First Things First

I Timothy 2:1-4 I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone— for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.

Prayer is the action that brings us closer to God and closer to fellowship with each other. It is with prayer and intimate time with God that we start to see his plans for us revealed. When we come before him, it’s not only to make our requests known but to also praise him for who he is, thank him for what he’s done and listen for his voice leading and directing us. As believers we MUST always remain focused on strengthening our prayer life and time spent in his presence. It is through prayer and seeing those prayers answered that we come to know the true faithfulness and miracle working power of our Savior. Verse 4 "..come to the knowledge of truth". The Lord desires for us to come to know the truth. The truth that is him, truth that he is our comforter, provider, healer, deliverer, waymaker, our confidence is found in him and we are made strong through his power. I challenge you to spend more time before the Father so you will come to know his truth and experience firsthand his power in your life. 

Always remember, first things first: PRAY

The Road Ahead

Acts 20:22-24 "But there is another urgency before me now. I feel compelled to go to Jerusalem. I'm completely in the dark about what will happen when I get there. I do know that it won't be any picnic, for the Holy Spirit has let me know repeatedly and clearly that there are hard times and imprisonment ahead. But that matters little. What matters most to me is to finish what God started (if only I may finish my course with joy): the job the Master Jesus gave me of letting everyone I meet know all about this incredibly extravagant generosity of God. (MSG and AMP)

Have you ever been at a crossroads of your life? Crossroads is defined as a “turning point with an unpredictable outcome”, literally meaning a crisis. We’ve all been there at some point in our lives. The place where you know you have a decision to make but just can’t seem to decide for fear of the final outcome:

Stay or Go? ; Wait or Settle?; Release or Hold on?

Sometimes we are forced into these moments as a result of our own decisions but many times we find ourselves at this point after God has spoken a word to us or gave us a vision of what he wants us to do or where he wants us to go. 

The question then becomes: To Obey or Not to Obey? 

In my 16 years as a believer, I’ve been there more times than I can count in relationship, career and ministry decisions.

In this passage Paul is at a crossroads, as he is informing the elders of Ephesus that he has a sense of “urgency” to go to Jerusalem. We too have moments in our life where we have a sense of “urgency”, moments where the Holy Spirit nudges us to take steps of faith and trust in him, knowing not what lies ahead. Paul recognized his road ahead would bring hard times, dark days and even imprisonment but he pressed on anyway. We must too move forward and not let fear paralyze us and detour us from our road to destiny. Jesus wants us to promptly obey him and have some urgency about it! No hesitation, no thinking it over, no procrastination but to immediately trust in him and take the steps he has instructed you to take. God will never give us access to the entire road map to navigate our life but he will give us the next step, and when we take that step, he’ll instruct us of the next one. It’s a process and he expects us to trust him every step of the way. We must have “blind faith” in our walk with Christ.

Whatever the spirit has spoken to you, I encourage you to do exactly what he’s asking of you and surrender your will to his so you can see his plans come together in ways you can't even explain!

Trust HIM for the road ahead, he’s counting on you!:-)