A Life of Prayer
Take a moment to think about the habit of prayer in your life. Is prayer a regular part of your life, or is it something you don’t really pay attention to?
As Paul is closing out his letter to the church in Colossae, one of the things he reminds them of is the importance of prayer. For Paul, prayer is more than just asking God for what he needs. Prayer is the way Paul’s energy and ministry is sustained. Prayer is a source of God’s power for Paul.
He asks the Colossians not only to engage in prayer, but to be devoted to it. Paul understood that if the mission of God was to be effective through them, they needed to be devoted to talking to God about every aspect of life.
This means they not only needed to spend time in prayer for a few minutes in the morning, but they needed to make prayer a part of their entire day.
Paul tells the church to be devoted to prayer, being watchful and thankful. These are two aspects of prayer that we can engage in as well.
The first is being watchful or discerning of what’s happening in your life. We can ask the Holy Spirit to help us discern what God is doing in and around us, to make us aware of His work. Second, we can use our time in prayer to worship God through thanksgiving and gratitude.
Prayer is a vital aspect of the Christian life. Spend some time not only praying to God, but thinking through how you can make prayer a central part of your spiritual life.
“And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see. And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer. And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see. And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword. And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine. And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the ...
Calvary Chapel of Philadelphia 8 AM Streaming Service
Pastor Joe Focht or Guest
Genesis 38
Healed by His Wounds
Brokenness. We see it all around us. We experience it ourselves—in our relationships, in our dreams, in our bodies. And yet, something happened over two thousand years ago that still has the power to heal that brokenness.
1 Peter 2:24 says, "He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed."
Jesus Christ, the sinless Son of God, took the weight of our sins upon Himself. He carried them to the cross, giving up His life not because of His own wrongdoing, but because of ours. This is the essence of the Gospel. Through His sacrifice, He offered us a path out of darkness and into His light—a life transformed by His grace.
Because of Christ’s sacrifice, we’ve been given a profound healing of our spirits; new life taking the place of sins and darkness that separate us from God. Through His wounds, we are offered forgiveness and a new relationship with God, healed and ...