Freedom

True Freedom...
Romans 6:15 -23

"So, since we're out from under the old tyranny, does that mean we can live any old way we want? Since we're free in the freedom of God, can we do anything that comes to mind? Hardly. You know well enough from your own experience that there are some acts of so-called freedom that destroy freedom. Offer yourselves to sin, for instance, and it's your last free act. But offer yourselves to the ways of God and the freedom never quits. All your lives you've let sin tell you what to do. But thank God you've started listening to a new master, one whose commands set you free to live openly in his freedom!
I'm using this freedom language because it's easy to picture. You can readily recall, can't you, how at one time the more you did just what you felt like doing—not caring about others, not caring about God—the worse your life became and the less freedom you had? And how much different is it now as you live in God's freedom, your lives healed and expansive in holiness?
 As long as you did what you felt like doing, ignoring God, you didn't have to bother with right thinking or right living, or right anything for that matter. But do you call that a free life? What did you get out of it? Nothing you're proud of now. Where did it get you? A dead end.
But now that you've found you don't have to listen to sin tell you what to do, and have discovered the delight of listening to God telling you, what a surprise! A whole, healed, put-together life right now, with more and more of life on the way!

Work hard for sin your whole life and your pension is death. But God's gift is real life, eternal life, delivered by Jesus, our Master. "

A time to pray.

A few nights ago I went to bed feeling like I had a million things I could pray for after reading a few chapters of "The Heavenly Man". I was really stirred to pray for the nations but it was really late and I was super tired so I prayed for a few minutes... then fell asleep. That night, I was woken up every hour on the dot by my own voice. Each hour I woke up praying for a different nation. I still somehow woke up the next morning feeling completely refreshed and accomplished. See, the Holy Spirit stirred my heart for a reason and He wasn't going to let my sleeping patterns inturupt that. I firmly believe that my prayers did something that night but this doesn't mean I can stop praying. God taught me something that night about being persistant in prayer.
Ephesians 6:18 says "And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints."  and Matthew 7:7 says "Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you."
Both of these scriptures tell us to keep on praying because when we pray, something happens.
Right now, it's time to pray for our nation. It's time to pray for the peace, love and joy of Christ to reign in our cities instead of this violence and disruption. It's time to pray for a strength and boldness in Christs body to be the answer our nation needs. It's time to pray for the church to rise up and be Christ to the ones who need Him. Above all, it's time to pray "your Kingdom come and your will be done" as it is His Kingdom that is everlasting.

Christ interceded for us on the cross when He prayed “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.” now it's our turn to intercede for our nation and devote ourselves to prayer.

You were born for such a time as this.