How is your Faith?

For almost two weeks as part of my devotions I have been reading a 21 Day Prayer Devotional entitled ‘Renew, Rebuild, Restore‘ via the YouVersion Bible App.

Which I’d encourage you to download if you haven’t already as it has a large variety of devotionals and other tools to help you immerse yourself in the Word.

This has coincided with the launch of The Salvation Army New Zealand, Fiji, Tonga and Samoa territory’s focus on prayer.

In 2021 our specific call to prayer is MAKE ROOM, COME ASIDE, COME TOGETHER and a public facebook group has been set up so that people can actively participate in prayer for the year.

Posts in the group are like an online prayer room; offering regular prompts for prayer, and a place to leave your own prayer requests.

You can share your stories and photos so that we can all see how God’s moving in our territory. (Please be cautious about the sharing private information though!)

Let’s all be a part of a continual wave of prayer! 

For those of you that are in the Inner City of Wellington and would like to be a part of our weekly prayer meeting either in person or online, then please contact Annette via email and she’ll provide you with the details. 

Back to the 21 Day Prayer Devotional I would like to share the following which I read the other day – because I like so many others I’m sure, try to fit our faith into our busy schedules;  

There are so many times in our life when we believe that our faith will take care of itself. We forget the fact that faith is something that needs to be built in our everyday life. 

However, we often neglect the centrality of our Christian life, which is faith. Our faith in God is one of the most valuable assets that we need to take care of. It is so important to take a pause from our busy lives to self-examine our faith life.

At times our faith gets misplaced due to the circumstances of our life. The faith that we need to have in God gets replaced by our work, friends, family, and money. We tend to rely on these things more then our faith gets shifted onto someone else or something else rather than on God.

Sometimes we even lose our faith due to the unexpected circumstances in our lives, yet we have managed to carry on with our religious duties thinking that we are still walking with God. 

It is important that we refocus ourselves and self-check our faith during these days of prayer. The lord is prepared to rebuild your faith 🙂 

Plan provided by King City Church

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How Do I Pray For The World?

The following post entitled ‘How Do I Pray For The World?’ was written by Brian Heasley (International Prayer Director for 24-7 Prayer) on 30 May 2017 and features on the 24-7 Prayer International Blog:

Ever since I was a boy, I have been fascinated with the planet that we live on. I remember as a child, my father’s friend moved to be a missionary in Brazil. Each night before we went to bed we would pray for him, and the people he loved and served.

As I grew older, I read stories of explorers in Africa – I was fascinated about the diversity and breadth of the world that God has created.

“This is what the Lord says… ‘I am the one who made the earth and created people to live on it. With my hands I stretched out the heavens. All the stars are at my command.’” – Isaiah 45:11-12

There are over 7.5 billion individuals living on our planet. People who live, act and interact in a multiplicity of ways. Our earth is diverse – culturally, ethnically and politically. At any given time there are crises and pain; joy and hope; stories which uplift us and stories that bring us down.

Faced with the vastness of our world and the number of things that happen within it, feeling overwhelmed is one of the main challenges we face when we begin to pray for the world – “It’s too big”, “There are too many problems”,  “I can’t pray for them all”, “Will God even hear my prayer for the world?”

So, faced with 7.5 billion people and 196 countries, how do we start to pray for the world?

Start somewhere. Not with a desperate passion to pray for everything all at once –  start small. Ask God to put a country on your mind. Perhaps a nation you’ve read about; or a news story that pops up in your social media feed.

Start with one nation; one that stirs your heart or catches your attention.

Then, research your chosen country – find out who lives there; and what the land looks like. What are the challenges? What are the blessings? What’s good? What’s bad?

Step two – find out if there are churches that are working there; and pray for them. See if there are mission organisations there; search out their prayer points.

Finally, commit to prayer. Pray for the leaders; pray for the economy of the land; pray for the weather; pray for people; pray for the challenges; pray for the blessings.

Our prayers matter – wherever you are, your prayers could change the destiny of a nation.

Then we need to be persistent, to keep praying – you could pray for a nation for your entire life. Of course there will be moments when you feel nothing is changing; but your persistent and persevering prayer could have a world-changing impact.

A wise man once said to me,  “For every history that is seen, there is always a secret history” and I guarantee that people who pray are part of the secret history of our planet.

I met a man once who had lived on the East German side of the Berlin wall and we were in a youth gathering in what had become unified Germany.  He said to me, “This is the sort of meeting I used to pray about when I was behind the wall.”

No one will know his name – he won’t go down as a great politician or great world leader; he was just a man who prayed.

