Anchor 9 Commit to a daily prayer life and grow my relationship with the Father.
Why is it important to commit to a daily prayer life? The answer is found in the completion of Anchor 9, to grow my relationship with the Father.
I pose this question to you before we get started with Anchor 9. What is your purpose and why are you here?
In short you are here because God loves you. God created you for His pleasure and His purposes. God wanted a family with you in mind.
Your purpose in life is to respond to love of God by accepting what God’s Son Jesus Christ did for you and then live your life for him.
You are saved by grace and grace alone. It is a gift and not something earned so no one can boast.
Jesus Christ is God’s greatest gift to us!!!
Salvation, forgiveness, freedom, eternal life, purpose, identity, power, are part of a long list of benefits and blessings we receive when we receive God’s Son as a gift!
God says accept my Son and I write your name in heaven’s guest list never to be erased.
God bypasses the written code that stood opposed to you and signs an executive order decreeing your citizenship in heaven. What a gift!
To accomplish all of this Jesus depended on a few things that are imbedded into our 12 anchors of hope.
He depended on God’s word.
He depended on The Holy Spirit.
He depended on His Father.
He depended on the power of prayer.
When you study the life and ministry of Jesus Christ there was something Jesus could not live without and that was his relationship with the Father.
He needed to talk to his Father. How did he do that? Through prayer.
He needed guidance from his Father. How did he do that? Through prayer.
The Father made sure He didn’t send His one and only Son in the world to fail the world but to save the world.
So The Father made sure Jesus had everything he needed. His word, the Holy Spirit, and an open line of communication with His Father made possible through the gift of prayer!
Imagine if you became a person that knew how to make God’s Word the authority over your life, depended on the power of the Holy Spirit, became relentless in your love and desire to grow your relationship with the Father, and became a person of prayer knowing that nothing happens in heavens world that is not jump started by prayer!
How different would your life be if you looked at prayer as a gift and not a spiritual discipline or something we do every now and then?
Have you ever considered what a gift God has given us through prayer?
I hope you will join us tomorrow night at Encounter as we talk about the gift of prayer and how prayer can and will grow our relationship with the Father when we embrace it as a relational gift from our Almighty Father!
Be Blessed and Encouraged
Bill Rieser
Encounter Pastor