Morning Chapel Prayer Playlist
Morning Chapel Prayer Today
Pastor Ken…
Welcome to Chapel Prayer here at Living Word, whether you’re in the chapel or online, good to have you with us. My name is Ken. And we are going to pray today. Can we do that?
And I believe good things are occurring and unfolding as we begin this time of prayer. And we’re just going to join God in what He’s doing and become vessels for Him advancing and furthering the good things that He’s already begun in your life, in my life, in this church, in your church, in this nation, and in every nation.
Quotes from Corrie ten Boom…
This morning, I thought I would share with you a couple of quick things. I came across this excerpt that was authored by Corrie ten Boom, who said many years ago, “One of the hardest lessons in faith is learning that your weakness is not the end of the story.” Do I need to read that again? Does somebody need to hear that on a Monday morning? She said, “One of the hardest lessons in faith is learning that your weakness is not the end of the story.” Your mess up, your failure, what didn’t happen or hasn’t resulted yet is not the end of the story.
I like to say “a delay is not a denial.” It’s just a reminder that we are to grow strong in faith, that God wants to further refine our faith and strengthen us and transform our character, transform our faith into something that’s even more precious than gold.
Corrie went on to say…
“When your strength runs out, your wisdom fails and your control disappears, that is not when hope dies.” That’s a good word for Monday morning, isn’t it? “That is where dependence begins. The Christian life was never meant to be lived in your own strength. Your inability is often the doorway to Christ’s power.”
It’s time to lean into Him…
So if you feel weak, if you feel incapable, if you feel like you’re not sure it’s going to happen—good! That means that you now are stepping into dependence. Now you have to trust God fully. No longer your strength or your wisdom or your strategy or what you’ve got in yourself. No. Now it’s time to lean into Him. In fact, when you learn to acknowledge who you are in Him, that’s when things really begin. That’s when God really begins to go to work.
Corrie also said this…
“When we are powerless to do a thing, it is a great joy that we can come and step inside the ability of Jesus.” I thought that was really good. That’s the mystery of the Gospel. That it’s not about us, all by ourselves anymore. It’s not about that old self that was crucified on the cross. At least that’s the perspective and the revelation of Paul as he describes it in the letters to the early church. You were crucified. Your old self was nailed with Jesus to the cross and every accusation and every sin and every harassing mistake, or failure, or thing you didn’t do right in your past was also nailed to that cross. Every last one was nailed to the cross and fulfilled in the work of Jesus so that you no longer have to be bogged down by your past mistakes.
You are beautiful in His sight…
So know this morning God is cheering us on. Know this morning God is not upset with you or me. But in fact, He’s completely in love with you, completely in love with me. You are beautiful in His sight. You are well pleasing in His sight. Because you stepped into Christ. And in Christ, you reflect all of His perfection, all of His beauty, all of His righteousness. And this is a great truth and understanding. We need to stir our consciousness up on a Monday at the beginning of a week, right? Before we enter into prayer, because our praying is not in ourselves.
Our calling in Him is to be walked out “in Him”
Oh, I know you’ve been praying for a while and you’ve got some ways, and you’ve got some words, and you’ve learned a thing or two, and that’s great. We ought to learn. But remember, this journey of faith, this call of God, this assignment of prayer is from the perspective of God was always intended to be walked out and accomplished in Him. Everything begins to change. Everything begins to shift in the direction of God’s intention when we acknowledge and recognize it’s not about us anymore, but it’s about us “in Him.” You may not be able to see a way forward in your own mental faculties or with your best ideas. But…
In Him, there’s a way forward.
In Him, there’s utterance to pray.
In Him, there is strength to go another day.
Oh, that’s a word for somebody here…
Sometimes you worry about next week or next month or that next payment or how that’s going to shift in the days ahead. All you need to know is we’re going another day today, that we step into Him today, and we’re going to go another day. Walking by faith, putting our trust in Him through prayer and through time in His Word.
The old is gone. The new has come.
Don’t sweat the big stuff, nor the small stuff.
Don’t stumble over your past mistake even from yesterday.
Take advantage of His blood.
See yourself well pleasing and enough in Him.
God knows the way forward…
You’re enough in Him. In yourself, yeah, you and I are no match for the enemy. No match for what lies ahead. But if we’ll go by the way of being in Him, then we are promised success. We can acknowledge that things are rigged in our favor. God has a plan. He knows the way forward. He’s already “been there, done that,” as I like to say, ‘bought the T-shirt and come back to tell us all about it.”
