Life

Its good to be back with you all sharing fellowship together.

As we all know, life at times is very difficult. But Jesus said.

Ask and it will be given to you, search and you will find, knock and the door will be opened for you, for everyone who asks, receives and everyone who searches, finds and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Amen.

With God, we can make it through.

Let us sing: And can it be.

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As we journy into a time of prayer let us listent to the Staff Songsters sing:

All For Thee

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Time Of Prayer

Lord, help me to hear you saying, "I am your hope" over all the other voices. Lord, your word says, you are the hope for hopeless so I'm running to you with both hands stretched out and grabbing on to you. Fill me up with hope and give me a tangible reminder today that hope is an unbreakable spiritual lifeline. God, you know those things in my heart that I barely dare to hope for, today I give them to you, I trust them to you, and ask that you because I know that you can do more than I could ever guess, imagine or request in wildest dreams. God, you are my hope and I trust you. Amen.

Please take this time to pray for your family, loved one's and friends.

Let us share together in the Lords Prayer

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come; thy will be done; on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

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Before we go to the word let us reflect on, Guardian of my soul.

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Life is not easy

Have you heard the saying, “life isn’t easy”. I’m sure we have and when we hear it, it can be somewhat discouraging. Why? Well, (a) because we know it’s true and b) because as you look at your life, your today, your tomorrow, sometimes, it’s just not what we expected.

Now don’t get me wrong I haven’t had a bad life, I love everything I’m involved in and I’m blessed with a wonderful family and friend. I’m safe, I’m provided for by God but there’s always something isn’t there? Always something, that seems to rob us of our peace and our joy; I’m sure it’s the same for you too.

I’m praying that there have been some truly awesome times in your life but maybe at the moment there’s just something out there, a person, a relationship, some work situation, maybe a health issue or a family issue or a finance issue, something that is taking the shine off things.

How do you reconcile all this. How de we reconcile all the hardship we go through with the apparent Biblical truth that God loves you and wants to bless you, something we want to believe, with all our hearts.

Well, the honest truth is that a lot of people don’t reconcile the two, they can’t understand how those two realities, our struggles and God’s goodness, can co-exist.

Maybe if you’re living with a struggle just now, you want with all your heart, Jesus to bring some powerful healing. If that’s the case listen to what Jesus has to say,

Matthew chapter 7 verses 13 and 14:

Enter through the narrow gate for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction and there are many who take it. For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life and there are few who find it.

I know what you’re thinking, that sounds like bad news. This is saying, that life wasn’t meant to be easy, what’s the good of that? Am I right?

Well, the first step to healing, the first step to discovering God’s real blessings in your life is accepting the reality and the reality is that following Jesus isn’t easy, it’s counter-cultural. The world wants you to follow them down that nice, gentle, wide, well paved road to nowhere.

Jesus is calling you to go a hundred and eighty degrees in the opposite direction, He’s calling you to swim against the tide. What for? For the prize of course or did you miss what Jesus said about the prize on the other side of that narrow gate at the end of that hard road?

Where does it lead? It leads to life and there are few who find it. Remember this is Jesus who just a few verses before in this same chapter said this:

Ask and it will be given to you, search and you will find, knock and the door will be opened for you, for everyone who asks, receives and everyone who searches, finds and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Is there anyone among you if your child asks for bread will give a stone or if the child asks for a fish will give you a snake? If you then who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask Him?

Blessing, the blessing of God, the good things of God come right, smack bang in the middle of the tough journey. The problem is, all too often, we think that the blessing of God is the removing of suffering and replacing it with gifts and presents and all sorts of goodies.

Well okay sometimes that happens, sometimes that’s God’s will, but more often than not the good things that He wants for us are to grow our character, to make us more humble, to help us to learn to serve people who don’t deserve it, to discover our lives in Christ in a way that we never imagined possible.

Let me tell you, some of the greatest blessings that I’ve experienced in my life have come in the darkest times. They had nothing to do with changing my circumstances but everything to do with changing me. Get a grip, get a revelation today, life wasn’t meant to be an easy journey. Life wasn’t meant to be one great big party, following Jesus is hard some days, in fact following Jesus is hard most days.

Will you follow Him anyway? Following Jesus means losing things, losing the world’s approval, the money we might have earned, the comfort we might have had, will you follow Him anyway? Because when we live our lives like that, in the knowledge of the trials but experiencing His blessings, that’s the place of healing, that’s the place where we find our lives, that’s the place we experience a joy and a freedom and a sense of fulfilment that we never ever, ever, thought was possible.

I was chatting with a friend of mine the other day, who is going through some very difficult times. She said to me, Its serious and a mess. But all will be ok. How powerful is that? The miracle of the Holy Spirit, is the working away in her life as she labours long through her difficult times. The miracle of the Holy Spirit transforming her life, bringing her peace, bringing her courage when she needs it.

That’s the sorts of miracles that God has on offer. Give me that sort of miracle anytime, the miracle of a transformed life, the miracle of healing deep within, the miracle of discovering real life out on that difficult road, the healing that comes when finally, we’re set free from the shackles that this world would bind us with.

Come on! Those are the miracles that we really want. ‘Jesus speaks and Jesus heals’. Have you heard Jesus speaking today? Then may His healing flow abundantly into your heart. May you have the abundant life that Jesus came to give you.

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Let us declare the power of God's love

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The Lord bless Thee and keep thee

The make his face shine upon thee

And be gracious unto thee

The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee

And give thee peace