Week 21 of 52 Prayers of Faith - Faith is loving God with all our all our heart, soul, mind and strength.

Faith is loving God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength - Lord increase our faith

Again I am using active words with regard to faith. Loving is an active verb. Love is a feeling but that is not all that it is. Love is action; Love Does (to borrow the title of a recently published book); love is the motive that guides a Christian's behavior. So when we talk about loving God, it involves more than our emotions

The Bible tells us that God first loved us. It tells us that God so loved us that He sent Jesus so that we could know Him better. The Good News is really "God loves humanity and He has demonstrated that in the person of Jesus Christ".

Knowing that God loves us and has demonstrated that love, demands a response from us. This only seems right. Just as children love their parents when their parents love them, so we must love God because we are his children and He loves us. Jesus said if fact that Loving God is the greatest commandment and the next thing closest to that is loving our neighbors.

Each of you will have to learn what that means to you. For me, it means I am a pastor/preacher/teacher who serves God by loving, teaching and training the people He puts in my path.

Lord, we thank you that You first loved us, help us to love You with our all of our hearts minds, strength and souls - Lord increase our Faith

Week 18 of 52 Prayers of Faith - Faith is knowing that we are incompetent in and of ourselves but God still uses us

Faith is knowing that we are incompetent in and of ourselves but God still uses us - Lord increase our faith.

I think most of us fall into one camp or another. Either we think we are incompetent and so we think God cannot use us Or we think we are so competent that we don't need to depend on God. Neither of these positions are positions of faith. Faith says two things, first that we need God; "We can do nothing apart from God" And the second thing is that with God we can do any thing; "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me"

It's okay for us to say that we are incompetent in and of ourselves, but we are never so incompetent that God cannot work in our lives. Only disbelief and disobedience hinder God's work in our lives. Admitting that we are incompetent in and of ourselves makes room for God to work when we admit we need His help.

This attitude can then lead to confidence, not in ourselves, but in believing that God can and will work through us. Through God the Holy Spirit, He has given us gifts to help others and through God the Son, Lord Jesus, He as given us ministries (places to serve). These gifts and opportunities give us what we need to bless and encourage others. These come through faith.

God is bigger and wiser than us. When He grants us gifts and talents He makes us useful to the body of Christ and to those around us hurting and lonely.

Faith says, God can and will use us to accomplish more that we can think or imagine. Faith says God is with us through the good and the bad.

This week continue in your meditation about what it means to walk by faith; living as a child of God.

Lord, thank you that our incompetence doesn't hinder You from using us to accomplish your will - Lord Increase our faith.