Prayer: November 2011

If you have prayer requests,
please send them to info@center31.com,
so we can stand with you.

November 2011

When you think about the Lord, thanksgiving is just a natural reaction - He is so faithful, so wise, so pure, so righteous, so gracious that you just have to respond to His kindness with thanksgiving! I just thought about this little chorus my Granny Maggie used to sing while boiling the kettle in the mornings for tea. Thanksgiving just overflowed from her heart in sincerity and rejoicing to our Almighty God.

When we finally decide to YIELD to God, give up the arguments, give up the pretenses and come face to face with God’s Word, we realize that to walk with God we need to be holy before Him. Here’s one of the verses I learned as an early teen :

Psalm 24:3-5 (AMP)

3 Who shall go up into the mountain of the Lord? Or who shall stand in His Holy Place?

4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted himself up to falsehood or to what is false, nor sworn deceitfully.

5 He shall receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation.

Our Father God wants us to walk in the blessing of holiness and righteousness. He makes us righteous when we give our lives to Him. We grow in holiness when we surrender our desires for His. Let’s keep our hands clean in all we do (spiritually - this is not an excuse to stop washing the floors), and keep our hearts pure, free from offense, bitterness and deception.

God so desperately wants to help us and bless us, that when we call to Him for help, He is already making provision for us - even from another town, city or even country. While Cornelius was praying, the Lord sent an angel to instruct him, while the Lord prepared the heart of Peter to preach to Cornelius. Prayer is so powerful. You may think you are “just praying” in the seclusion of your bedroom, but heavenly hosts are moving to accomplish God’s will in your life or in the life of someone else ...

Acts 10:1-4 (AMP)

1 NOW [living] at Caesarea there was a man whose name was Cornelius, a centurion (captain) of what was known as the Italian Regiment,

2 A devout man who venerated God and treated Him with reverential obedience, as did all his household; and he gave much alms to the people and prayed continually to God.

3 About the ninth hour (about 3:00 p.m.) of the day he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God entering and saying to him, Cornelius!

4 And he, gazing intently at him, became frightened and said, What is it, Lord? And the angel said to him, Your prayers and your [generous] gifts to the poor have come up [as a sacrifice] to God and have been remembered by Him.

YOUR PRAYERS AND GENEROUS GIFTS ARE REMEMBERED BY THE LORD!

Mark and I recently had the amazing opportunity to go back to South Africa for a visit. One evening we sat down to sip “Milo” with Robbie and Deidre’, who we hadn’t seen or had contact with for 11 years. They have been faithfully serving the Lord and winning hundreds of people to Jesus.

Deidre’ told me that last December she had a brain tumor that almost killed her, but Jesus guided the surgeons and her life was spared. As she told me the story, I remembered thinking of Deidre’ and praying for her. I remember not knowing how to contact them, but praying fervently for her specifically around the time of my birthday, on the 10th. She told me that the surgery had taken place on the 9th!!!

I rejoiced in the Lord! Even though I hadn’t spoken to Deidre’ for so many years and didn’t know what she was going through, the sweet Holy Spirit impressed on me to pray fervently for Deidre’ - and her life was SAVED!!! My heart overflowed with thanksgiving that I got to be part of God’s team of intercessors for Diedre’. HALLELUJAH LORD!

So, the moral of the story is...when someone comes to mind and you have an urge to pray... PRAY FERVENTLY!

Thank you Lord, for saving us ....

Written by Colleen Aitkenhead. Colleen is the wife of Mark Aitkenhead, pastor of Christian Family Church in Chattanooga, Tennessee