What Is Quiet Time?

I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own. - John 10:14

A quiet time is an intimate, face-to-face, heart-to-heart connection with God through His Son, Jesus Christ. It's the time when you actually build your relationship with Jesus. Specifically, it is a time for you to get up every day and read the Bible and pray and get closer to Him.

 

A lot of people say to think to themselves: "I prayed a prayer, but I don't feel closer to God; or I felt really close to God when I was at that retreat or camp, but now I don't feel very close to Him."

 

You're not going to feel close to anybody if you're not spending time with them.

If you were married and didn't spend time with your spouse, the two of you would not grow any closer. Actually, you would move farther and farther apart.

A quiet time is an expression of your commitment to be a true follower of Christ. It's as if you're saying, "Lord, I'm going to make sure that I don't accidentally get farther and farther away from You. In fact, I'm going to use this time to get closer and closer to You.

I'm going to use it as a time to get fed by You and to get filled up with You and to understand more of You." Before you do anything else, start your day with God. Talk to Him, seek Him in His Word and pray through your day. Make it your top priority.

Maybe you've never had a quiet time with God before. Start thinking about what kind of quiet time you want to have and where you want to have it. Think about what time you need to get up in order to have enough time to read your Bible and pray before you start your day with the world.

 

Your personal relationship with God is the dynamite that it will take to effect this generation. You will begin to spread the gospel as your character becomes like Christ. This transformation process can only happen in direct relationship with Christ.

The more we know Jesus, and look like Him, the easier it will be to lead people to him.

Artis L. Smith

The Prayer that Leads to Praise

Do not fret or have any anxiety about anything, but in every circumstance and in everything, by prayer and petition (definite requests), with thanksgiving, continue to make your wants known to God. Philippians 4:6 (KJV)

Now, Philippians 4:6 says don't be worried or anxious about anything. Be anxious for nothing, but in every-thing, everything. That means in your financial things, in your physical things, in your relational things, in everything in life. In everything there are three things that you must do: pray, supplicate, and offer thanksgiving to God for delivering you out of the situation.

Now, in Acts, the 16th chapter, it says when Paul and Silas were taken captive, beaten in the city square, stripped, placed in a cold, dark, dingy dungeon at midnight, they prayed. Now, of course, I believe that midnight was a literal midnight, but that midnight also represents whatever dark time is in your life. And if you live long enough, you're going to see a midnight. But I want you to know you can shine some light in the middle of the darkness.

Well this was their opportunity to miss the rest of God. Instead they began to pray. Instead of thinking about what was about to happen, they prayed for God's deliverance. And they sang songs of praise to God, praising Him for their deliverance. They refused to take the thoughts of what their body was telling them and what the situation was telling them. They decided to take God's thoughts by praying. They prayed such a prayer that it started making them rejoice, so much so that there was an earthquake and their shackles fell off and the prison doors swung open.

Now, I know what kind of prayer that had to be. That had to be, Father, I thank you, you are the one who made the world. Everything is in your hands. You are the God who is more than enough, you are my creator, you are the way maker, you are the one that opens the door for me, and you are the one who gives me victory. You are the one who gives me strength. I mean, that's the kind of prayer that they prayed. They're praying that prayer until they came to the place where their prayer made them praise God, and their praise led them to deliverance!

And that's the kind of prayer you must pray when you are in your midnight-your dark situation. Pray a prayer that leads to praise and God will bring you out just like He delivered Paul and Silas.

Scripture References: Acts 16:25-26; Philippians 4:6-8

Artis L. Smith

Back to School Revival

A back to school revival will be held at New Hope Missionary Baptist Church on:

July 25-27, 2012 at 7pm 

Our guest speaker will be Pastor Edward Blueford, Jr. of Atlanta, GA. Each church member is asked to contribute $25.00, Your contribution will defray the cost of the service and support the New Hope Missionary Baptist Church "Back Packs for The Children" program.

Effective Prayer

The effective fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. James 5:16

In order to have an effective prayer life, it is important to understand the various ways that we can communicate with God using the tool of prayer. It is important to know why we are praying, and what we are praying for. It is important that we have worked our faith to a point where we can trust in God to answer our prayers according to His will for our lives.

The Bible instructs us to cast all our cares to God in prayer, making our requests known to Him with an attitude of thanksgiving (Philippians 4:6). We are to request what we need and then trust Him to meet our needs. As we do that, God acts - imparting to us His peace, and providing all that is beneficial for our eternal good.

God may not answer our prayers when we want... or even how we want. But He will always answer - even if the answer is not apparent to us, and it feels like He has ignored us, or not heard us. God's ways are higher than our ways - and therefore, how He 'answers' our prayers, will also operate on a heavenly and supernatural level that reveals and carries out His best intentions and plans for our lives.

