Daily Devotionals & The Power of Prayer

Flowing Mercy; Abundant Grace

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Mounts) — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 13:35:00 +0000

Some good friends of ours from Iowa have been visiting us here in Auberry the last couple of days. While they were here they wanted to visit Yosemite National Park - a location you should never miss if you get the chance. They specifically wanted to see world-famous Bridalveil Fall. Now this was great. We drove them up into the park, spent the day checking out several sites, and 'hit' Bridalveil in the afternoon. I was concerned, however, about visiting Bridalveil because, though it is always beautiful, it is at its best when water is flowing, and that generally only happens in the late spring, early summer time-frame with the winter snow run-off. By this time of year,September, Bridalveil is usually bone-dry. Not to worry. This area of California had had such a wet winter and spring that, even now after a hot summer, the water was still flowing and the view was spectacular. The supply is important; but everything depends on the source.

Hebrews 13:5 reminds us what God promised Israel in Deut. 31:6,8 and Joshua 1:5"Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you." That being the case, the Hebrews writer feels confident in verse 6 to go ahead and quote Ps. 118:6,7:"The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man (or anything else) do to me." Our Savior is not a seasonal Savior nor is His grace dependent on Divine whim. Our Lord does not take coffebreaks or weekends off or vacations off. Our Lord is a 24/7 God. In the 102nd Psalm, verses 18-20, we read these words: "Let this be written for a future generation, that a people not yet created may praise the Lord: 'The Lord looks down from his sanctuary on high, from heaven he views the earth, to hear the groans of the prisoners and release those condemned to death.'" Flowing mercy is what our God has always been about. Abundant grace is what His Name is. Right now - this very minute - God's amazing grace is flowing. Come to Him and enjoy!

Helplessly Safe and Strong

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Mounts) — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 21:46:00 +0000

It is hard to believed but our first grandchild is almost 4 months old. Samuel Alexander Mounts was born on May 17 and what a blessing he is to the whole family. Recently we visited Samuel and his folks and during our stay had occasion to look in on him while he slept. Very few things in life connote peacefulness and innocence like a baby asleep in his crib. But it must also be said that very few things in life connote possibnle risk and danger as the picture of a baby asleep because of that child's total defenselessness. Everyone, of course, is defenseless in sleep. But a baby is helpless asleep or awake. The child must have protection.

This is the picture that David evokes in the third Psalm, verses 3-6: "But you, O Lord, are a shield for me . . . I cried to the Lord and He heard me . . . I lay down and slept; I awoke, for the Lord sustained me. I will not be afraid of ten thousand people who have set themselves against me all around."

No one likes to think of themselves as being helpless - Peter certainly didn't. But aty one point in their relationship when Peter was feeling especially strong in his own strength, Jesus tole him that Satan wanted 'to sift you as wheat,' but Jesus wouldn't let him (Luke 22:31-32). Jesus protected him. Jesus saved him in Peter's helplessness.

Do we truly think that we are any different than big, bold, but ultimately defenseless Peter. Thee came a time in Peter's life when he himself recognized this fact. In 1 Peter 5:8 he writes: "Your (our) enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour." How do we defeat him? "Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you." (1 Peter 5:6) Jesus is our victory - and when we are at our weakest, He will show us that He is at His strongest.

Jesus told His desciples that the good Sheipherd lays down His life for His sheep. He says the same thing to us today. That evening when we looked in on our baby, there were five adults in that room who would have done anything and everything in their power to protect the child. On an eternally greater scale Jesus says to all of His children: "Relax, kids; in Jesus,enjoy life. Sleep, arise, you're safe. From now till forever, I've got your back!"

Hey, I'm back!

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Mounts) — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 15:29:00 +0000

Proverbs 3:5,6 reads: 'Trust in the Lord with all of your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths.' KJV The writer of the Provberbs tells us that, right now, we are to trust our Lord and God with any and everything in our lives. This call to trust is nothing new. In all places and at all times in the history of man from Adam until now, it is God's basic command, as recorded in His Word, that people trust Him with their selves, and their lives, and their stuff. This will not change in eternity or for eternity to come. Heaven will be heaven because its inhabitants - face to face -will engage in unending and unbroken relationship with their life's source. God, however, wants His children to live a life of victorious trust in Him now. Jesus proved that in this sinful world you can live a life of trusting faith in and acceptance by our Heavenly Father. Jesus - the New Man, the New Creation, the Beloved of His Father - lived a life of total and unbroken relationship with our Father rigtht here in the midddle of our sinful, fallen universe. The good news of the Gospel is just this: when, because of God's grace and through the faith that He gifts me with, I am in Christ I can trust in the Lord right now as well because it is not me trusting, but Christ in me, 'our hope of glory.' In Christ, Christ's trust is mine, Christ's faith is mine, Christ's peace is mine, Christ's hope is mine. In Christ, Christ's relationship with 'Our Father' is mine - for He is in me and I am in Him - All because of Jesus! I can truly relax in Him, knowing the rest that He promises to all who will trust.

