Proverbs 6-7
2 Corinthians 2
“Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” Ephesians 3:20-21
Prayer changes things—literally. If we want to thrive in Christ, prayer needs to be a priority in our life. I (Brett McBride) served 18 years in an urban ministry called “Urban Promise” that ministers to youth from the inner city of Toronto. The ministry did not have a lot of resources; in fact, we barely had anything. When we started, we did not have a building or computers. We also did not have any of the cool programming that city camps had but boy did we pray. We would get down on our faces and pray, asking God to provide everything that we needed. Our prayer meeting was so central to the work that every day, before summer camp, we would pray for an hour.
Our prayer meeting became the heartbeat of our ministry. Even as the summer wore on and people started to get sick from working intensely with youth all summer and were dropping like flies—in fact, one of them even had to be hospitalized—people would actually call into the prayer meeting because they did not want to miss it. Our prayer meeting was the highlight of their day.
In our prayers, we would ask God to move in the lives of the youth and as we prayed, He moved! I remember when we hosted barbeques in the park, it would look like we would not have enough burgers to serve the crowd that came, but God provided for our needs—like Elisha and the widow’s oil that kept pouring until all the jars were full (2 Kings 4:1-7)—surprisingly, we even had leftovers.
There was this other time, two weeks before we were to host a summer camp, we were not able to secure a location because of the terms in the agreement and I was freaking out. I thought maybe we could host the camp outside and, like Elijah, pray that by faith there will be no rain in Toronto for the whole summer. But while we were having our strategic planning session, somewhere in the back of the office, someone on my team prayed. “Lord, help!” Then, the phone rang. Now, we had not talked to anyone about our situation. Yet, on the other end of the line was a pastor from a local church calling to ask if we would run our youth program out of their building. They would give us access to everything and would even hire two additional workers for us. What an answer to prayer!
Prayer changes things, even if our prayer is simply, “Lord, help!”
Lord Heavenly Father, I humbly come before You recognizing that You hold the resources that I need. May You graciously do above and beyond what I could think or imagine. Thank You, Lord.
2 Corinthians 2
“Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” Ephesians 3:20-21
Prayer changes things—literally. If we want to thrive in Christ, prayer needs to be a priority in our life. I (Brett McBride) served 18 years in an urban ministry called “Urban Promise” that ministers to youth from the inner city of Toronto. The ministry did not have a lot of resources; in fact, we barely had anything. When we started, we did not have a building or computers. We also did not have any of the cool programming that city camps had but boy did we pray. We would get down on our faces and pray, asking God to provide everything that we needed. Our prayer meeting was so central to the work that every day, before summer camp, we would pray for an hour.
Our prayer meeting became the heartbeat of our ministry. Even as the summer wore on and people started to get sick from working intensely with youth all summer and were dropping like flies—in fact, one of them even had to be hospitalized—people would actually call into the prayer meeting because they did not want to miss it. Our prayer meeting was the highlight of their day.
In our prayers, we would ask God to move in the lives of the youth and as we prayed, He moved! I remember when we hosted barbeques in the park, it would look like we would not have enough burgers to serve the crowd that came, but God provided for our needs—like Elisha and the widow’s oil that kept pouring until all the jars were full (2 Kings 4:1-7)—surprisingly, we even had leftovers.
There was this other time, two weeks before we were to host a summer camp, we were not able to secure a location because of the terms in the agreement and I was freaking out. I thought maybe we could host the camp outside and, like Elijah, pray that by faith there will be no rain in Toronto for the whole summer. But while we were having our strategic planning session, somewhere in the back of the office, someone on my team prayed. “Lord, help!” Then, the phone rang. Now, we had not talked to anyone about our situation. Yet, on the other end of the line was a pastor from a local church calling to ask if we would run our youth program out of their building. They would give us access to everything and would even hire two additional workers for us. What an answer to prayer!
Prayer changes things, even if our prayer is simply, “Lord, help!”
Lord Heavenly Father, I humbly come before You recognizing that You hold the resources that I need. May You graciously do above and beyond what I could think or imagine. Thank You, Lord.
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