Luke 22:39
“And he came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed him.”
Psalm 121:1-8
“I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.”
We all have metaphorical mountains we can climb – like being better at sacrificing, or exercising patience or obedience. We can ask God what we need to do better and how we can climb our mountain as well.
In order to do this, PD shared three points that can help us better climb over our hurdles.
- We can have a prayerful mindset
When we moved to our new building, PD asked us to have a prayerful mindset. In Mark 11:17, Jesus also says that his church is supposed to be a house of prayer for all nations, so naturally, we should try to do our best to pray well.
A way that we can practice this is by coming early to church to spend some time in prayer. Whether it be for service or another gathering, let’s try our best to come a bit early to pray beforehand.
It’s easier to come to church to have fellowship or to do our ministry, but let’s make sure to not neglect prayer.
- Our faith can move mountains
In the bible, we often see miracles happen as a result of having faith. In Mark 5, the bleeding lady was told she was healed because of her faith, and in Matt 17, Jesus himself says that having faith like a mustard seed can move mountains.
So we can see that faith is powerful, and an expression of this faith is prayer, which shows reliance and dependence on God.
So our faith, through prayer, can make powerful changes in our lives and in the lives of others. And the content of our prayer is important as well since it is a conversation with God.
- Prayer builds up our character
We can see in Luke that Jesus went to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him. They went up there to pray.
Similarly, we can also follow Christs example to go and pray, and this is important because it will help us to grow and become like Christ. And prayer will help our hearts to have a character of Jesus.
We can serve and help out in church a lot, but without prayer, we can’t have Christ’s character in our hearts. So this is why it’s important to have a prayerful attitude and lifestyle. It will help us to experience God abundantly.
Questions:
- What are some things that make you not want to pray/believe in prayer?
- How has prayer built up your character in your life?
All Nations Fellowship 