If I tell you something three times, you can bet that it's either important or I'm convinced you didn't hear me the first time and second times.

If I tell you something three times, you can...OK, I won't.

While you can accuse me of many things, being charismatic isn't one of them. And, yet, I'm convinced God is trying to tell me something. The last three sermons I've heard all traced the same theme.

On January 28, I preached a sermon entitled Impossible is Nothing from Genesis 18:1-15 (you can listen here). The following Sunday, on February 4, Dieter Paulson preached at GCC on the need for a Grace Awakening from Luke 18:18-30, a passage that contains the reminder that "what is impossible with man is possible with God." On February 6, at the 37th Stated Meeting of Providence Presbytery, Mr. George McGuire reminded us that, "If God be for you, who or what can be against you?"

Maybe I wasn't listening the first and second times. Maybe it's important. Maybe, possibly, both.

What do these passages all teach us? What could God be trying to cram into my thick skull? That we must beg and plead his power and authority and wisdom from heaven into our fallen world. If you have unbelieving friends, you must be laying them before our gracious and merciful God. If you are trying to plant a church, you must be laying that work before the throne of his sovereign grace.

Prayer admits that we can't; prayer admits that God can. Prayer admits that we are weak; prayer admits that He is omnipotent, almighty, sovereign. Prayer admits that our knowledge and understanding are limited, but that He is omniscient and is working out His will in our world.

Do you believe that God is at work? Prayer is not the banging of drums to awaken God and to make him give us what we want. It's the key that opens the door to the treasures he has already determined to give us. 

The sovereign God on His throne, who has planned all things from the beginning to the end, has arranged His plan in such a way that the prayers of the saints are one of the major means He uses to accomplish His final goal. Instead of the sovereignty of God clashing with the prayers of the believer, the two actually presuppose one another and fulfill and undergird one another.
                                          - Dr. Douglas Kelly in If God Already Knows,Why Pray?

Are you participating in God's kingdom building? Are you using the means that God has appointed to accomplish His goals?

We offer you a couple of opportunities to call down God's blessings. At our next Sunday Night Fellowship, we're calling it "Prayer and Praise" because we'll pray and we'll sing. You can also join us on the first Sunday of every month at 9:30 AM as we pray for Grace Covenant Church and Athens.