Who Or What Do You Adore?

Tuesday, September 30, 2025

Come, everyone who is thirsty, come to the water; and you without silver, come, buy, and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without silver and without cost! Why do you spend silver on what is not food, and your wages on what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and you will enjoy the choicest of foods. Pay attention and come to me; listen, so that you will live. Isaiah 55:1-3a

 Who Or What Do You Adore?

In his sermon this past Sunday Pastor Jim preached about the holiness of God. He said that we will worship what we adore. If we are not adoring God we will not see his holiness and then we miss out on everything he has for us – until we get that straightened out. 

The next morning after this sermon, the devotional I listen to every morning by The Worship Initiative was on this song – One Pure and Holy Passion. It is a perfect follow up to the sermon. 

Give me one pure and holy passion

Give me one magnificent obsession

Give me one glorious ambition for my life

To know and follow hard after you. 

 

To know and follow hard after you 

To grow as your disciple in your truth

This world is empty pale and poor

Compared to knowing you my Lord

Lead me on and I will run after you

This song says it so simply – it is only Jesus, nothing else. As much as we strive in our lives and as hard as we work to accumulate the “treasures” this world offers, it is all in vain. It all goes away in the blink of an eye and is worth nothing. 

As Isaiah says in the scripture above, the most  important thing you could ever need or want is absolutely free. It satisfies our deepest longings and quenches the fiercest thirst as nothing else will. Why is it that we incessantly pour money, time, ourselves, and effort into what will never satisfy us? Because Satan satisfies a tiny little itch with false gratification that only drives us to seek more until we reach the end of it all – the end of ourselves, the end of resources, the end of relationships, the end of our career, the end of the end. These are idols in our lives that we are putting in place of God. 

God gives us so much more that what idols can offer. Idols can never meet our needs but only multiply them.  God gives us sustenance and satisfaction like nothing else can. Isaiah says to listen carefully. We must stay focused, giving our time, attention, and effort to all God has for us. We consume his goodness and find delight and abundance. His offer is grace and clinging to idols forfeits his grace in our lives. 

When we are filled with him there is no room in our lives for idols or things that don’t matter. There is no room for earthly treasures that decay and rot away our soul. There is only room for him and all the good things he gives. 

When was the last time you really took a close look at your heart and what you are adoring?  We often tuck “small” idols into the corners of our hearts, thinking they can stay because they won’t interfere with our devotion to God but how wrong we are. No matter how small we think they are, idols always interfere with our devotion to God. The only pure and holy passion we can have is Jesus. The only magnificent obsession we can have is Jesus. The only truly glorious ambition for our lives is knowing and following hard after him. 

What is your passion? What is your obsession? Your ambition? 

What are you following hard after? 

Know that when we examine our hearts and recognize idolatry he forgives when we turn back to him and repent. There is no room for two on the throne of our heart. Choose God as the object of your adoration and follow hard after him.

Seek the Lord while he may be found; call to him while he is near. Let the wicked one abandon his way and the sinful one his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, so he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will freely forgive. Isaiah 55:6-7

The Holiness of God

Monday, September 29, 2025

Therefore, you should pray like this: Our Father in heaven, your name be honored as holy. Matthew 6:9

The Holiness of God

The holiness of God is something that we, as humans, will never fully comprehend until we get to heaven. We will all come face to face with Jesus someday and one of my favorite songs puts it beautifully:

A million angels fall
Face down on the floor
All to echo, "Holy is the Lord"
My heart can't help but sing
With all of Heaven roar
Forever echo, "Holy is the Lord"

(Echo Holy by Red Rocks Worship)

I can’t even imagine how this will be when we join a million angels echoing “Holy is the Lord!” over and over again, forever. What will that sound like? Generation upon generation will gather together at his feet declaring, praising and worshipping him for all eternity. He alone is worthy of this eternal praise. In the meantime, how can we come before a Holy God with the proper attitude? 

