- “Morning Chapel Prayer Playlist”
Pastor Ken…
Welcome everybody. We’re glad to have you with us.
This morning, I have a number of things stirring in my spirit today. I always like to start with at least a point of reflection just to give us a foundation or a launching pad. I came across this and thought it was really good because we talked earlier in the week, I think I referenced Psalm 46:10, which says “Be still and simply know that I am God.” And from the original language, “be still” means literally to “let go.” And we talked a bit about letting go of things in our lives that in many respects God is wanting to offload things from us. He’s wanting to take things away from us. Sometimes God operates… I call it multiplication or addition through subtraction. In other words, less can be more, oftentimes.
I think we have this tendency to make our spirituality difficult and complex sometimes and too busy and distracted when He’s all about simplicity and beauty and peace. I was reminded of Isaiah 26:3, which says “You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You.” Because He trusts in you. I came across this and I thought it was just really wise. It says, “Sometimes we complicate our lives by taking on things that God has not told us to do so. We add stress, confusion, and clutter with the unnecessary things we take on and hold on onto. We need to use our faith to let go of whatever clutters our minds and keeps us from peace. Ask God to show you ways to simplify your life. Take an inventory today and start throwing out whatever is filling your life with unproductive distractions. God wants you to enjoy your day. So get rid of whatever He shows you to give up.”
And then I just had a few different verses I wanted to share with you. Bottom line is our most important work to do is to be with God. Because He wants to initiate a conversation with us. I was thinking of this verse in Lamentations. It says in chapter three, “Through the Lord’s mercies, we are not consumed because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning.” That’ll preach right there, right? Great is your faithfulness. The Lord is my portion. Right there, that’s it? That’s how you simplify your life. The Lord is my portion. That’s all I want. That’s all I need is Him, says my soul. “Therefore, I hope in him. The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good that we should hope and wait quietly for the salvation…” You could say the deliverance or the voice or the answers of the provision or whatever it is that you need. “It is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.”
Thank you, Lord. I jotted this down last night. And that is that our spiritual journey is about giving our lives to God, surrendering to Him and letting Him use us. That the number-one secret to experiencing joy, peace, and answered prayer is a surrendered life.
I was thinking about too in relationship to letting things go and simplifying our lives about the gospel of John and where it talks about how Jesus said to His disciples one day, “I tell you the truth. The Son can do nothing by Himself. He does only what He sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son does. For the Father loves the Son and shows Him everything He is doing.”
In other words, He instructs and shows Him what He’s doing so that the Son can do it. “In fact, the Father will show him how to do even greater works than healing this man.” I love that. It’s beautiful. And you know, I think sometimes we just try to work things out in our own minds. And as a result, we get worked up, stressed out, and overwhelmed when God’s just saying, “Just let Me have that. Let go of that. Give that to Me. I’ve already worked it out for you.” That’s the beauty of grace.
Prayed…
Thank you, Father. Holy Spirit, we just offer up to you whatever is weighing us down right now in this moment…
We just let go so that we can come up to you. We let go of every weight, every burden, every sinful habit, every behavior that is counterproductive in our lives, every negative train of thought that’s taking us in the wrong direction.
We just release that to you today, Lord. We surrender ourselves to you this morning.
Lord, for those who are struggling with physical symptoms, for others who maybe are online with us and they’re experiencing darkness in their communities or their nations or unknowns that are before them staring them in their face, we just speak peace. We speak grace. We pray for hope to be released, Lord, to all those who are hopeless and all those that are struggling and all those who are just working and striving and running, not knowing what else to do. We pray that you would just help them to cease their striving and they’re struggling and the running.
Father, we pray you would just help us as the Church, as your body, to rest, to lean in, and to find that you want to hold us and embrace us and encapsulate us with the fullness of your presence.
I feel like there are so many that are carrying so many burdens, weights, and struggles, and thoughts and strivings. Let Him embrace you this morning. He is love. Let Him wrap His arms of love around you and just dissolve and absorb and take from you all that you weren’t created to carry…
You weren’t created to carry that. That’s why there’s symptoms. That’s why you have panic attacks. That’s why fear is your constant companion. Offer that to Him. Give that to Him today.
Lord, move in our churches today, to bring this hope in peace and the simplicity of the Gospel to our nation and to the nations today in a fresh way…
We pray for a fresh cleansing move of your Spirit. Breathe on us, Lord.
And some cases we pray that you would resuscitate. There’s some that are just out of breath. They’re just out of breath, spiritually speaking, maybe out of breath physically speaking… We pray for a supernatural resuscitation today. A supernatural reviving today.
The Lord wants to purge spiritual toxicity, emotional toxicity … Holy Spirit, move through us, flush and purge and move through us. Move through the Church today.
We pray for a cleansing today… a cleansing of the heart, a cleansing of souls, a cleansing of families and relationships, marriages, churches
To bring new conditions, to bring a new atmosphere, a new place, a new peace… a new presence.
We make a way for a new experience for some individually, for some churches, and some nations and communities that God… the Lord wants to open up a way … He wants to cleanse, to shake what needs to be shaken. He wants to move in such a way to clear out that clutter, to bring about a cleansing, to bring about an adjusting, a reorganization perhaps in hearts and lives and communities in churches
Lord, open up the way in the church. The Spirit of God says open up, open up hearts, open up the way. Open up nations. Open up churches. Open up families. Open up, Europe, for the Lord is coming your way. Open up! Open up in the south and in the east and in the west… for the Spirit of God is declaring … God is entering. God wants to come in. He wants to invade. He wants to fill. He wants to demonstrate. He wants to do the impossible. He wants to break through.
We loose the angel armies this way … to come and to go and move and orchestrate the plan of God. And over in that far land…
So obey … obey and go your Father’s way… we lift up the cities… and the provinces … up into the north there … in St. Petersburg… across the frozen north… we say God is coming your way… open up, open up the way … we open up the way… we send support. We send the angelic support. We send laborers and ministry and financial and provisional support today.
