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CURRENT RADIO SERIES LifeWorks     CURRENT TV SERIES LifeWorks

…I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven.   --Nehemiah 1:4 Faithful, everyday prayer is absolutely critical for Christians. It’s our communication with the One and only God that helps us learn His will for us. Unfortunately, though, prayer is a last resort, even for many believers! Prayer is not a magic trick. It’s communication with God that should go hand in hand with our actions to honor Him. Prayer is not a substitute for work but a preparation for work! Prayer focuses our attention and demands our discipline. Prayers do not need to be great public spectacles because it’s our personal and private prayers that truly move God and make a difference. Prayer is surrender to the Lord’s will. It’s not trying to pull God into our plans, but rather it’s putting our plans in line with His will.  It’s in prayer that we experience God and are exposed to His greatness. It’s in prayer that we make ourselves available to God. I challenge you today to spend some time alone with God in prayer…making yourself available to Him! The National Day of Prayer is on May 5, 2016, prepare your heart to intercede for our nation. PRAYER FOCUSES OUR ATTENTION AND IT DEMANDS OUR DISCIPLINE.     Why Rejoice? by Dr. Paul Chappell “And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name. And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.” Luke 10:17–20 When His disciples rejoiced at the victories they had seen in their work, Jesus pointed out to them that they were rejoicing in the wrong thing. The great reason we have for joy in our lives is not found in this world but in the next. Because of the gift of salvation we have received, we have the hope of eternal life that can never be taken away. Matthew Henry said, “Joy and peace as believers arises chiefly from our hopes. What is laid out upon us is but little, compared with what is laid up for us (in glory); therefore the more hope we have the more joy and peace we have.” Victories in this world are good, but at best they are only temporary. Each sick person Jesus or the disciples healed still eventually died. But each person who heard and received the gospel received eternal life that could never be taken away. The main reason for our rejoicing should not be the short-term blessings we receive in this world. We should be thankful and give God praise when we see Him at work in our lives, but we must maintain our focus on the great gift of salvation. Any temporal blessing we receive has a limited impact on our lives. But our names are written in Heaven forever, and our eternal destiny has already been sealed by God. Today’s Growth Principle:  One of the biggest reasons for a lack of joy is a focus on this world rather than on eternity.