Yesterday Pastor Jim said that prayer is The overwhelming knowledge of God and his presence and place in the world meets with our overwhelming life experience. Then we are put in the proper context to be able to deal with the things in our lives.  When we find ourselves overwhelmed in our life experience, we can take it to him in a humble surrender.  

We are currently in a series on The Lord’s Prayer, titled “Pray Like This.” The Lord’s prayer is a model Jesus gave us to help us pray in the right way – a way that will help us live and look more and more like him every day. Our key truth for this series is, “To pray like Jesus prayed is to see like Jesus saw, trust like Jesus trusted, and live like Jesus lived.”

As we have said, every line of the Lord’s Prayer teaches us something. The words your name be honored as holy help us to reflect on and understand more clearly who God is and how we are supposed to honor him.

Most of the time we try to fix our problems on our own. We wait until things completely blow up or we have made it ten times worse by trying to fix things in our own power before we start praying. Pray should be the first thing we do. Our Heavenly Father should be the first place we go. But unless we are adoring God in our lives over and above all, we can’t even come before him in the proper way, or with the proper attitude.  We may try to forget our circumstances by turning to idols to take away the pain or forget the problems we cannot solve. An idol is anything we love more than we love God. We seek answers where only more problems are to be found. There is no answer to be found anywhere other than with God. He is the only answer to everything. As long as we have our eyes on some other object of adoration, we will never see the holiness of God. If we never see his holiness, we will never surrender, and surrender is the only way to come before Holy God. 

We are desperate humans, living in a fallen world who have been given an invitation to God’s mercy and grace. We have a Holy God who cares about us when we are unworthy of even a thought from Him. Yet He, in his perfect holiness, meets us in our mess and takes it from us, filling us with himself. We then take that holiness and share it with the world so they too can understand and experience his love, grace, mercy, forgiveness and salvation – all that can only come from a Holy God. 

Who or what do you honor as holy? 

In the secret places who or what is on your mind? What dominates your thoughts?

Do others see his holiness in your life?  

Pray Like This... “Your Name Be Honored as Holy"

Pray Like This...
“Your Name Be Honored as Holy"
Matthew 6:9-13 (CSB)

 

- Prayer - “Prayer is a personal conversation with a holy and loving God that reorients our reality and makes all things possible.”

- Key Truth - “To pray like Jesus prayed is to see like Jesus saw, trust like Jesus trusted, and live like Jesus lived.”

Main Question: What should be our proper attitude in prayer now that we know the proper Object of our prayer?

1.        We will all adore something. 

2.        Adoration frames everything else.

a.         Adoration frames confession.

b.         Adoration frames petition.

3.    Adoration magnifies God in the world.

 

After the Message: 
Participate in the NSBC 70 days of prayer. Download the NSBC App and turn on notifications to receive daily prayer prompts.

Fight for Your Faith

Friday, September 26, 2025

But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. And have mercy on those who doubt; save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.  Jude 17-23

Fight for Your Faith

Jude gave some good instructions to the early Christians to contend for the faith and those instructions are exactly what we need for this chaotic time of life we are living in. Because of Who our Heavenly Father is, we can build ourselves up in faith to be able to not only stand up for our faith, but also help our brothers and sisters in the family of God that have strayed from truth. 

How can we contend for the faith like Jude told those early Christians to do? How can we bolster ourselves and build ourselves up so we can contend for the faith in the middle of chaos?  Jude gives us three things to do so that we are always ready: 1.) Build yourselves up in your most holy faith 2.) Pray in the Holy Spirit 3.)Keep yourselves in the Love of God – waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. 

Build Yourselves Up in your Most Holy Faith - We build ourselves up in the faith by clinging to what we know about God – what do we know, without a doubt? 

God is unchanging - His word is true and forever. Who He says He is, He is. What He says He will do, He will do. What He says is true is true, and He does not change His mind. His promises are good for all time. No matter how fast our world changes, He does not. He is immutable. He NEVER changes. His word is living and active – meaning it applies to the world the day it was written, and it applies just as much to our lives today.