What's-My-Part? Praying

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Mounts) — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 13:55:00 +0000

'To say day by day "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven" - if these tremendous words really stand for a conviction and desire - does not mean "I quite hope that some day the Kingdom of God will be established, and peace and goodwill prevail. But at present I don't see how it is to be managed or what I can do about it." On the contrary, it means, or should mean, "Here am I! Send me!" - active, costly collaboration with the Spirit in whom we believe.' Evelyn Underhill

Single-Mindedness

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Mounts) — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 13:46:00 +0000

'We can only achieve perfect liberty and enjoy fellowship with Jesus when his command, his call to absolute discipleship, is appreciated in its entirety. Only the man who follows the command of Jesus single-mindedly, and unresistingly lets his yoke rest upon him, finds his burden easy, and under its gentle pressure receives the power to persevere in the right way. The command of Jesus is hard, unutterably hard, for those who try to resist it (or try to keep it in their own strength SM). But for those who willingly submit, the yoke is easy, and the burden is light. "His commandments are not grievous" (I John 5:3). The commandment of Jesus is not a sort of spiritual shock treatment. Jesus asks nothing of us without giving us the strength to perform it. His commandment never seeks to destroy life, but to foster, strengthen and heal it.'Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Right Now Mercy, Right Now Grace

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Mounts) — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 19:10:00 +0000

God the Holy Spirit spoke to me this morning from the verses of Psalm 56. David is on the run from King Saul and has landed in Gath surrounded by and living among, of all people, Israel's great enemies the Philistines. He prays/sings:

'Be merciful to me, O God, for men hotly pursue me; all day long they press their attack. My slanderers pursue me all day long; many are attacking me in their pride. When I am afraid, I will trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I will not be afraid. What can mortal man do to me? . . . I am under vows to you, O God; I will present my thank offerings to you. For you have delivered me from death and my feet from stumbling, that I may walk before God in the light of life.' Ps. 56: 1-4, 12,13 NIV

From these words and the life of one of God's great worshippers, the Holy Spirit reminds us that the mercy King David asked for: 'Be merciful to me, O God, for men hotly pursue me(1) and received: ' . . . I will present my thankofferings to you for you have delivered me from death and kept my feet from falling . . .' (12)is mine in Jesus right now as I wait upon Him and the ministry and power of His Holy Spirit. Every issue that faces us, presses us, and even perhaps surrounds us - Jesus is the answer for right now. God is bigger than our issues - God is bigger than our fear. Our job is to ask Him - and allow Him - to help us to seek His face with poise and to be still and know that He is God.

Garrisoned By God

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Mounts) — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 13:11:00 +0000

'Cleansing from sin is to the very heights and depths of our spirit if we will keep in the light as God is in the light, and the very Spirit that fed the life of Jesus Christ will feed the life of our spirits. It is only when we are garrisoned by God with the stupendous sanctity of the Holy Spirit that spirit, soul and body are preserved in unspotted integrity, undeserving of censure in God's sight, until Jesus comes.' Oswald Chambers

The God Of Miracles

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Mounts) — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 15:37:00 +0000

'Your (spiritual) life is every day to be a proof that God works impossibilities; your (spiritual) life is to be a series of impossibilities made possible and actual by God's almighty power. That is what the Christian needs. He has an almighty God that he worships, and he must learn to understand that he does not need a little of God's power, but he needs - with reverence be it said - the whole of God's omnipotence to keep him right, and to live like a Christian.' Andrew Murray

Doubting and 'Don't-ing'

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Mounts) — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 13:47:00 +0000

A great word of wisdom from Oswald Chambers at the beginning of a new year - or at any time of any year - on how to know God's will on any matter in our lives:

'There are times when you cannot understand why you cannot do what you want to do. When God brings the blank space, see that you do not fill it in, but wait. The blank space may come in order to teach you what sanctification means, or it may come after sanctification to teach you what service means. Never run before God's guidance. If there is the slightest doubt, then He is not guiding. Whenever there is doubt - DON'T.'

