Growin' Up Gregory

This week's session on prayer is focused on what is a favorite topic for most of us - ourselves.  While it is important to pray to honor God, for His kingdom, and seeking His will, part of the Model Prayer has a line where we pray for our personal daily needs.  But part of discerning what those needs should be is in seeking God's will first so that we can better understand our true needs. One such story of a prayer like this is found in Isaiah 38.  The prophet Isaiah delivered the news to King Hezekiah that he was dying and had only a short time to live.  Hezekiah did what many of us would do, immediately turned to God in prayer.  Why?  Because he wanted to live!  And he understood that the greatest need any of us have is for life itself. And look at how God answered Hezekiah's prayers - Isaiah received a word from the Lord to tell the king, "I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears.  Look, I am going to add fifteen years to your life....

Many of us (and with literally billions of users, don't act like you're not in this group) use social media on a regular basis to post, look at, or like pictures of ourselves, our friends, our pets, our kids, or any random object we find amusing at the moment.  With the movement of posting pictures of oneself becoming so popular that we've even gotten a new word from it, selfie.  But how does this selfie mentality fit into one's Christian walk?  One writer shared this, "The scene of someone being on their knees before God may be one of the only selfies that can convey humility." It's hard to only talk about me, me, me, and still be focused on God, God, God.  Shifting away from this selfie culture toward surrendering to God's will is necessary for spiritual growth.  We rarely think of the word surrender in any positive light.  But when it comes to surrendering to God's will in our life, it is vital. The Point:  Approach prayer with humble ...

In our College & Career Sunday school class this week, we started a series titled, "How to Pray."  I plan to try to and share the lessons each week in case anyone wants to follow along with us here...or you can come join us Sunday mornings at Tabernacle at 10 AM in room 218. Any good speaker, teacher, or presenter knows that the #1 rule of public speaking is to know your audience.  You don't want to prepare a discussion about retirement for preschoolers and a presentation themed with Disney princesses most likely wouldn't spark the interest of a group of businessmen.  In order for someone to prepare a dynamic and engaging presentation, they must know their audience, who they're preparing to talk to. The same is true in our prayer life.  The Point of this week's study is: "A right view of God fuels how we pray."  The conversations we engage in with our friends about are often focused on topics that interest them: their favorite team, favorite ...