We're devoting five GCC weekend services to the essential matter of prayer, so when approximately one zillion GSM students returned from their "RENEWAL" retreat to join the rest of us in this weekend's worship service, they capped off their experience with fantastic training, and they amped up the energy in the room big time!
When his followers asked Jesus to teach them pray he gave them specific words to say. We'll ponder those words together each weekend as we spend our weeks completing Blackaby's "Experiencing God" training.
We launched GCC's "Prayer Series" this weekend and Jason Miller's inspired preaching included these remarks:
- The stakes are very high when we enter a real conversation with the God we believe is good.
- The prayers of Jesus intensified and personalized the word "Father."
- We don't pray as beggars. We pray as beloved daughters and sons.
- As we move through the words Jesus taught us to pray we'll ask two questions. (a) What did Jesus have in mind when he used those words? (b) How does that knowledge effect how we pray?
- For the next 5 weeks we'll pray the Lord's Prayer aloud three times each day.
- If your prayer feels like it hit the ceiling and bounced back, that means it hit God twice already. Our God fills everything everywhere.
- God is as near as the air you breathe. God fills everywhere with HIS presence.
- Our Heavenly Father is both: intimate & personal and other & distant.
- If there is a profound gap between what you needed from your earthy father and what he gave you, know this. God fills in that gap.
- The original text of the Lord's Prayer is best translated, "Our Father in the heavens..." The word isn't "heaven." It's "heavens." It's plural.
I can't imagine a better service for the GSM kids to come home to, nor can I imagine a better series for all of us to engage for the next month. We're in for a fantastic season.
Luke 11:2a - He said to them, “When you pray, say: 'Father, hallowed be your name...'"
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