All Hail The Power of Jesus' Name

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Mounts) — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 14:35:00 +0000

'You simply cannot disentangle Jesus from miracles. Scholars . . . (have) tried very hard to discover a nonmiraculous Jesus. They utterly fail. Every single strand of material in the Gospels shows Jesus as Someone who was different in His powers from other people. Through Him God acted in a way impossible to understand if we think of Him simply as a good Man. The miracles begin at His birth, without human father. They continue in His ministry; miracles of healing and of exorcism, nature miracles (such as His feeding of the multitude or His walking on the sea in a storm), and supremely His raising from the dead Lazarus, the widow of Nain's son, and Jairus's daughter. Last of all comes the greatest of miracles . . . His own resurrection from the grave - not just to a further span of life but to a new quality of life over which death has no power. That is the only Jesus for whom there is any shred of evidence - a remarkable Being exercising unheard-of powers . . . He exhibited miraculous powers, and not once or twice but continually.' Michael Green

In the year of our Lord 2010 more than ever we need to see God the Father, in Jesus His Son, through the power of His Holy Spirit changing our world, changing the lives of people in our world, rescuing the perishing - and they are everywhere - in our world. 'Jesus STILL is the answer for the world today!' Will we who have met, been changed by, and - however imperfectly -follow Jesus allow ourselves to be made and used by God as His ambassadors to share the message of 'Glorious Freedom' to our very enslaved world?

My God, let me know and love you . . .

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Mounts) — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 16:22:00 +0000

A great prayer of St. Augustine's to end one year or start another year with; in fact, a great prayer for any time of any year.

'My God, let me know and love you, so that I may find my happiness in you. Since I cannot fully achieve this on earth, help me to improve daily until I may do so to the full. Enable me to know you ever more on earth, so that I may know you perfectly in heaven. Enable me to love you ever more on earth, so that I may love you perfectly in heaven. In that way my joy may be great on earth, and perfect with you in heaven. O God of truth, grant me the happiness of heaven so that my joy may be full in accord with your promise. In the meantime let my mind dwell on that happiness, my tongue speak of it, my heart pine for it, my mouth pronounce it, my soul hunger for it, my flesh thirst for it, and my entire being desire it until I enter through death in the joy of my Lord forever. Amen.'

The Reason For The Reason For The Season

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Mounts) — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 13:20:00 +0000

I believe that it is highly appropriate for we humans to remember, on the day that we celebrate Christ's coming, why He came at all. Many in this world would simply thank Christ - if they think about Him at all today - for another reason for a holiday break in their lives. The Apostle Paul says this

'Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will - to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment - to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.' Eph. 1:3-10 NIV

About 1900 years later another of God's ministers, Oswald Chambers, shared the same truths of Christ this way

'Our Lord's cross is the gateway into His life: His resurrection means that He has power now to convey His life to me. When I am born again from above, I receive from the risen Lord His very life. Our Lord's resurrection destiny is to bring "many sons unto glory" (Heb. 2:10KJV) The fulfilling of His destiny gives Him the right to make us sons and daughters of God. We are never in the relationship to God that the Son of God is in; but we are brought by the Son into the relation of sonship. When our Lord rose from the dead, He rose to an absolutely new life, to a life He did not live before He was incarnate. He rose to a life that had never been before; and His resurrection means for us that we are raised to His risen life, not to our old life. One day we shall have a body like unto His glorious body, but we can know NOW!!! the efficacy of His resurrection and walk in newness of life'

On this Christmas day, are you 'in Christ'? Christmas is about nothing else but.

Christ Is Our Life

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Mounts) — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 13:58:00 +0000

Ralph Erskine shares

'Look to Christ, not only to give you all, but to be your all; for he is not only the way to life, but the life itself: "I am the way, the truth, and the life." "As I desire," says one, "never to be happy, if Christ be not able to bring me to happiness, so I desire no greater, no better happiness, than what Christ is, and can be to me." O sirs, he is all, and there is all in him; all to justify, all to sanctify, all to glorify, all to fill and satisfy, all to delight and solace the largest faculties of the immortal soul; "in his presence there is fullness of joy." The highest happiness here is, "Christ in us the hope of glory" and the highest happiness hereafter is Christ, even to be for ever with the Lord. The thief on the cross had this preached to him, "This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise." To be in Paradise is not happiness; to be with angels there is not happiness; but to be with Christ there, this is heaven and happiness.'