It is good to know that we can pray effectively when we are in covenant with God and aligning ourselves with His divine will - praying as a "righteous man," as James instructs in 5:16. There are also different prayers to use in different situations. Knowing why we are praying, what we are praying for, and understanding how God answers prayers is vital if we want to pray effectively. Different prayers we can approach God with include:

Prayer of Faith. The Prayer of Faith should always be based on God's revealed will and His Word. It requires boldly declaring the Word of God over one's situation. Instead of 'God, please heal me, " one should pray, "Lord, your Word declares that by Your stripes, I AM HEALED!" This way you are declaring what you already know to be true based on God's Word.

 

Prayer of Commitment. 1 Peter 5:7 tells us we should pray "casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you." This kind of prayer declares your decision to give all of your concerns, fears, anxieties and problems to God. It is a conscious refusal to worry or have anxiety. This type of prayer has two parts: stating all of your requests to God, and committing to all Him to handle each request without interference from you.

Prayer of Agreement. This is the most powerful type of prayer. Matthew 18: 19 -20 tells us, "that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them." This is a profound and powerful promise given to us by Jesus Christ! It means that whenever two people will believe together, and with the utmost faith believe on the Word of God, whatever they seek will be granted.

Intercessory Prayer. This involves praying for other people, nations, cities, and against the powers of darkness. The best example of and intercessor is Jesus himself; Romans 8:34 says that Jesus sits at the right hand of God and makes intercession for us. He asks the Lord to forgive us, and it is through Jesus' prayer that our slates are wiped clean when we repent and seek forgiveness. We have the ability to 'stand in the gap' of others in the same way, petitioning God on their behalf to answer our prayers -- by meeting their needs, saving their souls, or simply by showing mercy.

And remember: take every opportunity to appreciate the smallest answered prayer, and to meditate on God's faithfulness. You don't have to wait until you 'see' that your prayer has been answered -- give Him a prayer of thankfulness and praise right now for answering your prayers in His time, in His wisdom, and according to His will.

Because God is Good!

Artis L. Smith

One Hundred Thousand Signatures for Marriage

The Coalition of African American Pastors, USA is a grass-roots movement of African-American Christians who believe in traditional family values such as supporting the role of religion in American public life, protecting the lives of the unborn, and defending the sacred institution of marriage.

Follow this link and learn more at :


www.100000signatures4marriage.com/default.html

Youth Sunday School

Youth Sunday School, a photo by J. Benton Adams Photography on Flickr.

The Prayer Principles

Being a Christian means that we are in a battle. Every since he fell from heaven, satan has made himself an enemy to God and to His prized creation, mankind. In Ephesians 6, our Father has given us the tools that we need to win. One of our weapons is prayer.

There are 3 principles to a successful prayer life.

 

There is a time to talk.
God is our source. He holds the keys to the universe in His hands. He is the Creator. When we have doubts, concerns, and questions, He is the one that we should run to. In fact, He is anxiously waiting to hear from His children. It is a shame that some of us only talk to Him before we eat or only when there is a dire emergency.

I believe that God desire to have a running, consistent, conversation with us just like He did with Adam and Eve in the garden. You shouldn't just always run to Him with your laundry list of requests. Prayer is our opportunity to tell God how much we love Him and how grateful we are for all that He has done in our lives. It is also time for us to tell Him how much we look forward to what He is going to do in the future.

We should most definitely tell God how we feel if there are things in our lives that are making us nervous or afraid. As a matter of fact, we should bring all of our burdens and concerns to Him. The great thing about this transaction is that we can bring them to Him and leave them right there. He will deal with everything that concerns us and perfect them all.

 

There is also a time to listen.
Conversations between two parties are usually more effective when there is only one person speaking at a time. Sometimes our problem is that we spend all of our prayer time talking. We have to tell God all about everyone and everything that has been getting on our nerves. We have to tell Him about the guy that honked his horn at us on the expressway. And we also have to tell Him about our mean boss and nosy neighbors.

We even spend a great deal of time in prayer telling God how wonderful He is and thanking Him for all His wonderful blessings. The moment we get exhausted from talking for 30 minutes straight, our time in prayer is over. We never even give God 5 seconds to talk to us.

Prayer is a 2-way street, and we have to give God ample opportunity to speak to us. We should never jump to our feet without getting some sort of response. He may not always respond in the way we want but we must give Him room to be God. Sometimes we are afraid of what the answer might be. Sometimes we jump to conclusions about what He was going to say.

 

There is a time to act.
Once we have brought our petitions to God and once we have given Him room to respond, we must not stop there. We must allow the connection to God through prayer to give us the strength to act upon what He has said to us. There may be a time after prayer that we may need to call a friend or loved one that we haven't spoken to in years. There also may be opportunities to witness to a co-worker.

On the flip side, there may be times of distress coming where we need to act calm and rational. Our connection with God through prayer will show us how to act peaceful. Whatever the situation may call for, like in any war or battle, we must be prepared for action.

There is an ongoing effort by our enemy to destroy us or, at the very least, hinder our progress. When we learn who we are and all the advantages we have with prayer as a weapon we can cause mountains of despair and confusion to be cast into the sea of forgetfulness. When we connect to God through prayer we maintain our status as more than conquerors. The power of prayer is our weapon of choice.

Artis L. Smith