Morning Chapel Prayer Playlist
Morning Chapel Prayer Today
Pastor Heather…
Thank you so much for joining us today. My name is Heather Suski. I’m one of the pastors here at Living Work.
I am going to read Revelation 2:1 in the Amplified Classic.
“To the Angel Messenger of the assembly church in Ephesus. These are the words of him who holds the seven stars, which are the messengers of the seven churches in His right hand, who goes about among the seven golden lampstands, which are the seven churches. I know your industry and activities, laborious toil and trouble, and your patient endurance.”
Life has felt like that lately, right?
“And how you cannot tolerate wicked men and have tested and critically appraised those who call themselves apostles, special messengers of Christ, and yet are not, and have found them to be imposters and liars. I know you are enduring patiently and you are bearing up for My name’s sake, and you have not fainted (or become exhausted or grown weary).”
Sounds like they’re doing pretty good, huh?
“But I have this one charge to make against you, that you have left, abandoned, the love that you had at first. You have deserted Me, your first love. Remember then from what heights you have fallen. Repent, change the inner man to meet God’s will and do the works you did previously when first you knew the Lord. Or else I will visit you and remove your lamp stand from its place unless you change your mind and repent.”
Google search: What are the top reasons for divorce in the US?
We are the bride of Christ, and so it’s like we’re in a marriage with Him. We are the bride. He’s the groom. The thing is, He is the perfect groom. So if there’s a problem in the marriage, there’s one person we got to look at, right? So I just thought, I’m just going to Google, “What are the top reasons for divorce in the US?.”
Lack of commitment…
Lack of commitment is cited as the top factor, 73% in some studies; couples may stop trying to make the relationship work leading to growing apart. So is there a lack of commitment to the Lord in your life?
Conflict and arguing…
Constant fighting and an inability to resolve issues such as parenting or chores leads to resentment and separation. Are there things in your heart where there’s conflict or there’s arguing or there’s anger against the Lord in your heart that you haven’t resolved with Him?
Infidelity…
Extramarital affairs are frequently cited, often serving as a symptom of deeper underlying relationship issues. Have you been faithful to Him? Are there other things that are sitting on the throne of your heart that are getting more of your attention than He’s getting?
Financial problems…
Disagreements over money, debt, and spending habits contribute to 20 to 40% of divorces. Are you surrendering your finances to Him? Are you trusting Him with your finances?
Incompatibility…
Fundamental differences and values, beliefs, or goals that become apparent after marriage. Are your values, your beliefs, and your goals lined up with the Lord’s?
The four horseman behaviors…
- criticism, 2) contempt, 3) defensiveness, and 4) stonewalling can erode a marriage.
Protecting your relationship from stagnation…
So let’s take that into the context of our relationship with God. I’ve been married for 32 years. And after a while, if you’re not careful, if you’re not protecting the intimacy and the vulnerability in your marriage, it can become very stagnant. It can become… you love that person but it’s all about the, “Okay, did the bills get paid? Did the kids get to soccer practice? Did the house get cleaned? Did the dishes get washed? Did the laundry get done? I need this and we don’t have enough money for that.”
It’s no different with our relationship with God…
It can get very mundane if we’re not careful. And it can be very much about the busyness and the tasks that are at hand. And it’s no different with our relationship with God. We can be very much like, “Okay, I got to get to church. I got to serve, I got to tithe, I got to do all these things.” And all those things are good things, and all those things are necessary. But the heart of it is, why are you doing those things? It’s because you love Him, right?
Why have I been in a marriage for 33 years? Because I love him. This is the person that I chose to be with. And it doesn’t mean every day is going to be easy. And it doesn’t mean I’m always going to be perfect. But you have to have the intimacy. You have to have the vulnerability. You have to have moments of heart connection. And remember your first love, the Bible says.
Remember your first love…
So I think back to when I got saved at 18. I’ll share a little bit about my first love. And as I’m sharing, I want you to think about your first love when you first got born again, when you first found Jesus. Maybe some of you don’t remember, because you were really young. But remembering when you first had that fire and that passion.
Personal testimony of first love…
I had a little Ford Escort, and it was not a great car. I had to pop the hood. I had to turn the flywheel with a crowbar to get it to start. And then once it started, the pistons were so bad that black smoke would come out of the back of it. And I would drive all the way from Elk River to Brooklyn Park in that little Escort that would not go more than 40 miles per hour. And so I would get a line of traffic behind me as I’m going down 169 of people passing me and waving nice hand gestures because I was holding up traffic.
But the band Petra was very popular in the nineties. I had Petra “Beyond Belief” just blaring on my speakers, and I’m singing with my windows down. And I’m just so excited to go to church that I didn’t care that my little car could barely get me there. And I would do whatever it took to come to church. Because I was so excited about finding more of Him, learning more about Him, learning more about what He had for me and the plan that He had for me.
Prayed…
So thank you, Father. Just renew that passion.
Just remind us now, Father, of that passion, that first love that we had.
And why do we love you? Because you first loved us.
You loved us when we were unlovely.
It says you loved us at our darkest.
Your love for us never changes.
And so now we do in our hearts, Father, repent if we need to.
We change our minds.
We change our focus to come back to that first love.
And to not make our relationship with you a chore, a religion, a task to check off our to-do list, a motion that we just go through without understanding why.
Remind us of our first love and that passion, that excitement of what it felt like knowing that we have a Savior that loves us, that has forgiven us, that has restored us back into communion with Him.
Thank you, Jesus. You remind us today. We stir up the passion and that hunger inside of us for you.
We stir up our first love and we remember how faithful you’ve been through the years to us.
How many ways you’ve rescued us.
How many ways you’ve showed up over the years.
How many times it felt like there was no way and you made a way.
How many times we felt alone and you were there.
How many times you carried us, you held us, you loved us at our darkest times.
How many times we were unfaithful and you were always faithful.
Your mercy and your loving kindness endures forever.
And we’ve tested every end of it.
But you’ve been faithful and you’ve loved us and you’ve given us fresh mercy every morning.
So that when we fail, we don’t have to be ashamed.
We just come and you give it so graciously, so lovingly because of who you are, because of how good you are, not how good we are and how you’ve loved us even when we’ve turned our backs.