We do not serve Christ to get more and more of His blessings; we serve Christ to get closer and closer to Him - He is our peace. With Christ, Paul tells us in his letter to the Romans, God will then give us everything else that we need in this life. Rom. 8:32

Christ In Me Working, Living

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Mounts) — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 14:25:00 +0000

'The power of the indwelling Christ is what keeps dynamic Christians alive and excited about life . . . As we walk in the power of the indwelling Christ, eternity's values become more important to us. Lost people become our obsession because lost people are God's obsession. Although we still hold jobs, earn a living, and pay bills, these things no longer are the focus of our lives. Although we work to keep ourselves attractive, we are not engrossed in clothes, hairstyles, or shoes. our primary purpose and source of excitement is to reach out to the lost . . . When the life of Jesus is at work in us, enabling us to communicate the Gospel naturally as we go through life, we will be renewed day by day.' Luis Palau

Now, lets be perfectly honest, to often we are not obsessed with winning the lost - very interested, but not obsessed. To often jobs and earning a living and paying bills and yes, even, clothes and hairstyles and shoes and cars and sports and food and a thousand other 'things of this world' have far to great a share of our attention. But this is how it works: In my growing process, when God the Holy Spirit points out inconsistencies and weaknesses and failures in my life and my walk with Him - issues that I am totally helpless to address and solve in my own strength - in my own strength I am always going to like and choose "ME" over anything and everything else, God included - I can and must honestly and openly turn to Him and say: 'I can't change me, but You can. Here I am: I give You permission. Make me what I am not.' And, you know what, He will. For the power of the indwelling Christ is what our lives as believers is all about.

Sitting Stil In Jesus

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Mounts) — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 14:08:00 +0000

Commenting on Ephesians 2:5-6,

'Even when we were dead in sins, God hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace you are saved;) and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.'

Hannah Whithall Smith writes:

'This is (the Christian's) rightful place, to he seated 'in heavenly places in Christ Jesus,' and to 'sit still' there. But how few there are who make it their actual experience! How few indeed think even that it is possible for them to 'sit still' in these 'heavenly places' in the everyday life of a world so full of turmoil as this . . . A quiet spirit is of inestimable value in carrying on outward activities; and nothing so hinders the working of the hidden spiritual forces, upon which, after all, our success in everything really depends, as a spirit of unrest and anxiety. There is immense power in stillness . . . A knowledge of this fact would immensely change our ways of working. Instead of restless struggles, we would 'sit down' inwardly before the Lord, and would let the Divine forces of His Spirit work out in silence the ends to which we aspire. You may not see or feel the operations of this silent force, but be assured it is always working mightily, and will work for you, if you only get your spirit still enough to be carried along by the currents of its power.'

The gracious good news in all of this is that, when we try to 'sit still' in Jesus and allow Him to have His way with us - and find that we can't, which we inevitably will - when we admit this inability to God, He will supply the ability; He will supply the stillness; He will supply the need! Grace always starts out by pointing out to us what we must do or be to please God and then ends up by supplying the 'do and be' in our lives so that, as truly new creatures in Christ, through the power of God's Holy Spirit, we are changed.

Unconsciously Used

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Mounts) — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 13:36:00 +0000

'If you want to be of use to God, get rightly related to Jesus Christ and He will make you of use unconsciously every minute you live.' Oswald Chambers

Freedom From The 'Jarring ' Life

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Mounts) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 14:07:00 +0000

Commenting on Colossians 3:12-13 -

"Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive." ESV

Henry Scott Holland writes:

'Self-preoccupation, self-broodings, self-love - these are the reasons why you go jarring against your fellows. Turn your eyes off yourself; look up and out! There are men, your brothers, and women, your sisters; they have needs that you can aid. Listen for their confidences; keep your heart wide open to their calls, and your hands alert for their service. Learn to give, and not to take; to drown your own hungry wants in the happiness of lending yourself to fulfil the interests of those nearest or dearest. Look up and out, from this narrow, cabined self of yours, and you will jar no longer; you will fret no more, you will provoke no more; but you will, to your own glad surprise, find the secret of "the meekness and the gentleness of Jesus;" and the fruit of the Spirit will all bud and blossom from out of your life.'

