Help from your church family

 

I know this doesn't always work, but it's a place to start if you require assistance. Your local church family may or may not have all of the resources to meet your needs, but maybe they can direct you to someone or somewhere that can help.
     We're blessed to have a loving, caring church family. We're also blessed to have several services set up specifically to minister to our church body or even to the surrounding communities. However, some of these ideas could be instigated in smaller churches as well:
- Meal Train: people volunteer to deliver a meal to people recovering from surgery or going through debilitating medical treatment. See mealtrain.com
- Counseling: a service normally provided by the pastor can be expanded by training other church members with tools to help them counsel those in need.
- Discipleship Groups: when a new believer comes to faith, it's important that they be discipled right away so that their new-found faith is made stronger with knowledge of what God's word says, what the church believes, etc. It's also important because we want new believers to become part of the church, serving, encouraging others, sharing their testimony. Today's converts could be tomorrow's church leaders.
- Physical Needs: money could be budgeted to help people who have trouble paying a bill or handling an emergency.
- Cards of Encouragement: our church has a list of people who would benefit from receiving a card once in a while. Maybe they're sick or grieving or lost their job, whatever the situation, it's a wonderful way to minister to those in need.
- Food Pantry: some churches partner together to stock a food pantry within the community.
- Transportation: members could volunteer to take people to doctor's appointments and/or run errands.

     The opportunities to serve are endless. If you have an idea for a way to meet a need, talk to your church leaders. If you have a need, talk to your church leaders. Either situation is a way to connect with your church family.
     If you are able, find a way to serve within your church. Everyone has the ability to do something, whether it's sending an encouraging text or card to someone who's going through a rough time, or making coffee on Sunday morning, or mowing the lawn, or being on the prayer chain. Of course, some tasks are harder than others. Some take more of a time commitment but find something you can do and be a part of the solution.

Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.

James 5:13-18 NKJV

You may also like:
-"Isolation"
-"Pray for the health of The Church"
-"Peter is the rock"

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Please join me this week in praying for those who need help but don't ask for it. Pray that they see the benefits of allowing others to help them. Pray that they have good experiences as a result of opening up to others. Pray that they are served by Christians who show Christ to them. Let's also pray for those who refuse to help, for whatever reason. Pray that God softens their hearts and minds, that he give them servants' hearts so that they may know the joy in working together as one body of Christ and the reward of knowing they are doing God's will.

I'll post daily reminders on:

twitter @7DegreesOfMe

Instagram @7DegreesOfMe
Pinterest Prayer Group #7thHourPrayerPower

Facebook group 7th Hour Prayer Power

#7thHourPrayerPower #bibleverse #bible #help #ask #need #churchfamily #serve #prayer #services #churchelders #assisance #church #servantsheart #hope #counseling

Jesus washed their feet

I can't even imagine our Lord and Savior kneeling on the floor washing my feet. The disciples must have been completely humbled by His actions. I know it humbles me. If Jesus can do this, I should be able to do anything and everything He calls me to do. There is no task beneath me.

So when He had washed their feet, taken His garments, and sat down again, He said to them, 

“Do you know what I have done to you? 

You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am. 

If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, 

you also ought to wash one another’s feet.

John 13:12-14

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This week we are praying for a servant's heart. I'll personally be asking God to quash my pride and fill me with the desire and opportunity to serve others. (Like I wrote previously if you pray for this be prepared for God to give you someone fairly quickly).

I'll post daily reminders on:

twitter @7DegreesOfMe

Instagram @archadia27

Facebook group 7th Hour Prayer Power

God loves a humble servant

Words aren't coming to me this week which is why I'm only posting the Bible Verses, but it just hit me that this is why. How we serve Christ and others is a personal matter between us, individually, and Him. We put ourselves last, serving all of those before us. In doing this, we can be among the first within the Kingdom of Heaven. It's a complicated lesson, to me at least, but the part about what we're doing here on Earth is very clear.

Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, 

“Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.”

Mark 9:35 NIV

I guess God gave me some words to write after all. :D

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This week we are praying for a servant's heart. I'll personally be asking God to quash my pride and fill me with the desire and opportunity to serve others. (Like I wrote previously if you pray for this be prepared for God to give you someone fairly quickly).

