Dear Readers: What follows are excerpts from Cornerstone’s New Year’s Day sermon. If you would like to hear the sermon in its entirety please go to www.cornerstoneag.net and follow the Pastor’s Corner link to the sermons portion of our website.
“If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. ” John 15:7 NIV
Many Christians are at a loss when it comes to the work of prayer in the walk with Christ. We can tell God our stories in graphic detail but in the end our prayers do little to change our circumstances. For many, prayer seems like just a repetition of things we are aware God already knows. We come away from telling Him our story to feel like He hasn’t heard us or worse is annoyed with our telling.
John 15:7 implies that the problem starts with us. It is our communication problem not God’s. Envision yourself with the family member who can never tell a story without sparing you the gory details. I think it is sometimes like that in our relationship with God. Maybe there are days when God wants to stop us in our much speaking and say to us “Just give me the facts please.”
Or maybe that is “Just the F.L.A.C.T.S. please”.
This is a good day to begin asking ourselves the question “How effective are our prayer lives?”
The answer lies in how we are communicating. Are we the relative who bends God’s ear but says nothing. Or are we the person who deals in the F.L.A.C.T.S. Are we approaching God as complainers bearing tales of woe or are we coming to God Through:
Faith with a
Listening spirit
Adoring God before everything else
Confessing both the strengths and weaknesses of our situation
Thanking Him for His move in our lives as we recognize it and finally
Supplicating with the Lord in regards to the things HE wants to give us.
I sense that 2012 is going to be a year of God’s mighty move. That’s not just because God has made up His mind to move but it’s because God’s people are going to begin living and praying forth the word of God in appropriating faith once again by giving God the F.L.A.C.T.S.
More to come Friday…. Join us tomorrow for Pastor Wrinkles Chapter Charts.
Reinventing the We'll 
love it! Each day I am drawn into wondering what Jesus’ prayer time was like. As was His custom to go and pray before daybreak….Do you think he recounted everything that happened…to himself/God…were those prayer times for clarity of mission? Today’s activities? Today’s human targets? Filling of the Word, Filling of the Spirit…just imagine….I know I can not comprehend those Spiritual times but I can bring praise and recognition for who He is and seek Him and His purpose for drawing me near…thanks Jelillie!!
You are most welcom tomraines! These are good questions and ones I shall dwell on for a bit 😉
Hmmm…
Never thought of it before. Thanks for provoking my thoughts. Very, very interesting!
It gives me goosebumps to think He may have been praying over us, our sins, and the redemption His death and resurrection would bring.
Dear Jesus, I thank you for your sacrifice. May we joyfully live in the freedom Your blood bought.
Blessings to all
ann
Cool… I like 🙂
Thanks for sharing. Hope I can download the sermon on itunes so I can listen later. I am working on a report as I type but I thought I’d sneak in and see what goodies you had to share. Disappointed I am not!
I am running with the ‘Listening spirit’. That aspect eludes me more times than I choose to admit. 🙂
Blessings,
ann
I’m with you Ann in the listening thing. How many times do I end up praying my will and not God’s because I don’t take time to tune in before praying.
Thanks, Pastor J, I am so blessed to hear this message a second time.
I am glad you are enjoying it the second time around!
Thank you for the flacts, for showing me some things about praying that I hadn’t considered and don’t always do. What if I did? 🙂 Exciting! God bless you, Pastor J and all the prayers you engage in this year!
God is going to work mightily through the prayers of the saints this year. I just know it! 🙂 Thanks for commenting and thanks for praying along with me! 🙂