Morning Chapel Prayer Playlist
Morning Chapel Prayer Today
Prayer leader…
Good morning. Thank you, guys, for joining us for prayer.
I’d like to start by reading a bit of scripture before we get going. I’ll read Psalm 91 this morning.
Psalm 91 says…
1 Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
2 I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress;
My God, in Him I will trust.”
3 Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler
And from the perilous pestilence.
4 He shall cover you with His feathers,
And under His wings you shall take refuge;
His truth shall be your shield and buckler.
5 You shall not be afraid of the terror by night,
Nor of the arrow that flies by day,
6 Nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness,
Nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday.
7 A thousand may fall at your side,
And ten thousand at your right hand;
But it shall not come near you.
8 Only with your eyes shall you look,
And see the reward of the wicked.
9 Because you have made the Lord, who is my refuge,
Even the Most High, your dwelling place,
10 No evil shall befall you,
Nor shall any plague come near your dwelling;
11 For He shall give His angels charge over you,
To keep you in all your ways.
12 In their hands they shall bear you up,
Lest you dash your foot against a stone.
13 You shall tread upon the lion and the cobra,
The young lion and the serpent you shall trample underfoot.
14 “Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him;
I will set him on high, because he has known My name.
15 He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble;
I will deliver him and honor him.
16 With long life I will satisfy him,
And show him My salvation.”
Thank you, Father. We know also that your Word is a lamp to our feet, a light to our paths.
So we focus on you this morning, on your Word.
We come to you and thank you that we abide under your shadow.
You protect us beneath your wings.
Father, we just put you in the driver’s seat this morning.
You are in charge of our lives. We surrender. We have breath. We have life only because of you.
So come. Just have your way today, Father.
Pray what you want to pray. Do what you want to do in Jesus’ name.
Pastor Heather…
Father, we reverence you.
Come and do what you need to do. We make room and we reverence you.
There’s nothing like your presence. Your perfect love casts out all fear.
Peace. We thank you for peace. Peace that surpasses all understanding.
Thank you, Father, for your peace.
God has not called us to be comfortable…
I’ll try to articulate what I feel the Lord stirring in my heart. There’s a difference between comfort and peace. Comfort and peace are not the same thing. And God has not called us to be comfortable. That’s what I heard in my heart the other day. “I’ve not called you to be comfortable.”
Israel was uncomfortable…
We just returned from Israel. And I’ll be honest, a lot of that trip was very uncomfortable for me. Scary at times. I’m a creature of comfort. So I like my bed. I like my blanket. I like my space. I like my family. I like my house. I like all these things of comfort that bring me comfort, right? Because I feel safe with those things.
But I also felt peace in Israel…
But going to Israel, going to a place where you’re seeing people with machine guns strapped to their bodies and barbed wire fences and you feel the tension of what’s happening in that country. But I also felt peace. Peace and comfort are not the same thing. And there’s something that the Lord is stirring in me and I’m going to try to articulate it. See if I can.
He’s going to ask us to do things that are uncomfortable…
But so much of what we are seeking of the Lord is comfort. And He does bring comfort, don’t get me wrong. But there are many things He’s going to ask us to do that are very uncomfortable. And I think especially as Americans, we tend to want to have things around us feel comfortable, feel safe. We have our houses, our cars, our family, our things, our pantries are stocked with food. And there’s so many of those things that bring us comfort: our paycheck, our job, our whatever. Fill in the blank.
Being over in Israel, I saw a people that are living in tension, but also still have hope and joy. As I was thinking of just even, just Jesus and the disciples were walking through these hills where they walked in these places where they walked. And I just think “How uncomfortable that was for them that time.”
Stepping out of the boat.
Stepping out of their comfort zones.
Leaving everything and following Him.
They’re living in discomfort…
Even as we were driving, I was thinking of the scripture where Jesus says, “I’m giving you authority. I’m sending you out. Don’t take anything with you. Don’t take a backpack, don’t take money, don’t take an extra set of clothes.” And we’re driving in this bus through Israel with my 50-pound suitcase underneath. Because I have to have my things, my comfort, right? Seeing that terrain and thinking of these scriptures, and I think they’re like in the desert at times. They’re walking through these really rough, rough places. It’s not like they can just pull over and go to like a 7/11 and pick up a case of water.