I'll post daily reminders on:

twitter @7DegreesOfMe

Instagram @archadia27

Facebook group 7th Hour Prayer Power

Love in deed

My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.

1 John 3:18 NKJV

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This week we are praying for a servant's heart. I'll personally be asking God to quash my pride and fill me with the desire and opportunity to serve others. (Like I wrote previously if you pray for this be prepared for God to give you someone fairly quickly).

I'll post daily reminders on:

twitter @7DegreesOfMe

Instagram @archadia27

Facebook group 7th Hour Prayer Power

Give

I have shown you in every way, by laboring like this, 

that you must support the weak. 

And remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He said, ‘

It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ”

Acts 20:35

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This week we are praying for a servant's heart. I'll personally be asking God to quash my pride and fill me with the desire and opportunity to serve others. (Like I wrote previously if you pray for this be prepared for God to give you someone fairly quickly).

I'll post daily reminders on:

twitter @7DegreesOfMe

Instagram @archadia27

Facebook group 7th Hour Prayer Power

Find your gift

Did you know that God gave you a gift chosen just for you? He gives each of His children a spiritual gift*, that allows us to spread the Good News and minister to others. I was so excited to learn this because I thought we were all supposed to be able (and comfortable with) going up to strangers and asking "Do you know Jesus?" (some people are able to do that - I am not). I felt like I was letting Jesus down; after all, look at what His disciples went through to spread the word.
     The parable of the talents finally made sense to me! (Matthew 25:14-30 and similarly Luke 19:11-27) Discover your gift and use it. If you ignore it (or bury it in the dirt) it's wasted. I'm sure there are tests online you can take to discover your gift, or you can pray for God to disclose it to you.**
     Last evening I gave my testimony on video in preparation for being baptized by immersion (I was previously baptized as a newborn and at the age of 16 by being sprinkled in the Methodist Church). I couldn't sleep all night worrying about how I came across (because I worry about sounding prideful), but I get really excited about what God has done in my life lately, and there's so much more I wanted to say but forgot. I must've talked for over 30 minutes as it was and Pastor Brian will somehow chop that down to 3-5 minutes, so what I forgot to say doesn't matter, but my point is it is so exciting to discover the ways that God has equipped me to serve others and I want to share that with everyone who'll listen! I just encourage you to find your gift and run with it. It will change your life!

As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

1 Peter 4:10-11

* For a list of spiritual gifts, check 1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12, Ephesians 4, 1 Peter 4.
**I recommend reading: Evangelism for the Rest of Us: Sharing Christ Within Your Personality Style by Mike Bechtle

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This week we are praying for a servant's heart. I'll personally be asking God to quash my pride and fill me with the desire and opportunity to serve others. (Like I wrote previously if you pray for this be prepared for God to give you someone fairly quickly).

I'll post daily reminders on:

twitter @7DegreesOfMe

Instagram @archadia27

Facebook group 7th Hour Prayer Power

Acquiring a servant's heart

I used to resist the idea of "serving" or "submitting" to others. I thought everyone should be strong and be able to take care of themselves and I expected the same of myself, but then I met this incredible woman, we'll call her Kitty. I said something about not liking where the bible tells us to submit to our husbands (Ephesians 5:22-23) or to anyone for that matter. She looked at me with disbelief. She said, "I consider it an honor and a privilege to serve Jesus." That cut me to the quick.
     In Ephesians, we're told to submit to (or honor or respect) our husbands and they are to love us because neither of these traits are fundamentally inherent in us. When we do this then, we are honoring Christ and the men are loving Christ.
     Jesus tells us flat out that when we care for someone, we're caring for Him (Matthew 25:31-40) and we will ultimately be judged for that.
     Kitty serves Jesus with everything she does. She is kind and loving and giving. With her one comment, she completely changed my attitude and my heart. It made me realize that my attitude was not only selfish, but a missed opportunity to serve the Lord and to spread His lovingkindness. Thank you, Kitty.

Bondservants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man, knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a bondservant or is free.

Ephesians 6:5-8 ESV

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This week we are praying for a servant's heart. I'll personally be asking God to quash my pride and fill me with the desire and opportunity to serve others. (Like I wrote previously if you pray for this be prepared for God to give you someone fairly quickly).

I'll post daily reminders on:

twitter @7DegreesOfMe

Instagram @archadia27

Facebook group 7th Hour Prayer Power