“My House shall be called a House of Prayer” …Matthew 21:13
God wants Community Bible Church of Beaufort to be a House of Prayer.
Pastor Carl preached a wonderful sermon on prayer on August 20, 2006. The title is “Fervent Earnest Prayer” from 1 Kings 17:8-24. If you want to listen, click here and turn on your speakers. Here are a few things I learned.
- Prayer is a serious matter, a conversation with our God. It would be almost impossible to get an appointment to talk to the president of our country, yet we are allowed to bring our petitions before the creator of our country, our world, the universe.
- When we appear before someone important, we wear our best, shine our shoes and try to look good. When we bring our petitions to God our outward appearance is not important because God looks at our heart. We need “a clean heart” when we pray because God can not tolerate sin and if sin is in our heart, our prayers may be hindered. First, confess your sins to God and sincerely ask forgiveness before you ask for anything else.
- Although we can pray anytime and from anywhere, we do it best when we have a special time and place to be alone with God. For me. the best time is early in the morning and the best place is alone in my study. Some years ago the Air Force had a recruiting picture showing a pilot sitting down behind the controls of a fighter. I thought about how much power that pilot had in his hands. Now I believe we have far more power than the fighter pilot when we come humbly before the Lord in our prayer closet.
Click here to read what the bible says about prayer. This link uses the “What the bible says about…” link in the right margin. Use it to find what the bible says about almost any topic. Many of our prayer requests on the CBC Prayer Chain are related to afflictions and adversities. You might want use this resource to read some bible references on those topics. If you want more help on prayer click here for “A Guide To Intercessory Prayer.”
I have slowly been working my way through “A Guide To Intercessory Prayer.” The first and hardest step for me is to learn to be still before the Lord. Our mind is like an untamed horse that runs whereever it pleases. I used the 3-minute egg timer to see if I could be still and focus my mind on God for just 3 minutes. I could not come anywhere near that amount of time. I have continued this daily mental exercise for several weeks. Slowly I have been able to see improvemen. I still have a long way to go but I can now feel the sweet joy of just being still before the Lord for a few minutes. Try it for yourself.
Comment by John Ward — December 8, 2006 @ 10:47 am
Please pray for a man name Ray who works for Wendell Varnes. He fall off a ladder two stories and hit his head on the concrete. He is at MUSC.
Comment by Terry Beach — January 10, 2008 @ 5:54 pm