God has all the wisdom, and we can trust Him – divine intelligence. He sees everything – from beginning to end. The whole picture, while we just get the next step, one step at a time. He wants us to trust Him for the rest of the way. Sometimes He gives us 90% and wants us to trust him for the 10%, but way more often it seems as though we get 10% and He wants us to trust Him for the other 90%. We have faced so much uncertainty this year and the future is still uncertain, but we can trust Him because He loves us, and our best interest is His concern.

God is a God of Order – He has divine power over everything, and nothing happens that He does not know about before it happens, even pandemics and riots and all the other chaos of 2020. He has already been here as the bible tells us in Isaiah 45:2 - I will go before you and will level the mountains; I will break down gates of bronze and cut through bars of iron. He has been here, where we are today. He has been in our tomorrows, leveling the mountains and breaking down barriers for us. He is in control, even in a world that is so out of control. 

Pray in the Holy Spirit - Praying in the Holy Spirit simply means praying according to the spirit’s leading, which we are always to do. Non-Christians are devoid of the spirit. As Christians, we are given the Holy Spirit as a helper who leads us and intercedes for us when we don’t have the words.  

Keep Yourselves in the Love of God - Keeping ourselves in the love of God is simply obeying God and His commands. Jude is saying take care of your relationship with God. Do what you know is right – get your focus back where it belongs – on Him. Get in the word which gives truth. When there seems to be no truth to be found – the word of God is always true. Pray about it all. And Obey His commands. 

We may not be able to control the chaos of the world, but we can have some control over what we choose to focus on. Focusing on God, His truth, prayer, and our relationship with Him is the very best distraction from the chaos of this world. It will strengthen our faith for whatever comes our way, and we will always be ready to contend for the faith. 

The last sentence is one of my very favorite verses and so important to us as members of the family of God. And have mercy on those who doubt; save others by snatching them out of the fire… 

Get your relationship with God right where it needs to be, remembering who your Heavenly Father is. Contend for the faith, but do not forget our purpose as the body of Christ – snatching everyone we can back from the brink of fire.

The Only One

Thursday, September 25, 2025

 Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Isaiah 55:1

We have a Heavenly Father who loves us so much and has already done so much for us before we were ever born.  But we still often try to replace Him with other idols in our lives.  Eventually we find out that those idols will never do for us what only the One True God can. 

Only He Can Satisfy All Our Longings -  So much time and effort are spent in our lives looking for something that makes us happy, that fulfills us, or satisfies our deepest longings. We believe that whatever it is that we want will make us happy but when we get it, we are still not happy.  Finally, we realize that He is what we truly want. He is what we are craving and thankfully, He is still there when we are done roaming around looking for all He already has to offer. 

Only He Can Rescue You – Only God is able and sufficient to rescue us from any situation we are in.  It is easy to get tired of waiting when He doesn’t answer the way we want Him to or as quickly as we want Him to and try to find something or someone else to rescue us.  We only complicate things that way.  In the middle of our need is where our faith is tested.  God’s promises are faithful and true and if we wait on Him He will deliver you.

Only He Can Take Away Sin and Shame– God alone is able to save us from our sin.  He alone can take away the shame we live in and that keeps us from becoming all God has made us to be.  It holds us back and keeps us down, convincing us that God would have nothing to do with us, that we are unredeemable.  No false God can take this away for you because it is only by the redemption of Jesus Christ that we are free from our sin and able to move beyond it to have new life in Him. 

God is the Only One You Can Trust– One of the big traits of false gods is the false security and false hope they offer.  It is tempting to begin to fill the empty spots and lonely places with all they offer.  When we refuse them, we have more empty spaces, but God is the only one who won’t leave us with more empty places.  Instead, He fills all our empty spaces and He will never leave us empty and alone.

He Promises Much– When we trust God and endure through trials, we will find a blessing somewhere along the way, but we may have to look for it.  Sometimes we may get delivered really quick from something, other times us takes a long time.  But this produces endurance in us and though it is usually unpleasant, it is serving a purpose.  When we look to Him for every step of the way, we are trusting in Him and our faith in Him gets stronger.  He is always faithful and true to His word.  