Do You Believe?

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Mounts) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 11:47:00 +0000

'Do you believe? Because Christ rose from the dead, we know that our world is heading for redemption, not disaster. We know that death has been conquered and that we, too, will be raised from the dead to live forever with Christ. We know that Christ is alive and ruling his kingdom, and that God's power that brought Jesus back from the dead is available to us so we can live for him in an evil world. Do you believe? Then live with joy and hope and power. Dave Veerman

God's Offer

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Mounts) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 12:59:00 +0000

'I am persuaded there are Christians as much in grace beyond ordinary Christians as ordinary Christians are beyond the profane. There are heights which common eyes have never seen, much less scaled. There are nests among the stars where God's own saints dwell and yet how many of us are content to go creeping along like worms in the dust! Would that we had grace to cleave the clouds and mount into the pure blue sky of fellowship with Christ! We do not serve God as we should. We are cold as ice, when we should be like molten metal, burning our way through all opposition. We are like the barren Sahara, when we should be blooming like the garden of the Lord. . . I fear we are scarce fit for service and yet he hath exalted us to be bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh, married to him by a glorious marriage covenant. O brothers, God often calls us to higher degrees of piety, and yet we will not come.' Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Faithfully Linked - Victoriously Christ's

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Mounts) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 14:59:00 +0000

'We see clearly . . . that we may be saved, yet all our works burned up. I may have a wretched, miserable voyage through life, with no victory, and no reward at the end: saved, yet so as by fire, or as Job puts it, "with the skin of my teeth." I believe that a great many people will barely get to heaven as Lot go out of Sodom, burned out, nothing left, works and everything else destroyed. It is like this: when a man enters the army, he is a member of the army the moment he enlists; he is just as much a member as a man who has been in the army ten or twenty years. But enlisting is one thing and participating in a battle another. Young converts are like those enlisted. It is folly for any man to attempt to fight in his own strength. The world, the flesh, and the devil are too much for any person. But if we are linked to Christ by faith, and He is formed in us the hope of glory, then we shall get the victory over every enemy (because He has gotton the victory over every enemy, and we are in Him). It is believers who are overcomers. "Thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ." D. L. Moody

God Knows Me And Still Loves Me - Wow!

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Mounts) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 17:09:00 +0000

I have a good friend who, probably, most people would consider to be a difficult - maybe 'challenging' is a better word - person to deal with. Alot of people misunderstand this person, I think, but you know what? God doesn't. God knows us just as we are and says to all of us - for we are all, by nature, difficult, challenging, sinful, me-first people - 'I made you. I love you. In my Son, Jesus, I have redeemed you. Come to me just as you are and I will make you into all that I intended you to be.' C. S. Lewis puts it this way:

"Be sure that the ins and outs of your individuality are no mystery to Him; and one day they will no longer be a mystery to you. The mold in which a key is made would be a strange thing, if you had never seen a key; and the key itself a strange thing if you had never seen a lock. Your soul has a curious shape because it is a hollow made to fit a particular swelling in the infinite contours of the divine substance, or a key to unlock one of the doors in the house with many mansions. For it is not humanity in the abstract that is to be saved, but you - you . . . the individual. Blessed and fortunate creature, your eyes shall behold Him . . . Your place in heaven will seem to be made for you and you alone, because you were made for it - made for it stitch by stitch as a glove is made for a hand.

Defining Goodness: What Does God Think?

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Mounts) — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 12:50:00 +0000

Francois Fenelon wrote to a counselee:

"Evil circumstances are changed into good when they are received with an enduring trust in the love of God, while good circumstances may be changed into evil when we become attached to them through the love of self. Nothing in us or around us is truly good until we become detached from the world and totally abandoned to God. So, even though you are now in these bad circumstances put yourself confidently and without reserve into His hand. I would give anything to see you in better circumstances. But if evil circumstances have taught you to be sick of the love of the world, then that is good. The love of self, which the world advocates, is a thousand times more dangerous than any poison."

