Getting what you want in prayer!!

Psalm 37:4
“Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.”


Seek true pleasure in the Lord and you will get what you want and what you want will be what God gives.

WHAT ARE YOU PRAYING FOR?!?!

ARE YOU DESIRING THE THINGS OF GOD?!?!

Pride and Prayer

Pride is demonstrated in prayerlessness.

The first question of this week's Soul Care questions is "Describe a specific time this past week where you demonstrated either a dependence or lack of dependence on God."
EACH AND EVERY ONE OF US NEEDS TO GROW IN OUR DEPENDENCE OF GOD!

Prayer demonstrates a dependence upon God.

Here is an excerpt from today's Gospel Primer "Chosen for Prayer" (35)

Therefore, I can infer that prayer is not simply something I am allowed to do as a Christian; prayer is actually one of the great purposes for which God chose to save me.

On 04.27 I posted an article entitled "Seven Ways to pray for your prayer life."
Later I received an email from Terri W.  She had reworded the seven statements to help her pray these things for herself and others.

1. Pray that God would teach me to pray with a humble spirit.
2. Pray that God would keep me from eloquent, showy public prayers from a prideful heart.
3. Pray that God would teach me and remind me frequently what the really important requests are.
4. Pray that God would help me to remember Biblical examples of answered prayer.
5. Pray that God would give me confidence in his sovereign power.
6. Pray that God would help me to persevere in my praying.
7. Pray that God would encourage me with the truth that he is my loving Father and will give me only what is good.

 I am sharing her seven statements for two reasons. 

First of all, her statements are good summaries, rethinkings of Challies' statements.

Second, she shared these with her Soul Care group and me.  That is what we want to happen around here.  Sharing things that you have been challenged by.  Thinking through how to use resources that have been provided. 

TAKE OPPORTUNITIES TO SHARE WHAT YOU HAVE BEEN LEARNING AND HOW YOU HAVE BEEN GROWING WITH OTHERS!!!

How to pray for Pastor Duke

At the end of his message on June 10 "Gospel Grounded Leadership," Pastor Duke shared six desires he has for his life. 

• I want to be genuine in my walk with Christ.
• I want my family to love Christ.
• I want to meet here on Sunday with the expectation of receiving and giving.
• I want to meet with brother and sisters to pray and think about the application of God’s word in our lives.
• I want to share Christ as a natural part of my life
• I want to finish well.

These six thing are great things to be for Pastor Duke and our other pastors.

Let the little children come (more specific)

Emmanuel’s mission statement begins with the following phrase:  glorifying God by making disciples.  Our children’s ministry wants to do this.  Two ways we need to make disciples are by helping parents understand their God-given responsibility to make disciples of their children and by providing God-glorifying, Bible focused lessons that point to Jesus.
There are two big opportunities for everyone at Emmanuel Baptist Church to get involved in ministering to children and families.

SONSHINE: 

The Sonshine carnival (06.23) and Sonshine (06.24 – 28) are coming quickly.  There are lots of way you can help with that: 

• Bring cookies or kool-aid
• Invite neighborhood families to the carnival and Sonshine
• Especially, pray for Sonshine.  Pray for Pastor Andrew and the teens and adults as they continue to prepare for this big week.   Pray for the children and families who will be visiting our church for these events.  Thousands of invitation cards were just mailed to houses around the church.

EKIDZ FALL MINISRY:

Pray for the preparation going into our fall children’s ministry.

Specific things to remember regarding this ministry:

• Tonight (06.06) and next Wednesday (06.13) there are children’s ministry Q&A times for parents and teachers at 7:00.  Please plan to come out to one of these meetings to hear about what we are planning to do in the fall.
• Teachers, assistant teachers and future teachers, I also want to remind you of three very important & necessary curriculum training times:  Saturday, June 16 (6:30 – 8:30); Wednesday, June 20 (9:00 – 11:00) and another time after Sonshine (check www.emmanuelbaptist.com/children for date and time).  You can go to the children’s webpage to see previews of the curriculum.
• Please email children@emmanuelbaptist.com if you have any questions.

Let the little children come...

Two prayer requests related to EBC's ministry to children and families:

1. Summer - Sonshine carnival (06.23) and Sonshine (06.24 - 28).  Pray that these would be great opportunities for us to minister to the community around the church.
2. Fall - Two services and changes within the children's ministry.  Specifically pray for teachers who are going to be trained on the new curriculum over the summer (check out www.emmanuelbaptist.com for information about new curriculum and training times)