Trust the One True God and He will not let you down. 

Because of the LORD's great love, we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

Can We Trust God?

Wednesday, September 24, 2025
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning. All things were created through him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. That light shines in the darkness, and yet the darkness did not overcome it. John 1:1-5

Can We Trust God?

Trusting someone can be scary, especially if you do not know them well. In the world we live in today we seem to be overwhelmed with people trying to scam and steal from us. We trust family and friends and think we they are safe people to trust and be vulnerable with, but they prove us wrong hurting us in some way or betraying us. It makes it hard to trust anyone. 

Trusting God means letting go and relinquishing control. Most of us have a problem with relinquishing control at some level, especially when it comes to trusting God – who we have never seen. How can we learn to trust him? 

Insecurity keeps us from being intimate with people – and God. You will never have a true intimate relationship with someone if you don’t know how they feel about you. If you are not sure about how God feels about you, you won’t draw near to him, you will distance yourself. You have to be absolutely confident about how he feels about you, and if we will believe it, he has proven over and over again how he feels about us. Growing in a relationship with God will bring the confidence and security we need to know God on an intimate level, understanding him and believing he keeps his promises because we have seen it with our own eyes and read the stories. Knowing God intimately also means we will understand his character. 

Attributes of God are characteristics of his nature. The five verses above tell us much about God’s nature and prove why we can trust him. 

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. God is eternal. He has always been since the beginning and will always be. The Word in this verse is God. Jewish Rabbis referred to God as “the word of God.” Greek philosophers believed the Word was the power that held everything in perfect order, controlling all things. 

All things were created through him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created. God is sovereign, supreme over everything. He is over everything because he created all things. There is nothing in the universe that was not created by him. He is sovereign overall. 

In him was life, and that life was the light of men. That light shines in the darkness, and yet the darkness did not overcome it. God is omnipotent meaning he is all-powerful over everything, including Satan. He has overcome darkness for all time and without him we are lost in the darkness, dead in our sin. 

What is it about what God did on the cross that proves how he feels about us?  

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only Sonfrom the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14

Because he loved us, God himself put on flesh as a baby and came to live with us on earth so we could relate to him on a personal level. God came to earth through Jesus to reveal his nature - love, compassion, and grace. Through the life of Jesus God was revealed.  Through the death and resurrection of Jesus we have been redeemed so that we could have a relationship with him and live with him in heaven forever as his adopted sons and daughters. 

The greatest display of his love for us is the cross. He suffered and died in our place and restored and reconciled us back to God. Because of this sacrifice we have peace with God. 

God is immutable, meaning He is unchanging; this in turn means that God is absolutely reliable and trustworthy - the only person we can truly trust. People will hurt us and fail us. He never will. He never stops loving us or changes his mind about us. Our redemption and salvation in him are forever and his love and mercy for us are forever. That equals a God we can trust and a Heavenly Father we can go to, lean into, and call on knowing that he hears and cares about every little thing in our lives. 

Do you find it hard to trust people? God? 

How have you seen his attributes and promises manifested in your life?  

To Be Loved By God

Tuesday, September 23, 2025

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. 1 John 3:1a

To Be Loved By God

What does it feel like to be loved by God? Do you ever stop and think about it? If you do, you will feel overwhelmed by the enormity of this concept. Or do you think that God could never really love you because of all your faults and failures? 

God gave His son for the redemption of a world that was full of people with faults and failures. He did not give His Son for those who are spotless and perfect because there is no such thing except Jesus Himself. He loved us so much that, in our worst condition – sinners far away from Him – He took the punishment of our sin for us. His death on the cross paid for our redemption and that is the greatest love gift ever given. He did that before we even acknowledged He existed. He did it for the good and the bad. He doesn’t love one and hate the other.

