Take The Next Step

Three Prayers to Help Take the Next Step in Your Spiritual Journey

Over the past three weeks at Sampa Church we have been talking about some difficult prayers that can help us take the next steps in our spiritual journey. These prayers can help was move towards God. They are not magic prayers but they do put us in a position to hear from God and to grow spiritually. 

Search Me

David's prayer was for God to search him. We are asking God to point out sin in our lives. It's not always fun asking God to point out the areas where you are missing the mark but It can help us grow.

Psalm 139:23-24
23Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. 24See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

Break Me and Pour Me Out

Mary Breaks an expensive bottle of perfume and pours it onto Jesus. Later that week Jesus body is broken and His blood poured out for the forgiveness of our sins. We are asking Jesus to break us and then use us any way He chooses.

John 12:1-8
1Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. 2Here a dinner was given in Jesus’ honor. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him.3Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

4But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected,5“Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages. ” 6He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.

7 “Leave her alone,”Jesus replied. “It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial.8You will always have the poor among you,but you will not always have me.”

Here I Am, Send Me

Are we going to say 'Here I am, I'm not going', 'Here I am, send someone else', or 'Here am I, send me'?  Isaiah didn't know the details. He didn't know where or what it would be like. He simply said Here am I send me.

We don't like to say 'Here am I, send me' because we don't know where He will send us. For most of us God will send us to be missionaries were we live, work, and play. God doesn't need us but He allows us to partner with Him to accomplish great things. Why not join with God and use the relationships you already have to show others the love of Jesus. It could be helping out a neighbor, saying an encouraging word to someone you work with, or talking with someone at the gym.

When we ask God to search us, break us, and use us He will. And it may not always be fun but God will use it to show us and others His greatness.