Amid the wonderful music, the Cross of lilies, the singing of the “Hallelujah Chorus” and the overwhelming scent of flowers at the Easter Sunday worship services at Calvary , Pastor Steve challenged each of us to think about the stone that was rolled away from the tomb of Jesus. Pastor Steve then asked us to each think about the “stone” that keeps us from fully receiving all that Jesus wants to give to each of us.
How did you do this week with your STONE? For me, the word on the stone would be “BUSYNESS.” Some days I’m so overwhelmed with “things to do,” that I just get too busy to spend as much time in God’s Word or in prayer as I would like. Because of my busyness, I miss out on receiving all the gifts that God would like to bestow on me that day. And, of course, Satan loves that! In fact, if Satan can’t get me any other way, he will just make me TOO BUSY to pray, TOO BUSY to read God’s Word, TOO BUSY to spend time with the Creator of the Universe. So, for me, busyness is what would go on my stone.
How about you? What do you have on YOUR stone? Post a comment or two below. Let’s share our own STONE STORIES with each other.
Here’s a song by the Newsboys called “We Remember.” May we always remember that Jesus rolled the stone away and He is still rolling away those stones we have in our lives!
Soli Deo Gloria!
Pastor Carol
1 comment:
I too prayed for everything under the sun as a child; from my fish and cat, my family and friends, our house…even the fence, garage, and sandbox. If I had spent any more time using the kitchen sink, I am sure I would have prayed for that too! Over the next few years I would always add to my list of prayers, but would never take anyone or anything off—even fish that had since died, or dolls that I no longer played with. A few more years went by and my prayers were almost rehearsed. Sure, I dropped the dead fish, the dolls, sandbox, and garage from my prayers, but overall, I prayed for the same things and people regardless of the situation or what anyone was going through—including myself.
By the time I reached my teens prayer had become an obligation of sorts. I viewed it as something that I only did before bed and something that needed to be done in order to fall asleep at night. The prayers I recited were so sterile and so rehearsed that all I would say was, “Dear Lord watch over all of us…I thank You and praise You, Amen.” I wouldn’t even bother naming the people or things that I was praying for, because they were the same as they had been over the past 14 years. I figured God had heard me pray this same prayer every night--surely He would know by now what I was going to pray for, so I could just skip ahead and get to bed faster. I think it’s safe to say my relationship with God didn’t grow too much over those years.
It took me 24 years and a series of life-changing events, but I have since learned that there is more to prayer than rattling off lists of people and things, just to say that I “prayed.” I have learned to be honest with God in asking for His guidance and for His mercy for others and for myself at any time of the day. I have learned that prayer is not just for "bedtime" and I now pray multiple times every day depending on who and what, at that moment, needs attention from God. My prayers are meaningful now and I don’t just pray for the sake of saying that I did it. Now, I truly believe that God will take what I ask of Him and will answer my prayers in a way that only He can do. Learning to take prayer seriously has been responsible for leading me to develop a much stronger relationship with God over the course of the last year. Although I am ashamed that it took a series of unfortunate events to wake me up, I am thankful for the opportunity to start fresh now.
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