But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8

There are those of us who cannot imagine that the love of God is for us. We see nothing but our failures when we look in the mirror (and when we don’t), and there is a continuous tape playing in our minds of all the reasons why He couldn’t love us and why we are so far out of the bounds of His grace. The real truth is that none of this is true. He wants the broken and He loves to bring beauty from the ashes of our lives. And He will do it every time if we let Him and accept it. 

As a child of God, there is nothing you can do to make God love you more. As a child of God, there nothing you can do to make God love you less.  

Even when we sin, we do not loose God’s affection for us. He still loves us, but sin deprives us of God’s blessings. He also does not take away the consequences of our sin as far as the world is concerned. Jesus’ sacrifice took away the eternal consequences of our sin and gave us eternal life. But there may be some earthly consequences we still have to pay. (Like a speeding ticket or broken relationships) We can sometimes mistakenly feel that because God loves us, He will take away those earthly consequences as well. That is not true. Truth is that He loves us no matter what but He will allow us to feel the sting of our poor choices, like any good father would. 

Being loved by God also means we belong to God. We are His. He calls us His own and gives us a heavenly inheritance that is greater than any earthly amount of gold or treasure. We are His children and He will never renounce His claim on our lives. We will fail. There have been times when like the prodigal we have felt unworthy to be called His children. But when we turn to the Father, He declares before all of heaven, earth, and hell, "He’s/She’s mine!"

Because we are so loved by Him, we can have confidence to walk in faith in Him. We can know that He will never give us anything except what is very best for us. We can feed our faith by studying the Word of God. His claim on us is sovereign and nothing and no one can take that away from us ever. In His sovereignty we have victory over every battle. We have a safe place in Him whne we cannot find a safe place on earth. 

Sadly, so many never really know what it feels like to be loved by God. We have trouble accepting that He could love us and especially that He would choose to love us. His love is given to us freely and unconditionally but we have to receive it to really experience it and know what it means to be loved by Him. Accept His gift and understand completely what it is to be loved by God.  

Our Father in Heaven…

Monday, September 22nd, 2025 

Our Father in Heaven…

For the Christian, prayer is essential to our growth in our relationship with God. It is direct access to the throne of God – an invitation we have been given to enter into his presence and commune with him. It is communication with the maker and his creation, and he longs to have this time with us. It is a time to connect with him, face to face, with everything else striped away – no pretense between us and holy God.

Last week we started a series on The Lord’s Prayer, titled “Pray Like This.” The Lord’s prayer is a model Jesus gave us to help us pray in the right way – a way that will help us live and look more and more like him every day. Our key truth for this series is, “To pray like Jesus prayed is to see like Jesus saw, trust like Jesus trusted, and live like Jesus lived.”

Every line of the Lord’s Prayer teaches us something and the first four words, Our Father in Heaven, helps us to know exactly who he is and what that means for us. 

Praying to Our Father

The name “Father” may invoke many different feelings for everyone. Many children have had the privilege of having a father who loves, cherishes, supports, and is committed to them.  A caring father who nourishes an intimate and loving relationship makes a profound effect on a child's life.  God is more than willing to help make up for absent fathers. As a Christian we have a unique relationship with the Creator of the universe who is our heavenly father as well and we need to make sure our children understand that concept of God. 

The name Father holds position and privilege for his children. It puts us in a position to know him intimately. We are his adopted sons and daughters which means that we share his treasures as an inheritance. Everything that is his is ours as well. It also means that we are under his care as we submit to him by praying to him as “Father.” He comes when we call. He hears when we cry. He listens when we pray.  He never leaves us. Because he loves us, he disciplines us as our Father, as any good father would.

When we pray to our Father in heaven it reminds us of his power and authority. He is over all and all things were made in him. He is the mighty and sovereign creator of the universe, who created, controls, and will judge all things. “In heaven” also reminds us of his holiness and glory, seated on his throne in authority overall. 

We pray to God Our Father as part of God’s family. We are to pray for sinners and our brothers and sisters in Christ. He knows us as our father and as a part of the family of God we share in the Gospel. We pray for each other. We realize we desperately need him and each other.

