True Refreshment

Here is a simple question I would pose: are you being refreshed in your walk with Christ, especially as that relates to your prayer life? God has promised that if we repent and turn to Him, our sins will be wiped out and times of refreshing will come from the Lord. But what is this refreshing that comes from the Lord? I think that as believers we far too often forget this refreshing that God has promised as we get so caught up in the business of our lives. We neglect true refreshment in favor of a little mindless relaxation. We do not grasp the magnitude of what God has promised, so we do not experience the reality of what God has promised to do in our lives.

Do you not know that God delights to fulfill His promises to His children? And how he fulfills His promises! Our God carries out his Word with zeal and generosity that only the God of the universe could supply. He does not sit passively on His throne and wait until we come crying out to him in utter desperation before He decides to act. No, the Lord God Almighty stands and calls out to us to come and be refreshed in Him. He can not wait for us to turn to Him so that He might completely meet our needs and satisfy our souls. He delights to refresh us with what we need most; himself. Even now He is calling out, “Come to me, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Come buy wine and milk without money and without cost.” How will He not most generously give to those who cry out to Him for the gifts He has already promised? And what is more, He has set it before us free of charge. He himself bore the price in His body that we might be eternally satisfied in our God. Who can match the matchless giving of our God? Who can satisfy us like Jesus? For to whom else can we go for water that will become a spring in our souls, welling up to eternal life?

So, what is this that God has promised? Our everlasting Father has promised to give us choice food and drink without cost or limit. He has promised to renew our strength so we run and do not grow weary, so we walk and do not faint. He has promised to take our yoke upon Himself and give us a yoke that is easy and a burden that is light. The Lord has promised that if we are faithful in seeking after him, He will open the very storehouses of heaven and pour out a blessing we can not contain. To open the storehouses of heaven – there is a phrase that thrills my soul. For such a blessing is beyond comprehension. Indeed, if we could understand the awesomeness of the flood in Genesis, we might begin to understand the vastness of this promise. For forty days and nights, God opened the storehouses of heaven and it rained so the earth was completely covered with water, with some to spare. How great is our God who is able to bless in that same measure those who call on His name! Does our Lord not fill us to overflowing out of his wonderful abundance? And what is this great abundance and blessing that will refresh the soul? Is it not that we have a personal, intimate fellowship with Jesus Christ, through whom we are justified and have peace with God? Is it not to treasure as more precious to our hearts the One in the entire universe who is most worthy of our love and adoration?

So, let us seek the Lord while He may be found, let us call on Him while He is near. Let us forsake our evil ways and our wicked thoughts. Let us turn to the Lord for He will have mercy on us and to our God for He will freely pardon. Let us find our refreshment, satisfaction, and fulfillment in our God. And let us freely and abundantly share with others for in that same manner we have received.

10 As the rain and the snow

come down from heaven,

and do not return to it

without watering the earth

and making it bud and flourish,

so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,

11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth:

It will not return to me empty,

but will accomplish what I desire

and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

Isaiah 55:10-11

Prayer Requests Feb 19

Thank you to all who are praying for us and with us at Iowa State. It is a privilege to come before our King and know that He hears us. I encourage to guard your time with God carefully, for it is most valuable. I apologize for not putting up anything last week.

This past week we were reminded that we can be doing good things or we can be doing the best thing. We are praying that God would show us what the best things are and that if necessary, we would be willing to sacrifice some of the good things to see that the best things happen. We can be praying for each other that our priorities would align with what God would want.

One other ongoing prayer request is for unity and fellowship. This semester as we look at Acts, that is a huge theme. I believe that God would have us grow in this area as a ministry. Please be praying to that end.

Repentance and Restoration

My most gracious King and Father,

I come before you this morning, in need of one thing. Indeed, I yearn for even a little time with you. Oh my Father, do not remain far from me. I look for your hand day and night. In the morning I gaze into your word. In the day, I lift up my voice from bended knee to call out your name. In the evening I lay my heart before you.

How then is it that you feel so far away; that my ears no longer hear you calling out to me? How far have I strayed from your fold in the pursuit of my own happiness and worldly success? How hard has my heart become that I am not moved to compassion for those who are lost? Show me, my God, where I have turned away and where I have sinned against you. Sin can not dwell in your presence for you are perfect. Do not keep me blind forever to the greatness of my trespass but bring it into the light. Oh Lord, let not my many transgressions, great and small come between us. Wash me in the cleansing blood of Jesus I pray. By the power of your might, remove them far from me.