How many of us rely on our creature comforts…
But Jesus is literally telling them not to take anything. And how many of us… I’ll just speak for myself. How much do I rely on my creature comforts, my natural comfort, my natural reasoning when God is really calling me out into discomfort, intentionally into discomfort.
We want to stay in the comfort zone…
But there’s still peace. Peace and comfort are different things. And I think so many of us, even as we sit here in staff prayer, it’s uncomfortable to come up. It’s uncomfortable to cry in front of people. It’s uncomfortable to enter into His presence because we want to stay in that comfort zone of “I’m comfortable sitting in this place. I’m comfortable not crying in front of people. I’m comfortable…” All those things.
We are in a time when Jesus is calling us to be uncomfortable…
All I’m saying is I believe that we are in a time where Jesus is calling us to be uncomfortable—to step out, to step out of the boat, to step out of our comfort zones. And I feel this tension between what’s coming, His return, so much that has to do with that and where we are. And there’s this huge canyon of what we need to cross, how we need to get to that place of where we are to where He wants us to be. To what He wants us to be doing, to what He wants us to be putting His hand to.
As Christians, we’re more on the defense than offense…
And even while we’re in Israel, I found so much of my time, my thoughts, my prayers, worried about my comfort. I have a headache. I am tired. I am dizzy. I’m hungry. I don’t want to be in this place. This is scary for me. My thoughts are going. And the Lord corrected me because so much of my time and my energy was spent just praying over myself to be comfortable, for my body to be healthy, for me to be awake, for me to be engaged and paying attention. And I think some of that, as Christians, is our lives right now just praying that there’s food on our table. Our kids have clothes on their backs. We have a job. We have this. We have that. Right? How do I want to say this? We’re more on the defense than the offense. We’re using our prayers to survive, to stay day to day, to take care of our needs. And there’s nothing wrong with that. But I also believe that He wants so much more from us.
They would give everything to have His presence…
When we went to the Western Wall and were standing there and putting my hands on this wall, on the other side, it was the Holy of Holies. The temple, the place where only the priests could go, the place where only the chosen people would go, where the very presence of God resided. And now we have that inside of us. And I look and I see these beautiful Jews, these devout Jews. And they’re praying and they just want to have His presence. And all I could think is “I’m carrying that inside of me, the Holy Spirit, the power of God, the presence of God is living inside of me. And I’m just walking around every day so consumed with my needs and my thoughts.” And they would give everything they have to put little pieces of paper in the cracks of that wall that God would answer their prayers. And we have that.
Prayed…
So, Father, we thank you for the Holy Spirit.
Strengthen us, Holy Spirit, show us the power that we have inside of us.
That we wouldn’t consume it on ourselves and our natural concerns.
But that we use that power; we engage that power.
We use our authority to do your plan and your will.
Let us never forget, we have the power of the living God inside of us.
And we’re not to walk around in fear or concern about our needs.
But you said you would meet every need, if we just keep our eyes on you.
So right now, I thank you for peace, Father, not comfort, but peace, supernatural peace to do everything you’ve called us to do as a church body and in our own individual lives.
You’re making us uncomfortable and that’s okay.
Because you’ve called us to so much more than what we are doing right now.
And I know that, and I speak for us as a staff, as a church, as a body, as a state, as a nation, that we wouldn’t use you to anesthetize ourselves to make the pain go away.
But that we would engage and know that when we’re stepping out and putting our hand to the things that you’ve called us to, you’re going to take care of every need, every care.
And we see the Devil for his devices and what he is trying to do to overwhelm people with fear, anxiety, sickness, depression.
Because if we’re over and consumed just battling our own little battles, we’re not doing what you’ve called us to do.
And so now we thank you, Father, just for an awakening, a reverence to what you’ve called us to do for such a time as this.
Help us, Father, help us to see with your eyes, to not be swayed by culture.
Or to not be numbed by things happening because it’s overwhelming.
But we see with your eyes what we’re supposed to do in this time and this place.
And you planted Living Word in the middle of Brooklyn Park, Minnesota for a reason.
You put us here for such a time as this.