Did his prayers change the world? I would say they did. Because when we learn how to pray for the world, we learn how to change it.

This was the third blog in the 24-7 Prayer Ask More Questions blog series, exploring answers to some of the most common questions on prayer. Go to the series homepage to find out more.

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THIS YEAR, 24-7 PRAYER ARE INVITING YOU TO JOIN THEIR FIRST EVER ONLINE CONFERENCE.

In the midst of a global pandemic, our world has been shaken. Governments, communities and individuals are faced with difficult decisions and ongoing uncertainty.

But we believe that we are called for such a time as this – to intentionally gather as the people of God,  in our homes and our churches,  to seek the Lord, anticipating that He will move powerfully among us to renew our vision, restore our souls and compel us to pursue Jesus where we are.

Join us for The Gathering Online

 

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World Mental Health Day

The following information was originally posted on today’s Lectio 365 daily devotional resource that helps me pray through the Bible every day.

May I encourage you each to check it out @ 24-7 Prayer where you can download it via the App Store or Play Store.

In part this is a bit of a follow up to today’s Word of Encouragement post as today is World Mental Health Day (Saturday 10 October).

World Mental Health Day was started in 1992 by a man called Richard Hunter, who at the time was the Deputy Secretary General of the World Federation for Mental Health. Over nearly thirty years, it has helped to raise awareness around the world and mobilise efforts in support of mental health.

The arrival of Covid-19 earlier this year, and the months of disruption, isolation and uncertainty since then have been hard for everyone, but they have been particularly dark and difficult for people who suffer with their mental health.

On their website, the World Health Organisation (WHO) writes: “This year’s World Mental Health Day comes at a time when our daily lives have changed considerably as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. The past few months have brought many challenges:

• for health-care workers, providing care in difficult circumstances, going to work fearful of bringing Covid-19 home with them;
• for school pupils, adapting to taking classes from home, with little contact with teachers and friends, and anxious about their futures;
• for workers whose livelihoods are threatened;
• for the vast number of people caught in poverty or in fragile humanitarian settings with extremely limited protection from Covid-19;
• and for people with mental health conditions, many experiencing even greater social isolation than before.

And this is to say nothing of managing the grief of losing a loved one, sometimes without being able to say goodbye.” (World Mental Health Day)

How have these challenges affected me over the past few months?

Pressures with work. Health concerns. Isolation from friends. Anxiety about the future. Grief and trauma.

In spite of the fact that much has been done to raise awareness of, and reduce the stigma around, mental health, it’s still not easy to talk about this stuff sometimes. (Especially for guys) It’s easier for me to hold and hide everything inside, to respond with, ‘I’m fine’, when a friend asks how I’m doing, and to pretend that I’m OK. But it’s not a god thing to do.

“Our mental health is just like our physical health,” says the charity MIND, “everybody has it and we need to take care of it.”   

Imagine standing in front of a mirror for a moment and asking yourself ‘How are you doing?’ Are you holding or hiding anything inside?

According to the World Health Organisation, ‘half of all mental illness begins by the age of 14, but most cases go undetected and untreated.’

Many children and young people suffer in silence with anxiety and depression. 

In these days of uncertainty and constant change, where things are less than stable and our lives could be turned upside down through the actions of one or two that have very little regard for others. 

We need to be constantly on our guard, encouraging and building others up – as we don’t know the journey that other people are on, unless we get alongside them and share in a coffee and a chat. 

Here in New Zealand we set aside a week each year to raise awareness around Mental Health (I posted about it here) and yet, we still have one of the highest suicide rates in the world for young people – So there is so much more that we can do in this space, to not only raise awareness, but also be a safe haven for those affected by mental health issues. 

Your harsh, brash or reckless words could be enough to cause someone to start self-harming, they could be the straw that breaks the camel’s back and leads a person down a darkened corridor that they feel that they cannot escape from.

That is why the words of Solomon to his son David are so important for us to take on board in this day and age; as our words (and our actions) can either bring ‘Life & Hope‘ or they can completely annihilate us. 

Refer also to Proverbs 18:8 and Proverbs 26:22 and many more verses that relate to our words and actions here.

The thing is if we are carriers of the light, we need to set aside everything that hinders people from experiencing the light that shines through the darkest recesses of our thoughts and shed love, peace, grace and mercy upon all those that we come in contact with – the merest smile that we show to another person can literally change how they are feeling about themselves and their day. 

It is hard to believe that a little over a month ago we also celebrated here in New Zealand Random Acts of Kindness Day (I posted about that here) – Just maybe we need to revisit this each and every day so that we can be true ‘followers of The Way’.

