THE HERALDS DEVOTIONAL

WHEN SCRIPTURE BECOMES YOUR PRAYER PART 3: PRAYER — RESPONDING TO THE BLUEPRINT 1 John 5:14 (NIV) “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.”   In the first two parts, we established two important things. Scripture is God's written message. And Scripture is like God's blueprint. But now comes the practical question: What do we do with the blueprint when we pray? The answer is simple: We respond to it.  Think about receiving a letter from someone you love. You read the letter, and the person tells you something important. Maybe they say, “ I will be coming to see you.”  You don't read the letter and simply put it away. You respond. You might say: “ I'm looking forward to seeing you.” Or: “ Thank you for letting me know .” The message came from them, but your response comes from you. That is one way to understand prayer. God speaks through His Word, and prayer is our response to what He h...

WHEN SCRIPTURE BECOMES YOUR PRAYER PART 2: SCRIPTURE — GOD'S BLUEPRINT PSALM 119:105 (NIV) “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.”   In Part 1, we established something important: Scripture is God's written message. But if Scripture is God's message, what does that mean for the way we live and pray? Let me give you a simple picture. Imagine that you want to build a house. You have the land. You have the building materials. You have the workers. You have the money. But there is one problem.  There is no blueprint. Everyone is ready to work, but nobody knows exactly what the architect has in mind. One person says, “ Let's put the kitchen here .” Another says, “ No, let's put it over there.” Someone else says, “I think the bedroom should be bigger.” Everybody has an opinion. And eventually, you may end up with a building, but it may not be the building the architect intended. That is why the blueprint matters. The blueprint gives the bui...

WHEN SCRIPTURE BECOMES YOUR PRAYER PART 1: SCRIPTURE — GOD'S WRITTEN MESSAGE 2 TIMOTHY 3:16–17 (NIV) “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.”   Have you ever thought about what the word Scripture actually means? We use the word all the time. We say, “The Scripture says…” We say, “Let's read some Scripture.” We say, “Let's pray with Scripture.” But what exactly is Scripture? Let me put it in the simplest way possible. A script is a written message prepared by an author to be spoken or acted out. An actor receives a script, studies it, understands what the writer is saying, and then speaks the words. The actor doesn't create the story. The actor doesn't change the author's message because he doesn't like it. He receives what has been written and communicates it. Now, Scripture is not a theatrical script. But the analogy helps us understand something important. Scripture is...

WHAT ARE YOU FEEDING THE NEXT GENERATION? PART 7: WHAT WILL THE NEXT GENERATION RECEIVE FROM YOU? Psalm 78:4 (NLT) “We will not hide these truths from our children but will tell the next generation about the glorious deeds of the LORD, about his power and his mighty wonders.” THE FINAL LAP We have come to the final part of this journey. It started with a simple question. A question that came from watching a mother feed her newborn child. A question about breast milk. A question about nourishment. A question about what one generation receives from another. But that simple question became much bigger: WHAT ARE YOU FEEDING THE NEXT GENERATION? We discovered that this question is not only about food. It is about life. It is about what we consume. What we allow inside us. What we process. What we produce. What flows from us. What we pass on. And the example we leave behind. Now we arrive at the final question: What Will The Next Generation Receive From You? SOMETHING WILL BE L...

WHAT ARE YOU FEEDING THE NEXT GENERATION? PART 6: THE POWER OF EXAMPLE 1 Corinthians 11:1 (NLT) “And you should imitate me, just as I imitate Christ.” In Part 1, we asked: WHAT ARE YOU FEEDING YOURSELF? In Part 2: WHAT HAPPENS INSIDE YOU? In Part 3: WHAT IS FLOWING OUT OF YOU? In Part 4: WHAT ARE YOU PRODUCING? In Part 5: WHAT ARE YOU PASSING ON? We discovered that every generation receives something from the generation before it. We also learned that we do not only pass things on through our words. We pass things on through our values, habits, attitudes, decisions and examples. Today, we take another step deeper: THE POWER OF EXAMPLE. Because sometimes the loudest message you give is not what you say. It is what you do. PEOPLE ARE WATCHING Whether you realize it or not, someone is watching you. Your children may be watching. Your spouse may be watching. Your younger siblings may be watching. Your church members may be watching. Your students may be watching....