January 2011 Newsletter

Dearest Friends,

Well, it’s January and the time to declare all of our decisions and resolutions to make changes for the New Year.  Some have to do with diet and some have to do with exercise and some have to do with church attendance…and we could go on and on.  And they all take discipline.

The most rewarding things in life usually take discipline.  And prayer is no different.  It takes discpline.  And unless you build some discipline in to your life, either prayer will not get started or it will not keep going.

Many folks find prayer to be boring, and because the last thing they want is to be bored, they decide they won’t pray.  I’m not talking about little prayers here and there…I’m talking about real praying.  Some people won’t pray, even though they know what it does.  It’s boring so they don’t do it.

Part of the reason that people don’t pray is because they haven’t disciplined themselves to get information about which they can pray.  If you want to know how to pray for someone or something, do a study of all the prayers in the Bible.  Examine biblical praying, and then work your way through each one of those prayers, inserting the name of the person or situation you are concerned about.  This will stir your heart for prayer.

Real prayer is inspiration…but it’s also perspiration.  have you ever “wrestled in prayer”? (Colossians 4:12)  The apostle Paul Christians at Colosse:  “Devote yourselves to prayer” (Colossians 4:2).  He knew the necessity of devotion and the commitment and discipline in prayer.  Paul knew how much they needed to really pray.

As your pastor, I challenge you to devote yourself to prayer in 2011.  In this New Year, you an dI must pray in anew way – longer and harder and more often.  Lost souls are at stake; the conditions of our families are at stake; the spiritual life of our church is at stake.

Will you join me and make prayer your focus for spiritual life and God-like living and total obedience as a disciple of Jesus Christ?

Looking for you Sunday, Pastor Paul White