I am a chief of sinners and have no right to ask such things of my King, for I am worthy only of death. It is only by your grace and mercy that I dare to ask so boldly. Lord God, my soul is troubled in me and my spirit wastes away. You alone can change my heart. Only you can bring perfect healing and restoration. Do not with hold them from me but lift up my head from the dust that those who trust in you may rejoice with me in your great love and compassion.

Though I am as one wading through murky waters on a dark night, I will put my trust in you. I dare not trust myself for I am but flesh and blood; weak and prone to wander. You are the immovable and unchanging rock, the foundation. In your Word you have laid out what is required of a man. To love mercy. To do justice. To walk humbly with my God. So Lord, come to me again. Replace my heart of stone with a heart of flesh. My Father, instruct me in obedience, for I desire to please you. Strengthen me to run in the path of your commands for their will I find my delight. In pleasing you will I find abundant life.

Draw near to me, for destruction is at my doorstep. My path is filled with snares. Teach me to obey your commands that I might not fall. Teach me to love your statutes that my life may be preserved. Better is an hour with you than a meal of choice delicacies. More would be my delight in an hour of sweet communion with you than all the praise of men. For this is true joy – to know and walk with you. So my God, open my eyes to see, open my ears to hear, open my mind to understand, open my heart to act. I cry out to you, God, draw near to me that I may be drawn to you once more for the glory of your name. Do not remain angry with me Father, but remove my iniquity and call out my name that I might run to you. Let my heart rejoice that you will not abandon your beloved but you will satisfy me with your presence. To my Father, the creator and lover of my soul, be all glory, honor, power and authority through Jesus Christ my Lord .

Amen.

Prayer Requests Feb 5

This week, there is not a list of things to pray for because prayer is not all about asking for stuff from God, even if it is good stuff. This week, I would encourage you to take time and simply enjoy God for who He is. Sit and listen prayerfully to His Word and His voice and let him show you more of who He is. May God bless you as you seek His face and not just His hand.

Characteristics of Paul's Prayers

Here are some characteristics of Paul's prayers that Brian Wachter has compiled for us. I would encourage you to develop these characteristics in your own prayer life with the help of the Father.













-Rom 1:10 Constantly remember you
-1 Cor 1:4 I always pray for you
-1 Cor 14:13-17 That it would edify others as they participate
-Eph 1:17 Not stop giving thanks
-Eph 3:14 Kneel before the Father
-Phil 1:3-8 Give thanks every time I remember you
-Phil 1:3-8 Pray with joy
-Phil 1:3-8 Have you in my heart
-Phil 1:3-8 I long for you all
-Phil 4:6 Don't be anxious
-Phil 4:6 In everything with thanksgiving
-Col 1:3-4 Always give thanks for you
-Col 1:9-12 Not stopped praying for you
-Col 3:15-16 Gratitude in you heart toward God
-2 Tim 1:3-4 Constantly remember you in my prayers, day and night

A Moment in Hindsight

And I opened my eyes
only to find it better than I had imagined.
The visions of years disappeared in a moment,
a flash as the sun reflected in the water.
For it must be the sun.

And the colors;
never had I though such colors existed.
And how their feel and smell could not tell
half the tale of their rich splendor,
dazzling my eyes.

Looking down,
to try and reign in the brilliant images.
Only to find the most wonderful discovery of all;
my feet and then my legs and arms and hands,
my other eyes.

Focusing again,
looking down the street to see people.
To see a crowd gathering in the distance,
and there was my house!
It had to be.

So I ran,
down the street, in the door,
to the back where my mother sat.
She looked most beautiful
I decided.

Standing there,
right beside her was dad.
He had brown eyes I had been told;
but such a description failed
to describe brown.

So we looked.
A meeting of our gazes,
of our minds for the first time.
And they could tell
I saw them.

How? When?
At the hands of a man
whose name I did not hear
but whose hands touched
my eyes.

I was summoned
to the temple of God.
Oh how amazing was its artistry.
How imposing the men there-
the Pharisees.

Questions
for me about the man
the man I never met who healed me.
They demanded my account
my story.

So I told them
“Whether he is a sinner I do not know.
One thing I do know, that though I was blind,
now I see.”

But they did not,
for they did not believe
even though they had seen him
and I had not, at least
not yet.

An outcast,
cast out of the temple for seeing.
And so I stood again by that pool alone,
just as alone as the last time
until He came for me.

A reminder of one of the many miracles Jesus performed while he walked this earth.

Levi Swartzentruber