Furaha Sports Access Teams considering practice drills (regime)

How do you start your day?

Do you have any routines?

What other habits do you favour?


On Saturday 02nd June at Little down, Furaha Sports Access teams where considering the subject of good Christian (spiritual) habits and routines.

Our routines and habits deliver for us the results we see in our lives….

Key verse; Is 40: 27-31

Why do you say, O Jacob, and complain, O Israel, "My way is hidden from the LORD; my cause is disregarded by my God"? ;…

Have you not known'? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary-, and his understanding no-one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. …

"Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; 'but those who wait upon (trust in) the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

The most important Devotions.

The most important part of your life is the part that only God sees. As Christians the Bible teaches of many devotions that reflect this statement. Members at the Furaha Sports fellowship considered some of them; Prayer, Bible study, evangelism, attending church & fellowship, giving & tithing and various other attitudes for different situations and relationships. What does this say about how we start our day? Start your day with your personal devotional time with the Lord—that daily discipline of meditation, examination, and intercession that is absolutely essential to Christian service.

There is a lot of devotion to various habits and routines but devotion to the Word of God and prayer will give us the strength and balance needed in our lives to walk/ live as Christian. This approach may not be pop­ular, but it's biblical—and it works, just as you can not walk without balance, it takes both the Word of God and prayer to make balanced Christians and to build a balanced life. You cannot live with out these as a Christian. As we study the Scriptures, we learn what God is like, what God wants done, and how God wants to help us do it. We dis­cover our spiritual riches in Christ and the resources available as we wait upon him in prayer.

At the Furaha Sports meeting more than one of those Christians who attended confessed the absence of a disciplined and satisfying devotional life. The busier we are, the easier it is to leave God out of our work even though we know that Jesus said "apart from me you can do nothing" [John 15:5]. We discovered the believer that ignores the Word of God and prayer is living on substitutes, or perhaps we should say spiritually dying (not effective) on substitutes, no matter how alive he or she appears to be.

Also because all of us have our likes and dislikes, our strengths and weaknesses, we're prone to emphasize what we enjoy most and do best (prayer or the word). Unfortunately, this produces an unbalanced Christian lives. Ideally, both prayer and study of the word should be pursued in equal measures. Remember the Scriptures command it and the lives of God's teemed servants commend it.

That's why Paul blessed the Ephesian elders thus: "And now, brethren, I commend you to God [prayer], and to the word of his grace [the Word], which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them who are sanctified" [Acts 20:32].

Being effective!

If we indulge in theology but not put it into practice is to be guilty of faith without works. On the other hand, to seek to obey the Word without praying for God's help is to be guilty of arrogance, for without Christ, we can do noth­ing. Prayerlessness doesn't simply make us weak or handi­capped so that our ministry is difficult. Lack of prayer para­lyzes us so that we're not able to do anything that will produce lasting fruit to the glory of God.

The better we understand God's Word, the better we're able to pray; the more we pray, the more the Holy Spirit can teach us from the Word and help us obey it. According to Romans 10:17, our faith should grow as we increase our understanding of the Scriptures and according to John 7:17, the more we obey God's Word by faith, the better we'll understand his truth. Studying the Word for truth and praying to God for blessing

Jesus promised, "If you abide in me, and my words abide in you [that's the Word of God], you will ask what you desire [that's prayer], and it shall be done for you" [John 15:7]. Our Lord practiced what he preached by spending the early hours of the day in prayer and then going from place to place teaching the Word [Mark 1:35-39].

The Holy Spirit has chosen to work in our lives and in his church by means of the Word of God and prayer, and for us to substitute anything else means disobeying God, grieving the Spirit, and missing the blessings God has for his people.

Because the Word of God is living and powerful, wonderful things can happen when we share it with others, whether we minister as preachers, teachers, counselors, or witnesses. "Thy commandment is exceedingly broad" [Ps. 119:96] and can meet the many needs of all kinds of people.

