Praying Prayers of Paul for the Church You Love
l Thessalonians 2:13
This week, take this prayer of the Apostle Paul and use it as a prompt to pray for North Wake.
heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers. ~ 1 Thessalonians 2:13
Meditation For Preparation
Singular Worship
Adapted from Whatever Happened to Worship by A.W. Tozer. p. 65-67
Read: Joshua 22
The average person in the world today, without faith, and without God and without hope, is engaged in a desperate personal search throughout his lifetime. He does not really know where he has been. He does not really know what he is doing here and now. He does not know where he is going.
The sad commentary is that he is doing it all on borrowed time and borrowed money and borrowed strength - and he already knows that in the end he will surely die! It boils down to the bewildered confession of many that "we have lost God somewhere along the way."
What happens to people when they lose God? It seems quite obvious that they get very busy trying to find something else to worship.
Man, made more like God than any other creature, has become less like God than any other creature. Created to reflect the glory of God, he has retreated sullenly into his cave - reflecting only his own sinfulness.
Certainly it is a tragedy above all tragedies in this world that man, made with a soul to worship and praise and sing to God's glory, now sulks silently in his cave. Love has gone from his heart. Light has gone from his mind. Having lost God, he blindly stumbles on through this dark world to find only a grave at the end.
Actually, the differences between unbelief and faith, between hopelessness and certainty, between man's point-of-view and God's, often come to light as the believer faces death.
We are told that when John Wesley was dying, he tried to sing, but his voice was nearly gone. He was almost ninety. He had traveled hundreds of thousands of miles on horseback, preaching three or four times daily in founding a great church. He was plainly Arminian in his theology, but as his Christian family and friends gathered around his bed, he was trying to sing the words of an old Calvinist hymn:
I will praise my Maker while I've breath,
And when my soul is lost in death,
Praise shall employ my nobler powers
I was created to worship and praise God. I was redeemed that I should worship Him and enjoy Him forever.
That is the primary issue, my brother or sister. That is why we earnestly invite men and women to become converted, taking Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord.
God is not asking you to come to Christ just to attain peace of mind or to make you a better businessman or woman. You were created to worship. God wants you to know His redemption so you will desire to worship and praise Him.