Whatever your concept is of your earthly father, you have Heavenly Father who loves you and wants the very best for you always. He is a father we can trust and lean into. He is a father we can count on in times of trouble, who will come when we have exhausted ourselves into a heap. He comes and puts us back together again and draws us close to him in comfort. He is the father we have all wanted and the father we all need.  

Are you someone who can call God your father?  Have you trusted Christ as your Savior and entered a relationship with God as your Father that is only possible through Christ? 

Are you tapping into the privilege of utilizing the greatest source of power known to any by praying to the one and only true God of heaven? 

As to your responsibility as God’s son or daughter, have you taken God’s call to pray for one another seriously?  Are you earnest and faithful in your prayers for others?  How might this change your prayer life?

Pray Like This... “Our Father in Heaven"

 

Pray Like This...
“Our Father in Heaven" 
Matthew 6:9a-13 (CSB)

 

- Prayer - “Prayer is a personal conversation with a holy and loving God that reorients our reality and makes all things possible.”

- Key Truth - “To pray like Jesus prayed is to see like Jesus saw, trust like Jesus trusted, and live like Jesus lived.”

1.        The Person of the Father – “Father”  speaks to us of our Position and Privilege. 

ToTo pray to God as Father is to be related to Him by adoption as son or daughter.

To To pray to God as Father (Daddy) is to intimately relate with Him, not just possess a title.

To To pray to God as Father is to submit to Him, both to His care and His discipline.

2.        The Place of the Father – “Heaven” speaks to us of God’s Power and Authority.

To To pray to God in Heaven is to pray to a power distinct from earthly restriction- strength.

To To pray to God in Heaven is to pray to the One present there, seated upon His throne – dominion.

To To pray to God in Heaven is to pray recognizing His sovereignty over all things and people - authority.

3.    The People of the Father – “Our” speaks to us of our Family and Responsibility.

ToTo  pray the word ‘our’ is to pray as part of a family.

ToTo pray the word ‘our’ is to realize both privilege and responsibility.

Because…

There is a shared Divinity: establishing that God is the Father not only of Jesus but of all who have faith in Christ. 

 There is an interdependence: fostering a sense of shared responsibility by reminding us that we are to pray not just for ourselves but also for others within this spiritual family. 

There is humility: encouraging a perspective that acknowledges God's greatness and our dependence on Him. 

There is a call to Charity: serving as a reminder of the bonds of brotherhood, promoting love, reconciliation, and working towards the salvation of fellow human beings.

After the Message: 
 Are you someone who can call God your father?  Have you trusted Christ as your Savior and entered a relationship with God as your Father that is only possible through Christ? Are you tapping into the privilege of utilizing the greatest source of power known to any by praying to the one and only true God of heaven? As to your responsibility as God’s son or daughter, have you taken God’s call to pray for one another seriously?  Are you earnest and faithful in your prayers for others?  How might this change your prayer life?

Stormy Forecast

Friday, September 19, 2025

Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. Isaiah 43:1–3 

Stormy Forecast 
Storms shake us up in many ways. They bring changes to the atmosphere, the environment, our plans, and many times they change our lives forever. They bring out the best and worst in people.  We have seen evidence of the best where people are helping in any way they can, from donating food, to taking vacation time to physically go and help clean up the devastation, to taking their boats so they can help rescue flood victims. Sadly, the worst is also made evident with people looting businesses and taking advantage of victims in any way they can.  God never wastes a minute of our lives. Everything serves a purpose and believe it or not, storms teach us many things.  

Storms teach us we are not in control of life.
The experiences of recent days of devastating storms which have cost lives and destroyed the homes and property of thousands causes us to reflect on how we respond to such disastrous events.  Questions flood our minds…

• Why did this happen? 
• What could they have done?
• And the big ones…Where was God?  Why did He allow this?

Storms reveal the soundness of our life theories and the depth of our personal theology. 
In the aftermath of the storm, we search for answers.  The most common approach is laid out in the questions above, such as why did this even happen, but we need to instead ask:

• What can I learn from this?
• What is God teaching me? 
• How can I help others through my experience?

