Pastor Stephen Dedman

Tag: pastor stephen dedman

Who Is On Your Mnd?

Encouragement

‘Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, ‘
I Timothy 2:1

Have you ever woke up in the middle of the night or from a deep sleep and had someone on your mind? That person was put on your mind for a good reason.

God places people on our hearts and minds so we can help them and bless them. We need to take time to pray for those who come to our attention and pray without hesitation.

Paul wrote this letter to Timothy to address some of the issues that were happening in the church at Ephesus. One of the issues facing the church was prayer.

The church was divided between the Jews and Gentiles who had complete different attitudes concerning spiritual matters such as salvation. So Paul instructs Timothy to make sure the church, the people of God, prayed for one another.

It’s our responsibility and privilege to pray for one another. Everyone needs prayer. You need someone praying for you everyday. That is why it is important to surround yourself with faithful praying people. James 5:16 says, “the prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.” Be that righteous person who prays for others.

There is nothing more wonderful and amazing than to witness prayers being answered. It’s important to pay attention to what others around you are going through so that you can pray for them specifically.

Pray

Lord, put someone on my heart and mind and let me pray for them today. Put me on someone else’s heart as well. Thank You, Lord, for answering prayers.

Are You Aware Of Your Sin?

Salvation, Trust

“Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!”
Psalm 51:1-2

Psalm 51 gives us a glimpse of how David saw his sin. To fully understand this Psalm we must realize that God caused David to see his sin from His point of view.

God made him aware of his sin and gave him the understanding of it. Psalm 51 is ultimately David’s response to God once he gained the knowledge of how greatly he had sinned against God.

David committed adultery with Bathsheba and then one sin led to another. Bathsheba sent word that she was pregnant so David developed a scheme to minimize the seriousness of what he had done. David sent Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah, into a war zone to be certain that he would be killed and then David would take Bathsheba as his wife and everything would be alright. Not exactly.

God sent Nathan as a prophet to bring conviction to David’s heart. Sin spiritually blinded him and God had to intervene or else David would think he got away with it. David needed to be convicted of his sin and only God can do that. Once convicted, David realized the tragedy of his sin and needed God’s mercy.

How do you view your sin? Do you take it as serious as God does? God says the penalty of sin is death. That is serious business. God does not look lightly upon our sin and neither should we. If only we could see our sin as God sees it. We should never minimize the seriousness of our sin.

One of the works of the Holy Spirit is to convict the Believer of his or her wrongdoings. It’s not to shame you or embarrass you but to bring you to an understanding of what you did. You despised the truth of God. It is a great tragedy for a Christian to sin and not be brought to an understanding that we broke God’s commandment. It is up to us as to how we respond to the awareness and knowledge of our sin. Trust me, our sin is ever before us in our remembrance.

Will we continue in our sin or will we have an attitude of repentance? There are great consequences to those who do not repent.

Pray

Lord, will you bring me to the understanding and knowledge of my sin. Let me be aware of how I have sinned against You. Have mercy on me Lord, forgive me, and make me clean again.

Jesus Knows

Encouragement

‘But Simon answered and said to Him, “Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net.” ‘
Luke 5:5

Have you ever failed at something that you were good at? Do you remember that feeling of failure and frustration?

No one knows how to help you in times of discouragement like Jesus does. He will not just encourage you to do better next time, instead, He gives you a recipe for victory.

Peter was cleaning up after an all night fishing failure. It wasn’t like he had just caught a few fish; he had nothing, and he was a profession. There was nothing to show for his effort. He was ready to throw in the towel and give up. Needless to say, what he needed was a victory.

Jesus could have said to Peter, “Don’t worry about it. You’ll be in a different line of work soon.” Instead, Jesus instructed him to launch back out into the deep and let the nets down. That sounds crazy! A carpenter instructing a skilled professional fisherman where and how to catch fish! But even crazier was the fact that they caught so many fish that the nets were breaking and they had to call for help to carry in the weight of so many fish.

This is how Jesus works in our life. He will take us right back to where we were unsuccessful in order to build us back up. The problem may have been that you were relying on your own strength and understanding and He wanted you to rely and trust in Him. We must learn from our faults and failures so that next time we will experience victory in the supernatural, spiritual strength of God.

Pray

Lord, I know that I need Your help and Your strength. Comfort me with Your Holy Spirit and show me what to do next. Your ways and plans are much better than mine and I will follow Your lead.