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Worship October 2018

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Church Family,     
I hope you are enjoying this cooler weather as Fall has made it’s way in! I pray that you and your families had a great summer, and we are excited about what God is going to do in our next season of ministry together. As the fall season sets in, it’s no mystery that all of our lives become very busy. In fact, our lives become so busy that if we’re not careful, we’re going to miss God working in the midst of us. I bring this up, became I’m afraid that we all have a tendency to get so bogged down in the busy details of our lives, that we will trick ourselves into thinking that God is not working in our lives, when in fact, He is working, and we’re just not focused on Him enough to see it.

We always search for God in the “big.” We look for the “big miracles.” We look for the major life-changing events, that prove to us that God is working. Let me challenge to you took for God in the “small.” Yes, God is present in the “big.” But he’s also present in the “small.” God is present and working in the details of our lives. We woke up this  morning breathing the air that God created. There is no detail that God has not orchestrated for us. In fact, if you start to look for God in the “small” details of your life, you will see God working more than you ever expected. He is there, and He is working on your behalf.

So what is it that’s keeping us from seeing God in the “small?” Is it that we’re just too busy with everyday life that we suddenly don’t have time for God? That may be hard to hear, but the reality is that if we aren’t careful, we can start to develop an apathetic attitude to the working of God. Psalm 46:10 says, “Be still, and know that I am God.” So if you ever come to a season of life in which you doubt the working of God, I challenge you to be still. Be still, and look around. When you look away from the world, when you turn from the business of life, and when you turn to God, you’ll see Him and all that He has for you. So my prayer that we would all slow down and see God working, and we would believe in Him and would trust Him. He’s our Good Father, and He loves us. Let’s worship and glorify Him, even in the small details of our lives.

Posted by Jared Mitchell with
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Spiritual Development October 2018

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"Take A Prayer Walk" by Donald Whitney

One of the most common struggles in the practice of spirituality is maintaining mental focus in prayer. When I try to pray, I often find myself thinking about my to-do list or daydreaming   instead of talking to God. But walking as I pray—either in a large place indoors (such as a church building), or more frequently, outdoors—usually keeps my mind from wandering as easily. In addition, I typically bring a small Bible to prompt my prayer periodically during the walk.

The walking and the weather invigorate my sluggish soul. Looking up into the blue or out to the horizon refreshes my sense of the greatness of God. The sights, smells, and sounds of my Father’s world surround me with reminders of His presence. The cadence of my pace, or occasionally stopping to stare into the distance, often enables me to concentrate in prayer more easily than when I’m still and my eyes are closed.

Abraham’s son, Isaac, is an example from Scripture of walking while thinking on the things of God. Genesis 24:63 reports, “And Isaac went out to meditate in the field.” Four hundred years ago, an English Puritan named Joseph Hall wrote in his influential book, The Art of Divine Meditation, “All our teachers of meditation have commended various positions of the body,    according to their own disposition and practice. . . . But of all others, I think that Isaac’s choice was best, who meditated walking.”

Perhaps no one in church history is more closely associated with a life of meditative prayer than George Müller. He lived in Bristol, England during the nineteenth century where he founded an orphanage and a literature distribution ministry. Müller recorded more than fifty thousand specific answers to prayer, thirty thousand of which he said were answered the same day he prayed. Notice that his normal mode of prayer was a meditative prayer walk:

I find it very beneficial to my health to walk thus for meditation before breakfast, and . . . generally take out a New Testament . . . and I find that I can profitably spend my time in the open air.

I used to consider the time spent in walking a loss, but now I find it very profitable, not only to my body, but also to my soul. . . . For . . . I speak to my Father . . . about the things that He has brought before me in His precious Word.

Simplify the struggle of staying focused in prayer, and refresh both body and soul with a  leisurely walk in conversation with God from His Word.

Posted by Nick Scott with

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