Monday, June 25, 2012

Let's talk about Prayer!

Often times in my young life I've heard well-meaning people at church say, "I'll pray for you."  Prayer, it's a powerful thing and each of us needs prayer!  We need somebody to lift our name to the Father! Here's a real hard question to answer.  DO YOU REALLY PRAY FOR THE PERSON YOU SAID YOU WOULD PRAY FOR?????

Feeling a little convicted?!!!  Yep, me too.  I've been there got the T-shirt, the postcard and the hat for that catch all phrase.  It's easy to mingle with our brothers and sisters in Christ on Sunday and say to their face I'll pray for you, but if we  never pray for them then the truth is, we've lied.  Satan loves to watch God's people use catch phrases such as "I'll pray for you, or even better satan's all time favorite "I"ll pray about it."  More times than not, when we use the later of those two phrases, we're using it as an excuse to make the person or circumstance go away at the time.  I've done it too, so I can say that.  I am certainly not proud of it.

Here are a couple of  verses on prayer for you to look up and earnestly talk to God about:

1.  Ephesians 6:18
2.  2 Timothy 2:1

So this week, I'd like to challenge you to earnestly pray for the people you agreed to pray for!  Watch God show up and work!  Then truly you can sit in the church pew on Sunday and tell them that you prayed for them!

God bless you!
Alicia Roark

Monday, June 11, 2012

Let's talk about weight!

This morning I woke up late.  It messed up my routine, or at least that's what I thought until I was working out!  You see my new routine is to get up at 6 a.m. have quiet time for about an hour then work out followed by breakfast and wifely duties...all this depending on my work schedule of course!

I started out on the elliptical machine, then the treadmill then the leg and arm machine...(I don't know what it's called so I call it the leg and arm machine!).  It was on that machine that I was thinking about how heavy the weights were when the Holy Spirit spoke and said :"just like those weights, Christians who sit in the pew Sunday after Sunday weigh other people's sin."  WOW...How profound.  As my legs began to stretch and bend against the machine I got to thinking about the aches of my legs.  The Spirit said, "you think that's pain, Jesus walked up Calvary for you all the while carrying an old rugged cross." 

The weight of sin is heavy no matter how you slice it. The penalty to pay for sin is even more heavy.  The Bible says, "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."  Romans  6:23.  We deserve to die because of our sin.  Jesus bore it all on a cross so that we could have eternal life.  I don't know about you but that blows me away.  Now that's some heavy weight with an eternal reward.

This week, I'd like to challenge you to ask the Holy Spirit to remind you of the price Jesus paid for you  every time you're tempted to "weigh in" on the sins of others from beyond the church pew.  It's a humbling experience trust me.

Let's pray:
Heavenly Father, thank you so much for the heavy price Jesus paid on the Cross.  Forgive me for weighing the sins of others when I have sin in my own life.  During this week, when I'm tempted to weigh in on the sins and shortcomings of others, remind me of my own sin and the fact that Jesus bore it all on  a cross so that I could have eternal life.  In Jesus' Name I pray-Amen