Wednesday, January 10, 2018                                                                            The Meeting Place was Shaken

Powerful Prayer Recognizes God’s Answers and Actions

Scriptures to Consider: Genesis 22:1-14; 2 Chronicles 7; Psalm 51:6; Matthew 21:22; Acts 16:6-10; 2 Corinthians 9:8-15; Philippians 2:13; Ephesians 1:17-19; 2 Timothy 1:7

A fourth biblical practice for powerful prayer is recognizing God’s answers and actions. All of those who had intimate relationships with God throughout the Bible could recognize when God was speaking and acting around them. Whether it was Solomon at the temple dedication, Paul and the Macedonian call, or Abraham moving from Ur, they could sense when God was moving and decided to join Him in that work.

I believe God intends for us to increasingly be able to do the same. It is possible for us to realize and recognize God’s voice and actions around us. This happens when we seek Him and are expecting Him to be speaking and working.

We can tell how God has worked and spoken and how God might work and speak again through our knowledge of Scripture. The Bible is the standard for discerning who God is, what He intends, and how He might accomplish it. God uses the Bible to impact our understanding of Him and of how He works. God uses the Bible to stir or strengthen us in our service to Him. God uses the Bible to reveal His plans for us. God also uses the Bible to help conform us to the image of Christ.

Through recognizing how God is speaking and acting and then joining Him, we are able to more intimately know Him and others and to be able to point others to Him. It is God who gives us a hunger for spiritual things. It is God who gives us desire to love and to serve. It is God who provides for our needs through ordinary or extraordinary means. It is God who gives us strength through trials and temptations.

Can you recognize the ways that God works in the world? Judgment and mercy shown by God supernaturally or through others is one way in which He works to us. How many of us can see His grace and mercy at work? How many of us can see the ways in which He is refining us through pressures?

Prayer Focus: What have you seen God doing to invite you into deeper relationship with Him? What clear assignment is He giving you in service to others in your community? How is God speaking to your heart or soul right now? What is He telling you and how should you respond? Have you asked Him to grow your desire for Him and His will? How is God working in the life of your church right now? How is His grace evident?

Pray for Seventh Day Baptists in Europe (England, Netherlands, & Poland).

You can get the booklet in pdf format here: 2018 SDB Week of Prayer Booklet