Prayer Request
PG Vargis
Dear friends,
I hope you are enjoying the messages we send you every day. I have a prayer request. Lilly and I are going on a Bible study tour of the Holy Land – starting this night and we will be back on 11th December. There are 90 people in our team. We will be in Jordan for a day, 9 days in Israel and two days in Egypt. Some are young and most are aged. Pray for us that we will be safe, no accident and no sickness. I have to give spiritual message at each spot after the government approved guide will give his explanation of that place. Pray that everyone will return with rich experience and they may see the invisible Jesus-
His birth place, His baptism place, His miracle places, last supper room, Gethsemane. Where Jesus was beaten, court room Pilate, the dungeon where Jesus spent the night, the road Jesus walked with the Cross, Golgotha, the Tomb, place from where Jesus went up to heaven as disciples watched, the upper room.
Pray that they may meet Jesus again and again in their spirit and the effect of the encounter may last for life
Thank you. Now the message:
Mathew 14:13.When Jesus heard what had happened to John, he left in a boat and went to a lonely place by himself. But the crowds heard about it and followed him on foot from the towns. 14 When he arrived, he saw a great crowd waiting. He felt sorry for them and healed those who were sick.
Then Jesus fed 5000 people.
Jesus had just learned from His disciples that His cousin John the Baptist was beheaded, and Jesus wanted to be by Himself, alone and pray or talk to the Father in heaven. People heard that Jesus was in town, and they followed Him at a considerable distance, to see Him heal the sick. Jesus did not disappoint them. He healed all those who came to Him.
Jesus did not neglect their needs, nor did He sacrifice His time with the Father. He balanced both activities. (First – meeting the need of people. Then spending time with the Father in prayer.
We must also learn to balance both – our work and prayer.
First our work. Then prayer.
I learned from Jesus that I, as a minister of the Lord Jesus Christ, must give priority to the needs of the people. That is my work. That is the work God entrusted to me. I am a servant of God to serve the people.
Once I was in a large crusade. An angry young man came to me on the third day as I was entering the auditorium which was fully packed. He asked me, “Why are you preaching about prosperity, healing and blessing only. Why don’t you talk about suffering? You are trying to comfort the people with messages of blessings but not trying to tell them that they must expect hardship and suffering. Look at the people coming to you. They all are coming for material blessing and healing. Only one or two are coming for spiritual blessings. It must be the opposite.” I said a one second prayer to God to give me the right wordings. I replied, “Look at Jesus in the 4 gospels. All those who came to Him were sick, oppressed and demon possessed. Only a few very few came to Him for spiritual blessings. Look into the Bible. It talks about the miracles Jesus did more than the message of paying the price. I also do the same. That is my call. I try to help the people with the right message. I don’t stop there. You hear my message – you can see that I talk about the true discipleship and the price one has to pay if he has to pay it.”
In our story, Jesus once finished his help ministry. Then, the Bible says “Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd.” (Matthew 14:22 NIV)
This verse portrays a confident Jesus though he was heartbroken with pain. He was proactive. This is the Jesus we run to when we are in need.
This is the same Jesus depicted in Philippians 4:13. The Scripture states “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” It does not say I can do all things based on the strength and abilities inside me. NO.
Our confidence should be in Him above, instead of ourselves. Jesus comes to our aid, regardless of how we feel, or how many mistakes we have made. He is available to us, when we put our faith and trust in Him.
I am not saying that we must be happy in our mistakes and weaknesses. No. Even in the last night family prayer, I prayed, “Lord I am 75. Help me to improve. Help me to get rid of my mistakes, get rid of my bad temper, get rid of my negative thoughts though it is only 1%. Help me to be filled with your love. Help me to come clean of my weakness and bad habits and all negative things I have in my life. Help me to improve.”
My dear friend, become a better wife, better husband, better son, better daughter, better pastor, better office worker, better believer – bettering all the time in every area of our life.
God is there to help us. Cry unto Him. Have a strong desire to improve. Work on it. Trust in the Holy Spirit who is our helper. He will help.
Can we pray: Lord, I rely on Your strength today, to help me make the right decisions and to move beyond my emotions? Help me to be a better person, a better believer. I place my confidence in You, my Father. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.
pg vargis