And guess what? You win.
You will overcome.
Stay the course.
Stand your ground.
Just go another day today.
Let’s focus on today…
Let’s don’t worry about tomorrow, as the scripture records. Let’s just focus on today and setting our eyes on Him. Setting our eyes on His Word and its revelation to us personally. The scripture isn’t a cosmic, doctrinal thing that we should maybe buy into, generally speaking. The Word of God is a love letter and a prescribed way of seeing and being and doing in Him. We’re going to pray some things out today, but we need to start from the position and the posture of being enfolded in Christ. You’ve been adopted. You’ve been grafted in Him. In other words, He took what was you, the essence of you and He enfolded and engrafted, meaning He implanted you into Christ, into the stock of Christ and all that, that Jesus accomplished—
His righteousness
His justice
His healing provision
His financial provision
His plan and purpose for each and every day, each and every hour of your life.
It’s all “in Him”
All things that pertain unto life and godliness have been granted to us, but it’s “in Him.” It’s in Him. And if you don’t see the way forward today or even know how to pray today, just say, “Lord, I can in you.” It’s in Him that we live and move and have our being. I often quote that. It’s in Him. You can go another step, another day “in Him.”
You may feel pain, but guess what? You can go today in Him—not focusing on the pain, not focusing on the problem, not focusing on what’s missing or what’s broken or what hasn’t worked out. No. Just turn that over to the Lord and you just set your eyes on Him.
Set your mind on things above…
The Bible says set your mind on things above, your thoughts on things above, not on things on this earth, on heavenly things, according to Colossians 3:2. You can’t control a lot in life or in this world, but you can choose what kind of attitude you’re going to do today with. You can choose what you’re going to focus on. Because what you focus on is what you’ll move toward in the days ahead.
Yes, you may have made some mistakes and that may have not worked out in the past, but this isn’t the end. If you’re breathing and you have the ability to take one step and put it in front of the other, then guess what? God’s not finished with you yet. The final chapter has not been written. You have not realized all that God intends and has planned and, in fact, prepared and assigned for you to realize. And guess what? It’s good! But you must recognize we have to do it in Him. You have to dedicate and focus yourself on Him. Take time and drench yourself in the “in Him” revelation of the letters especially to the church.
2nd Peter 1:2–4…
Let me read a couple more passages of scripture to you before we go any further. In 2nd Peter 1:2–4; this is the New King James. “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ our Lord.” In other words, grace and peace are multiplied, increasing through knowledge of who you are in Him and what He’s done for you. What the scripture states is promised to you.
It goes on to say…
“In the knowledge of Jesus Christ our Lord, as His divine power has given to us…” That’s you. That’s me. “All things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises.”
In other words, they exceed what you can envision in your own cognitive capabilities. What God has for you will exceed what somebody said is possible in your life. This is above and beyond. This natural arena is what God has in mind for you. And it’s good. Oh, it’s good! It’s dripping with goodness. What God has planned for us is dripping with goodness… for this church, for your church, for your life, for your household.
We must fight the good fight of faith…
But you must be willing to get up and stand up and fight. Fight the good fight of faith. That means be on a journey to know Him through prayer, through worship, through silence and solitude, and through study in His Word. Even just five minutes here, five minutes there. Don’t overwhelm yourself by thinking, “Well, I need to spend 14 hours today.” Well, if you’re able to do that, praise God. But how about let’s just start with five minutes of focused attention on the promise of God, on who He says He is and who He said you are to be in Him. Just start with the simplicity of five minutes.
And then guess what?
You’ll start stacking five minutes here, five minutes there. Before long, everything will begin to shift. Not because you paid attention to the problem. In fact, on the contrary, you paid attention to the Waymaker. You paid attention to the answer. You paid attention to the promise. The Bible says the Father of our faith, which Pastor Jim referenced yesterday, it says of Him, Abraham, that he grew strong in faith. How? By just stacking days. One day at a time. He stacked days. One day at a time. He grew strong in faith by giving acknowledgement and praise and focus to His God. He grew strong in faith. Even when he thought the promise should have been there in his life. He thought that he would’ve had a son by now, but now he’s well past age. It looked completely impossible.
But guess what?
When it was impossible, when he felt weak, when he felt completely incapable… oh! That’s when another gear came out of nowhere. That’s when he shifted from his independence to “God dependence” and things began to happen for him.
But what did he do?
He just focused on what he could control, what he knew to do, which was to set his affections on God—one day at a time.