When we share the Word, it's like bringing light in the dark­ness [Ps. 119:130; 2 Cor. 4:6], planting seed [Luke 8:11], cleans­ing with pure water [John 15:3; Eph. 5:26], dispensing healing medicine [Ps. 107:20], serving nourishing food [Matt. 4:4; 1 Cor, 3:1—3; 1 Peter 2:2], wielding a powerful sword [Eph. 6:17; Heb. 4:12], and investing spiritual wealth [2 Tim. 2:2]. According to [psalm 119], God's Word can give guidance to the perplexed (v. 105), victory to the tempted (v. 11), joy to the discouraged [vv. 14, 111, 162], encouragement to the hopeless [v. 49], peace to the troubled [v. 165], freedom to the bound [vv. 45, 133], new life to the defeated [vv. 25, 37, 40, 88], and much more.

Our speaking words into the air may seem like a futile activ­ity because the sounds vanish so quickly, but God's promise is, "I am watching to see that my word is fulfilled" (Jer. 1:12). No word of God is ever lost or fails to fulfill its divine purpose. "So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth: it will not return to empty, but will accomplish what I desire, and achieve the 'purpose for which I sent it" (Isa. 55:11).

'Practising' the presence of the Lord

Victorious, Protected and Rested!

[Ps 145:18] 'the lord is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth.' [Ps 91:14-16] ' Because he cleaves to me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows my name. When he calls to me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will rescue him and honour him. With long life I will satisfy him, and show him my salvation.'

This scripture now brings us even closer to the Lord, for when we find the presence of God the devil can no longer find us and therefore no harm can come to us for we are in His presence. God's presence surrounds you and me and protects us as in [Psalm 91:3–5]: 'For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence; he will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler. You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday.'

It is in devotion to prayer and the word that we can also come to know God more and more. As He trusts you and me, He will allow us closer, even as one allows a friend they trust closer to them. See what Moses said; 'Now therefore, I pray thee, if I have found favour in thy sight, show me now thy ways, that I may know thee and find favour in thy sight. Consider too that this nation is thy people." And he said, "My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest."' (Exodus 33:13-44) Here in prayer Moses is asking God that he may know Him more, in a closer connection, a higher level, a deeper relationship. It was a longing of Moses' heart to know Him more (prayer) and to be pleasing to God (obey his word). Then God said, 'Moses my presence will go with you and I will give you rest.'

This promise of God's presence going with us is wonderful for not only do we come into His presence in prayer, but His presence now stays with us and goes with us wherever we go. This in itself gives us a rest,

Our only, and important, preparation is prayer and waiting on God for His presence to fill us to flowing, for serving God is not a project but an overflow Waiting on God produces the overflow. If we read Exodus 33 from verse 15 we read what Moses said to the Lord: 'And he said to him, "It thy presence will not go with us do-not carry us up from here. For how shall it be known that we have found favour in thy sight, I and thy people? Is it not with thy going with us, so that we are distinct, I and thy people from all other people that are upon the face of the earth; [Exodus 33:1 ]We must always draw near to God, then He will draw near to us. It is then that [Isaiah 65:24] comes true: before they call I will answer, while they are yet speaking I will hear. If His presence does not go with us, we will not be effective a Christians. We ought to walk, distinct in Christ, different from other people because His presence goes with us. We therefore have to put God first and nothing must replace God, our hearts must be 100%, His. If anything else, or any sin comes in, our walk with God then the enemy can then come to defeat us.

Prayer

Starting and continuing our day in prayer in seeking God's face achieves this; [Prov4:18] the path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining ever brighter till the full light of day. But the way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know what makes them stumble.

Oh LORD, we wait for thee; thy memorial name is the desire of our soul. my soul yearns for thee in the night, my spirit within me earnestly seeks thee.' [Isaiah 26:8—9]

The Message

The apostles knew what worked and that God could bless the use of His word. That's why they said, "But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word" [Acts 6:4]. This needs to be our affirmation of faith as well. We must maintain that spiritual posture throughout the day and "abide under the shadow of the Almighty" [Ps. 91:1] so that we may carry the fragrance of the Lord with us all day.

Finally let us consider it as our assigned task and stick to it; that of prayer and speaking God's Word." We start with our own example, for God knows that we can't exhort others to do what we aren't doing ourselves. Once our own devotional life is healthy, then we can start encouraging people to pray individually, in our/ their family devotions, and in the various groups that make up the church family. For he has ordained that his house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations [Mark 11:17]!

Now we have the coach's plan for our training and practice regime and it starts with trust in the Lord..daily!