Please don’t pass this one by. Give this The Coalition of African American Pastors, USA a look because what they’re saying is very important and the stance they are taking is a courageous one. They need our prayerful and public support. Thank You.
COMMITMENT AND COURAGE
Terry Fox ran across Canada and raised twenty-four million dollars to fight cancer. What’s amazing is that he did it with one leg; cancer had taken the other. He planned to run twenty-six miles each day but because of severe headaches, snow and icy roads, after a month he’d only managed to struggle about eight miles a day. So why did he keep going? Because the purpose in his heart was stronger than the pain in his body. They could amputate his leg, but not his spirit! Commitment is a willingness to do whatever it takes; it’s a promise to yourself, from which you refuse to back down. There’s a difference between interest and commitment. When you’re interested you do it only when it’s convenient, but when you’re committed you accept no excuses-only results. Only you can decide whether the rewards are worth the efforts, for there are tradeoffs. You can’t have a healthy body and live on junk food. A guaranteed salary is nonexistent when you start your own business. Mindless hours of watching television and straight “A’s” are a rare combination. Commitment means paying your dues. It also means disregarding your critics. Jesus did that. “But Jesus ignored their comments and said…’Don’t be afraid. Just trust me.” (Mk 5:36 TLB). Ralph Waldo Emerson said: “Whatever course you decide upon, there will always be someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising which tempt you to believe that your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires courage.”
Nothing can make such a difference, offer so much peace, raise our hope, and increase our faith like the habit of prayer.
Driven to My Knees
“One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in his temple.” Psalm 27:4 (KJV)
Abraham Lincoln said, “Many times I have been driven to my knees in prayer by the conscious knowledge that I had no where else to turn.”
For many of us it takes trouble to drive us to our knees. A crisis in our life, or some dread calamity beyond our power to avert. While prayer is certainly the appropriate course when faced with such things, I want to make a case for a more noble cause. Beginning tomorrow, I want to share three great facts about prayer that, once comprehended by us, will drive us to our knees without the aid of crisis and calamity.
By way of introduction to this short series of posts, let me acquaint you with a great promise from Scripture: “Those that be planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our God.” Psalm 92:13 (KJV).
Jesus said, “My house shall be called a house of prayer.” Thus, if we are “planted in the house of the Lord” then we are rooted and grounded in a life of devotional faithfulness. This means that we will “flourish in the courts of our God.” If House is where He lives, the Courts is where He works.
In other words, our commitment to a life of prayer opens the doors for us to enter into the fullness of God’s work in the earth. Being made sensitive to His presence, to His Voice, and to His ways while we are in His House, makes us ready and available to see His Hand at work in our world — bringing His kingdom all around us in the lives of our families, our friends — and even our foes.
“The one concern of the devil is to keep Christians from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work and prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil, mocks at our wisdom, but he trembles when we pray.” (Samuel Chadwick)
May we become men and women who are driven to our knees!
wayneaugden 