Beyond Thoughts

What if the greatest answer to our prayers this week isn’t that God changed our circumstances, but that He changed our hearts?

Matthew 9:35-38

“And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.””

What are we seeing these days?

Lord, help me see, before You send me.

• Compassion

What moves your heart?

A heart aligned with God loves what He loves.

• Love

How do we respond?

Pray earnestly.

• Keep praying faithfully.

• Disciple someone.

• Reconcile a relationship.

• Serving, giving, sharing Christ to others.

“For the vision is yet for an appointed time… though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.”

(Habakkuk 2:3).

©️ Christie Williams

• Jesus, I SURRENDER my will to yours.

(A wholehearted surrender. Giving God your all.)

•Jesus, give me Your PEACE.

(God’s perfect peace that passes all understanding and guards your heart and mind.)

•Jesus, I TRUST You.

(Relying on God in everything.)

•Jesus, I NEED You.

(Desiring God’s presence.)

•Jesus, THANK You.

(Gratitude keeps your heart open and connected to God… God works all things together for good.)

•Jesus, I LOVE You.

(A prayer of connection and relationship… heart-level link to God.)

•Jesus, FORGIVE me.

(A prayer that brings healing and freedom by removing all hindrances in your walk with God. Not shame but honestly in your desire to walk in God’s path.)

•Jesus, give me WISDOM and GUIDANCE.

(God’s ways are higher than ours.)

Prayer time is about your connection with God.

—it is not about getting through a list or checking off a box, but rather about meeting with the Lord.

©️ 40 Day Worship Experience: Day 39 • Devotional https://www.bible.com/reading-plans/42908/day/39?segment=0

By: Sandra Ratilla

1) FORGIVING Heart

-Colossians 3:13 …Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.

-Nehemiah 9:17 …you are a God of forgiveness, gracious and merciful…

(An unforgiving heart produces a person who is harsh, critical, vindictive, unteachable, easily upset, easily offended, enraged, filled with resentment, bitterness, hateful and apathetic)

HOW MAY I FORGIVE?

Chose to forgive.

Pray in faith.

Right now!

WHEN MUST I FORGIVE?

Immediately

Continually

2) THANKFUL Heart

-1 Thessaloniana 5:16-18 …give thanks in all circumstances for this is God’s will for you…

HUMILITY — is to acknowledge our dependence on God and to be teachable (John 15:5)

What do you have planned for me today, Jesus?

Surrender isn’t just a mental exercise or a lofty concept. It’s an action that requires a conscious choice. It is a decision that engages your entire being.

LUKE 1:49 NIV

• Even when we don’t have the answers, we can declare, “Holy is His name.”

• Even when we’re faced with hardship threatening to steal our praise, we can declare, “Holy is His name.”

• Even when the weight of fear presses down on us, we can declare, “Holy is His name.”

God’s faithfulness remains unwavering.

… h o p e — expectation, confidence

Hope is not passively waiting, it is an active waiting, because whenever God gives you a promise, He will also give you an instruction.

Romans 4:16-25

We can put our hope in God because he is:

Faithful

Powerful

T H E E M P T Y T O M B

Matthew 28:1-10

v.1 — D A W N — the first appearance of light in the sky…

Even when we don’t feel it, God is doing something. Breakthrough is about to happen.

• God is working on the beginning of something new.

v.2 — G R E A T E A R T H Q U A K E — a sudden and violent shaking of the ground…

God disrupts the natural way of things to show us the supernatural.

• God turned our moments of defeat into a platform of victory.

v.3 to 5 — L I G H T N I N G

The greatest breakthrough needs a grand entrance.

v. 6 — HE HAS R I S E N

• Hope •

—why we go through a process? To prepare us to something great 💪🏻

—but face the process with the right attitude

—The great power and strength of God is shown to us in adversities. — rely on God

“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”

to the Lord.

We can do great things when the Lord is with us.

Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head. And I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give you into our hand.”

‭‭1 Samuel‬ ‭17‬:‭45‬-‭47‬ ‭ESV‬‬