Storms of life reveal things about us:

• The nature of our faith 
• The strength of our commitment 
• The level of our spiritual maturity 
• The limits of our trust 
• The courage of our spirit

Storms Serve to Turn Us to Jesus
When the storm comes in our lives, the Savior is looking for us to look to him.  We can be so caught up in everything else in life that God is moved into the edges of our existence. It doesn’t happen quickly. But gradually the joy of knowing and serving him evaporates from our lives.  Then the sudden storm hits. Before the storm, we had forgotten what God looks like and now, in the storm, we turn to see him again.

Storms Force Us to Choose; Fear or Faith
Fear can replace faith if we are not careful, and sometimes it does for a while until we see that fear will not get us through the storm.  Only faith will sustain us above the waves.  God’s plan and purpose for our lives are not subject to accidents, circumstances, illnesses, and evil. God works through these to bring about his will.  We have to choose to believe in the assurance that He is in control when the storm rages as well as when it does not.  

What kind of storms are you facing in your life? 

What is the storm revealing about your faith life?  

Experiencing God’s Power and Presence

 Thursday, September 18, 2025  

And when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God with boldness. Acts 4:31

Experiencing God’s Power and Presence

There are a few examples of God’s presence in the Bible manifesting itself as shaking. When Paul and Silas were in jail, singing praises, the walls of the jail began to shake. That was the awesome power and majesty of God’s presence. Our walls will not shake with God’s presence and if they did, we would chalk it up to a powerful earthquake. We may not feel God’s presence in the same way these early Christians did, but His power and presence is just as real in our lives today. 

Though God is always present, there are times when the powerful presence of God goes undetected. Sometimes we do expect the walls to shake or to have a particular feeling before we believe God is present. If we don’t “feel” His presence, then He must not be present, but we know our feelings cannot be trusted. God can certainly be present, even if we don’t “feel” His presence. At Bethel, Jacob said "Surely, the presence of God was in this place AND I KNEW IT NOT!" Most of us can identify with this - realizing that we just came through an experience where God was surely present and we didn’t even realize it at the time.

God’s presence is not a feeling, although there may be times we truly feel His presence. Just as our salvation cannot be based on a feeling, we cannot base God’s presence in our lives on whether or not we feel it - thank goodness! The times we need His presence the most will likely be the times we may feel it the least. The circumstances of our lives can cause us so much turmoil that we may not feel like He is close at all. These are the times we hold to the promises of His word and we believe what the Bible says. The God of the universe cannot be considered real on the basis of our fragile human emotions. 

Prayer Keeps Us In Touch With the Presence and the Work of God

When we pray on a regular basis, we are going to have a closer relationship with God and be more aware of the presence of God than those who don’t communicate with Him. A relationship between two people cannot be built without communication. Prayer is part of what builds our relationship with God and it puts us in tune with Him and His work in our lives. We cannot recognize what we are not familiar with, and failure to pray can cause us to miss much of the work of God.

Prayer ushers the presence of God and the filling of His Spirit into our lives. It is the simple act of communion with God and seeking to glorify His Son that opens our hearts to Him. And the humble act of prayer is the vehicle for His power in our lives. 

When we come together as one with others and lift up our voices in unity, there is added power. In the passage above, Peter and John, having been in jail for preaching the gospel, were with their friends praising God for delivering them from jail, and asking for protection and boldness to preach the Gospel again. This faith and this unity and this adoration from this group of believers played an important part in what happened. The walls shaking with the presence of the Lord, they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to preach the Gospel with boldness. 

The filling of the Spirit came because of prayer- even though they did not pray for that. They didn’t gather to have a party, they gathered to praise God seek the power of God to keep delivering the Gospel in boldness. God delivered them from the first crisis and filled them for this new one. 

Prayer was the first response of these early Christians, in the face of persecution and the unknown. They experienced the power and presence of God because of their faith in Him and their relationship with Him. When we have a relationship with God and build that relationship with regular prayer and communion with Him, we can also experience His power and presence in our lives.