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Who do you thank? Gratitude in all things comes through a renewed heart and mind. Being thankful is found in the Bible multiple times. As Believers, as followers of Christ, we are called to give thanks to God for everything— in all things, for all things, during all things. Thankfulness is to produce rejoicing in our lives to glorify God. Saying “thank you” to God hardly seems enough in light of all He has done for us. And yet, when we do, He gladly receives our praise.
Fears, most of us have one or two physical fears and maybe we’ve tried to overcome them. You know fear can be overcome and has been overthrown by Jesus. Through Him, we have nothing to fear. We are held in His hand, we are called His friend, we have our names written in the book of life— nothing to fear.
As Christians, we’re not simply called to put our faith in Christ Jesus at a moment in time, we’re called to perseverance. Knowing and believing that Jesus came to take all of our griefs, sorrows, shame, and guilt upon himself is why we can persevere with joy. We can proclaim, “Blessing, and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving, and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever” because of what He has done.
It’s essential that our prayers be controlled by the word of God. When our prayer life is soaked in the word of God not only are our prayers renewed and fresh, our mind is renewed as well. And when our minds are renewed by the word of God our lives are renewed by the Spirit of God.
Our prayers need to be seasoned with the word of God. When we pray using the Scriptures we talk to God in His language, using His way of speaking. With it, brings power. When we pray through the Bible, we are bringing God’s word directly into our prayers and His power into our praying.
Jesus provided a model prayer for us to pray. Do our prayers follow His pattern? We may call it the Lord’s Prayer, but truly Jesus gave it to us, His disciples to emulate in our own prayers to our Father in Heaven. It’s the Disciples’ Prayer. A prayer that worships God, that confesses our sin, and that covers our cares and concerns and carries them to the foot of the throne.
As believers in Jesus Christ, as followers of His Word, we have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit that changes and transforms us, changes and transforms our desires. One of the desires He brings to light is prayer— talking to God. Prayer regardless of age, IQ, education, and resources, we can all do the same thing— pray. Since God invites and expects us to pray, then prayer has to be simple.
How many of you want God to do something new in your life? *Raise your hand* Scripture reminds us that it takes faith, a small amount, a mustard size faith for the new to come, to change, but we must be willing to change. Making a fresh start begins by allowing God to do His will and way in and through us to make all things new. When we hold onto what we’ve always done, where we’ve always gone it doesn’t take faith. In fact we then are stuck in a rut. Let this Fresh Start Sunday become truly a fresh start walking with God, talking with God and allowing His to do some amazing new things through our faith in what He can and will do.
Our faith as Christ followers needs to overcome the turmoil and testing that comes at us each and every day. We are called to be bold. Bold in our witness of what Jesus has done in and through our lives even if we come under persecution, even if the rains come, even if the floods start rising, even if we are rejected. Scripture reminds us that “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matthew 5:11-12). I know we all want to be liked but standing up for our faith is more important than ever.
As the hymn testifies, “To God be the glory great things He has done.” The greatest act of God besides creation is sending Jesus Christ to redeem the world from the slavery of sin and death. Through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God is to be glorified and worshipped. He is the only one who deserves our praise and adoration.
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