where His power is hidden." We need to go to His Word. We need to let His Word shine upon us. We need to pray that His power will reach us and change us. "The ancient paths belong to Him." Which way are we to go? We  are to "walk with the Lord  in the light of His Word." This is the way of blessing - praising the Lord, receiving His blessing, walking in His pathway. The Lord reaches out to us with His "salvation." He comes to us with "rivers" of blessing (Habakkuk 3:8). The Lord saves us. He calls us to be His people. He anoints us, touching our lives, shaping our lives by His Holy Spirit. Why does He save us? Does He forgive our sins, and then leave us just the way we were? No! He empowers us for "action (Habakkuk 3:9). As we consider all that the Lord has done for us, is doing for us and will do for us, we learn to say, "I will be happy with the Lord, I will truly find joy in God, who saves me, The Lord Almighty is my strength... He makes me to walk on the mountains" (Habakkuk 3:18-19). There is so much in these verses to encourage us to go on with the Lord, strong in Him, strengthened by His Word and His Spirit. To God be the glory!

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How Can I Keep From Singing | Advent Euphonic Chorale

Post a Comment
Read more

Teach Us, Lord, To Live For You.

"I am filled with the power of the Lord's Spirit" (Micah 3:8). This is what makes true ministry of God's Word so different from 'prophecy' that doesn't come from the Lord. Without the power of the Lord, there can be no Word from the Lord. We need the Word, and we need the power. "Let's go to the mountain of the Lord ...He will teach us His ways so that we may live by them" (Micah 4:2). We are taught by the Lord so that we might live for Him. Teaching and living - they belong together. We do not learn from God's Word so that we can amass more head-knowledge. We pray for a saving knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ - a life-changing knowledge that gives us the strength that we need to live for the glory of God.
Post a Comment
Read more

Are we listening to the Lord - or are we listening to the world?

"Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to give me my share of the inheritance that our father left us.” 14  Jesus said to him, “Who appointed me to be your judge or to divide your inheritance ?” 15  He told the people, “Be careful to guard yourselves from every kind of greed. Life is not about having a lot of material possessions.” 16  Then he used this illustration. He said, “A rich man had land that produced good crops. 17  He thought, ‘What should I do? I don’t have enough room to store my crops.’ 18  He said, ‘I know what I’ll do. I’ll tear down my barns and build bigger ones so that I can store all my grain and goods in them. 19  Then I’ll say to myself, “You’ve stored up a lot of good things for years to come. Take life easy, eat, drink, and enjoy yourself.”’ 20  “But God said to him, ‘You fool! I will demand your life from you tonight! Now who will get what you’ve accumulated?’ 21  That’s how it ...
Post a Comment
Read more