A baseball umpire was asked one day when it was that he determined that a pitch was a ball or strike: was it when the ball initially came over the plate or was it where the ball finally hit the catcher's mitt? His response? It doesn't matter where the ball comes over the plate at or where it hits the catcher's mitt, the pitch is nothing, he said - neither ball nor strike - "until I say that it is a ball or strike!" Serving God isn't so much about keeping a checklist of things that I can or can't do - 'Well, I didn't cuss today, or smoke today, or kill somebody today, so I must be a christian' - and still be okay with God and have my place reserved in heaven. Serving God is about falling in love with Him to the degree that we cannot live without His smile. And, to attain this smile, we want Him to dictate His desires - knowing that what He desires He will bring about in my life, for without Him I can do nothing - for every aspect of my life. 'You tell me, God, what is right, what is pleasing to Yourself, and what is wrong - in me, to me, and for me. More and more Father, make me a living sacrifice to Yourself: holy - and wholly - acceptable in your sight!'

Spiritual Weakness and Prayerlessness

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Mounts) — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 13:05:00 +0000

'Nothing so reveals defective spiritual life . . . as the lack of believing and unceasing prayer. Prayer is in very deed the pulse of spiritual life. It is the great means of bringing . . . the blessing and power of heaven. Persevering and believing prayer means a strong and an abundant life' Andrew Murray

And what is the essence of prayer? Believing - and telling God that you believe - that He is going to do in every situation in our lives everything that He promises to do in His Word. I am praying right now for some financial help -as are a zillion other people in this world. Nowhere does it say in the Bible that: 'Steve Mounts' financial need will be taken care of in this way at this time or in this manner.' What is promised is that, if we have put our faith and confidence in Jesus as our Savior, 'He will supply all of our need according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus' Phil. 4:19. I believe, then, that I can go to God and say, 'Father, You know I have this financial need and I believe on the basis of this promise that in Your way - which is the right way - and at Your time - which is the right time - You will give me what I need. I believe that prayer is claiming a promise from God's Word and allowing Him to define for us what that promise means in the details of our lives. As we consistently come to God as we are told to do and, through His grace, peacefully wait for Him to do for us what we really need for Him to do, we can be confident that He will hear us and intervene in our lives and save us as we must have Him to do - FOR HE HAS PROMISED, AND HE DOESN'T LIE!

I Will Praise Him! I Will Praise Him! Praise The Lamb For Sinners Slain!'

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Mounts) — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 13:30:00 +0000

'Today God is calling his Church back to worship. This can be seen in high church circles where there is a renewed interest in intimacy with God. It can be seen in low church circles where there is a new interest in liturgy. It can be seen everywhere in between these two. It is as if God is saying, "I want the hearts of my people back!" And if we long to go where God is going and do what God is doing, we will move into deeper, more authentic worship.' Richard J. Foster

Grace To Help

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Mounts) — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 12:38:00 +0000

Many, many years ago my wife and I attended a church conference in the state of North Dakota. One of the sessions at this gathering dealt with the power of prayer. At one point in the proceedings we were each asked to share with the group some personal example of God's gracious movement in our own lives. Great testimonies of salvation, spiritual victory, financial help, and God's power were shared and enjoyed by all. When it came her turn, we listened as a young mother - tears streaming down her face - asked this question: 'Do you think that the God you all are talking about - with all these great things that He is doing - can help my little boy stop wetting the bed?' As we took special time to pray for this mother and her frustrating situation, our leader said to her: 'Ma'am, bed-wetting problems arn't to big - or to small - for our God. He just wants us to come to Him.' I believe our leader was spot-on correct. Anything that bothers God's children bothers Him. His response: COME!
Commenting on Hebrews 4:16 -

"Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need."

- James Montgomery Boice shares:

"Because of who God is and what Jesus Christ has done in dying for us, changing the throne of judgment into a throne of grace, we who trust Christ are to draw near the throne of grace in confidence. If we came in our own merit, we could have no confidence at all. The throne of God would be a place of terror. But since God has done what was needed to take away all judgment for our sin, it is now sin for us to come in any other way but with confidence. If we come in confidence, we can come knowing that God will do exactly what the author of Hebrews says he will do and we will indeed 'find grace to help us in our time of need' - Whatever our need may be! Do you seek forgiveness for sin? You will find God's grace forgiving you for every sin. Do you need strength for daily living: You will find the grace of God providing strength. Do you need comfort because of some great loss? God will provide comfort. Direction for some important decision? You will receive direction. Encouragement? You will receive encouragement. Wisdom? That too."

I believe that God's grace for us is not just for heaven, but that it includes our needs, concerns, fears, pain, joys, desires, goals, and ambitions right now. Jesus cares - Come to Him!