As I pray this week, "God make us faithful". I am reminded of a statement that used to be hanging on the wall in the first years of our church... "They devoted themselves". Why were they so devoted? In a word LOVE.For me devotion means love. Devotion comes from a place of passion and passion comes from love. Because of love men will do amazing things. They will risk, sacrifice, and even die.
Being faithful to something I love is far easier than to something or someone I don't.
I pray that God would capture our hearts with His love and "Make us Faithful".
I pray that out of our love would be come devoted followers of Jesus.
May NCC fall in love and be found faithful!
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"Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first." Revelations 2:4-5
We should be completely and holy devoted to our Lord "Jesus Christ". Throwing off anything that hinders us including; complacency, discomfort, and pride. We have been called to love! And to love with such a passion that the world will know we are his Disciples! Let us draw from the source, which is Christ. And let us devote our selves to his mission of saving the lost, healing the broken, embracing the lonely, & feeding the hungry. We serve a big God who is mighty to save. May we believe in his power to do the impossible and renew a steadfast faithful spirit within us!
I heard it said the other day that our prayers reflect what we believe about God. And its true. Like Pastor Marty(?) was saying this week, if God is who He says He is, and God can do what He says He can do, then we are an unbelieving people. Quite often my prayers are something along the lines of bless so and so, and help me with this and that...which is fine. But if we are in the middle of a movement to transform the world in the name of Jesus, then these prayers aren't gong to cut it. Either God is who He claims to be; or he is not. If He is not, then weve wasted a whole lot of time, but if He is then our FAITH is at a place where He is transforming it, and us. My prayer is that we prayer bigger. Trust more. and have faith that can literally move mountains. That we will be known only for our love, and that our love will actually start to reflect His. I am so excited about this one prayer thing and cant wait to see how God will unite His body.
I've been criticized for my devotion to do what God wills in my life. They tell me I'm crazy to put 20+ hours a week involved in church (weekend services, small groups, events, relationships) when I don't even have a steady job (or no job at all). You may agree that volunteering so much of my time to His body when income seems to be at risk may not be the smartest thing to do. Yet because of God's promise and provision, His perfect plan for my life, I have no fear or doubt that God will continue to provide for my every need. It was a hard lesson learned over a 7 year period, and He continues to stretch me to be more giving and generous (out of what little I have). What drives this devotion? His amazing love, of course. I love God and I love His body. Life is nothing without Him.
This has been my continous prayer for our ohana since we have been saved, to be faithfull! I am partially relieved that I am not the only one who needs this prayer, even mature Christians still struggle with this. But I am also left wondering does it ever end! Well, only we can be the answer to that. It is up to every single person, like in everthing else that can determine our faithfulness.
God has shown his devotion to me so many times but the enemy is still relentlessly whispering in my ear his clever lies. I am stronger than he because I have GOD!
God make us faithfull, make us ONE!!!!
With Aloha, Lani Hinkes
When Pastor Marty spoke this weekend, what really hit me the hardest was that faithful means rigid, etc. He was right it is a hard word. Pastor Chris, you are completely right when you say that we have to be so in love and devoted to God because that's the only place where we can fulfill such a hard word and prayer of faithful. The other thing that struck me is that the opposite of faith is LAX. Let's be honest, how many of us are or have been lax? Lax in our prayer life, lax in our volunteering in the community, lax in our church (mere spectators or volunteering and then not following through), lax is also half hearted. These are hard things to hear but I pray that by hearing these words this weekend that we will let them resonate in our very souls and stir up a devotion and love that hasn't been seen in the hearts of men since the time of Jesus. My prayer...Lord make us faithful.
2 Kings 20:2-3
Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD, "Remember, O LORD, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes."
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