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A Word of Encouragement

Yesterday morning as I was doing my prayer devotional on Lectio 365 I read the following: “The current global crisis is forcing many of us to ask profound questions about our priorities and purpose in life. Most of the activities that filled our schedules have suddenly stopped. The time has slowed down.Things we considered certain have been shaken to the core.” (Written by Pete Greig)

On the one hand, the fact that our lives have suddenly slowed down is not such a bad thing. (Picture the scene from the Matrix where Neo gets a handle on his amazing ability). I’m sure many of us have been feeling overwhelmed, and the busyness of our day to day lives was becoming almost unbearable with multiple pressures all vying for our time.

If we take the time to look at the statistics surrounding stress, mental health and suicide across the board, throughout the world, then this is unfortunately true for many of us, regardless of our professions.   

Unfortunately though for others their lives have not only slowed down, they have come to an abrupt stop. Their businesses have been forced to close and they are trying to come to terms with what that means for them, their families, their employees and also their customers. How are they going to get through this? What hope is there going forward? When is life going to get back to some form of normality? and many more questions I’m sure…          

For others though, their lives have suddenly got busier as they are deemed an essential service, and they have to ramp up their response to this pandemic. Working on the fly to put structures, procedures and the like into place, as they try to do all that they can to help us all get through this time of lockdown.

Regardless of what we are facing, we are all going through some measure of stress due to the circumstances that life has thrown our way. 

Drawing on the story of the woman anointing Jesus, found in Matthew 26:6-13, Pete says that Mary in this defining act “has come to the conclusion that her relationship with Jesus is more pressing than forward planning, more important than her reputation, and more valuable than all her savings. Nothing matters more to her in this moment than worship.”   

I wonder in this moment what matters more to you? Are you prepared to set everything aside as the woman did? As we approach the Easter story and take the journey to the cross along with Jesus, will you allow yourself to focus on aspects of the story, that may just move you to reevaluate the importance you have placed on other things in life?  

This was the prayer of preparation for this time of contemplation: “Lord Jesus, my heart is heavy as I join you on your journey to the cross. Gethsemane has come to our hospitals. Golgotha casts its shadow across our land. Lead me through the darkness of these days to the light and life of Easter once again.” Amen.

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Bible Reading / Study, Prayer & Devotional Resources

Over the coming few weeks or more as we come to terms with working from home and living in lockdown in many countries around the world due to the covid-19 pandemic that is sweeping the world I have put together a number of resources that you are freely available to access online for free. These can assist us each to maintain a daily Bible Reading / Study, Prayer and Devotional time.

YouVersion a Bible Reading app, or online platform that makes the bible come alive through a large variety of Bible Translations and personal, life / bible / small group studies that are easily accessible.

This is also the platform that I’ve been using to share my weekly sermon notes during our normal Sunday Services.

RightNow Media for those associated with the Salvation Army is a resource to help you dig into God’s Word through video bible studies, access to conferences, training options all at the click of your fingertips for free.

For more information contact perry via email: perry.bray@salvationarmy.org.nz

Lectio 365 a daily devotional resource that helps you pray through the Bible every day. Written by leaders from the 24-7 Prayer movement, and produced in partnership with CWR, this resource helps you engage with Scripture to inspire prayer and shape your life.

Over the coming weeks and days I’ll be uploading links to a variety of Salvation Army studies that are freely available throughout the world so that those associated to The Salvation Army can gain a greater understanding of our faith, our God, and how our Corps (churches) can impact our communities with the Love of God.

Other online resources are available but these ones I personally recommend as we journey through the next few weeks or more in uncertain times. Remember that in God we can trust and if you are in need of any kind of assistance just ask someone in your faith community, or neighbourhood to give you a hand.

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Prayer for Justice

I was recently looking for backgrounds to use in an upcoming sermon series and came across the following site http://justwallpaper.wordpress.com/

On the site is an awesome wallpaper which is available for download. It was originally posted on 27 February 2009 by Curtis Honeycutt.

I thought that it would be quite topical for those of us that have recently been involved with The Salvation Army 24/7 Prayer initiative: A Day and Night Cry for Justice. You may want to download a copy of this wallpaper and put it on your desktop or you might want to print off a copy and put it in a prominent place to remind us all to continue to pray for the oppressed.

And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? I tell you he will see that they get justice and quickly.

Luke 18: 7-8

For more information on the International Social Justice Commission which is The Salvation Army’s strategic voice to advocate for human dignity and social justice on behalf of the world’s poor and oppressed click on the link below. Alternatively you can download resources and reports published by The Salvation Army New Zealand Social Policy & Parliamentary Unit… 

    

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