Happy New Year and God bless to everyone. We wish you are all blessed with a new year full of growth and discipleship. We also hope that everyone you know who does not know Jesus Christ will come to that saving knowledge by your witness and example this year.

Teresa and I arrived back in The Philippines on December 6th. Slowly, step-by step, ministry is beginning to take it’s form again by God’s amazing grace. We never really know exactly what ministry will look like each year when we return from our annual visit back to the US because it’s always not exactly the same when you return as when you leave. But there are 3 things that are always constant and steady:

1. Obstacles and problems. There are always issues with the house and vehicle that have to be overcome. Jet lag. Language adjustment. Jet lag. Cultural adjustment. Jet Lag. There are all kinds of issues that arise that bring fear and frustration, worry and doubt. Especially when you’re doing your annual reset. But those things always smooth out because…
2. Your real friends and ministry partners still love you and are glad to see you. They are always willing to help where they can. Unity in Christ is such a wonderful thing.
3. Most importantly, God is good, all the time. When He calls you to a task, He never leaves you unable to handle the challenges. When He makes a promise, He always protects it. And He always lets you know when you’re headed in the right direction.

In the 3 and a half weeks that we’ve been back, we’ve seen church ministry exploding with new opportunities, a chance to renew and expand local and regional recovery ministries, and new opportunities for discipleship ministries. But the best part is that in that short amount of time (25 days) we’ve seen 26 souls saved. All you have to do is say “yes” to God and be willing to do the work He gives you and use the resources He provides, the way He wants it done.

It’s gonna be a busy, beautiful, stressful, wonderful, tiring, awesome, worrisome, blessed year! I can’t wait!!!

“But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut the door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.” – Matthew 6:6

The third tool of intimacy and growth in relationship with God is prayer. It’s the third tool to be used to stay close and in striving to grow closer to God through your salvation in Christ. Prayer can do anything that God can do. Prayer connects you to God through the power of the Holy Spirit. Some people don’t realize that you can pray about [any need] in your life. God is a loving Father. You can pray about a financial need, a physical need, relational need, a spiritual need, emotional need. He will take any need.

Prayer is this: to make a request’ as from one who is inferior to one who is superior, for specific needs. Always directed toward God, whether stated or implied. Strongs #4336

I can’t stress the importance of prayer enough. Prayer is key to everything. Self-evaluation and meditation must happen in an attitude of prayer.

How to pray? Don’t worry about that. Just pray. The Holy Spirit will translate the thoughts of your heart into good and acceptable prayer. That’s the power. Just pray. But still, Jesus taught us how to pray.

Read Matthew 6:7-15

My challenge for everyone is to read, study, and meditate prayerfully on This passage. It is a teaching from Jesus himself on prayer. Please note in verse 9 that Jesus did not say “this is [what] you should pray”, He said this is [how]you should pray.

“After this manner therefore pray ye”:

Underline, circle, and highlight that sentence in your bible. It’s a model. It is not a ritual to be prayed. Notice a couple of verses right before this prayer, Jesus says don’t repeat a ritual prayer, don’t make vain repetitions. This was not a prayer to be used as a ritual, it is a model. This is not what you should pray, this is how you should pray.

Do you want to keep and even grow your relationship with God? Pray… Prayer is communication… Communication is necessary in any relationship.

Meditate on this passage. Spend time with Your God meditating on these scriptures according to the last devotional, and then continue to spend time with Him in prayer.

We will be talking about each aspect of “The Lord’s prayer” in the coming days.

“Blessed is the man that trusts in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit. – Jeremiah 17:7-8

Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in His law does he meditate day and night. – Pslam 1:1-2

A changed, healed life – a transformed life – requires us to be in a relationship with our God and Savior. The only way to have a real relationship with anyone is to spend time with them. It’s the relationship that keeps us from falling away – back into our old sinful ways. There are basically 3 parts of that relationship. Recently we spoke about self-evaluation. Today let’s talk about meditation on the scriptures.

Meditate: A verb meaning to growl, groan, sigh, mutter, or speak. (wow) Figuratively and by implication it means to ponder, imagine, and study. – Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary #1897.

 So to meditate on God’s Word simply means reading it, studying it, understanding it in context, but it also means to ponder and imagine what it means in your life and how to apply it to your life. In other words it means to slow down and actually hear what God has to say to you in the scripture you are studying.

• seriously think about what you read in the Bible for a little bit then think about what it means to your life. That’s meditation. (and yes, you’re allowed to repeat it over and over as many times as you want in line with the literal definition)
• When you do that He says, “You’re like a tree planted by the river and when the heat’s on you don’t wither away and when the drought comes you don’t dry up and blow away.” – Because your supply of living water is eternal.

You don’t fall away.

How would you like to succeed and prosper in everything you do? According God, it’s pretty simple. Just meditate on His Word.

“And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper”. – Psalm 1:3

The reason (I say) this is necessary: When we were first saved, our response to the love and mercy and grace that God offers us in the saving work of Jesus is largely emotional. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. Love is many things, and emotion is one of those things. The bible is very clear that we love Him because He loved us first –1 John 4:19. But we can’t rely on our own emotions any more than we can rely on our own strength. If we try to do that we will eventually fail. His word says that we are saved by His grace through FAITH – Ephesians 2:8-9. Transformation born in Real faith may begin with an emotional response, but it becomes ROOTED in the scriptures. It’s not meant to eliminate our emotions. As a matter of fact, the more we come to understand through meditation on the Word, the stronger our emotions should become. He loves us and values us very much!

Finally this: Lots of people think they don’t know how to meditate on the scriptures or anything else. But I say if you know how to worry, then you know how to meditate. Worry is taking a bad situation or thought and thinking about it over and over. It’s trying to work out a solution to a problem in your mind and heart continually even when there seems to be no solution or resolution. We’re all expert worriers. Meditation is the same. You just do it with scriptures trying to understand God’s intent for your life in each passage you read. Let’s do that.

Go and be with God in His Word today. He will make you like a tree planted in a never-ending water supply.