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W ORSHIP J OINU S in
from 02.08.23 issue
THIS WEEK’S
Bible Baptist Church
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45 S. Ninth Street Akron, PA 17501 717-859-1303
Experiencing God - Bible Based
Family Focused - Christ Centered
Pastor Dan Krall
491 Peach Rd., Ephrata
717-733-2526 www.ephratabfc.com
Sunday School: 9:30am
Church Service: 10:30am
Wed. Youth Groups: 6:45pm
Wed. AWANA: 7:00pm
Wed. Prayer Meeting: 7:15pm
St. Paul’s UCC
133 Church Street Bowmansville
717-445-6256
Pastor Phil Shober
Sunday Worship 10:30am
In-Person & on Sunday School & Nursery Available
Men’s & Women’s Bible Studies
Pastor Ken Williamson
Second Wednesday of the Month, 7pm Home of “Grace House Blessings” www.stpaulsuccchurch.org in the flesh and see little need to pray. Prayer is not about us trying to get God to do something He doesn’t want to do, that isn’t going to happen. Prayer is about us being willing to accept and do what God desires for our life. As we said last week, in this context, one great purpose of prayer is the enablement and determination to do the will of God no matter what the cost. Obviously there is so much more to prayer, but we must stay close to the context.
The last part of our verse states: “The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.” Between a willing spirit and the weakness of the flesh is where we find our battle.
The Holy Spirit draws us to prayer and even our own spirit moves us to pray but we are in a daily war, the war between the flesh and the spirit. The Bible says, “For the flesh sets its desires against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other; so that you cannot do the things that you would.” (Galatians 5:17) Often we find our prayer life to be of little importance. In Mark 4:19 the Bible describes how the world’s influence will derail God’s word in a person’s life; “the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desire for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.”
Liberty Baptist
47 Cindia Lane, Ephrata 717-733-0396
Pastor Jim Taylor
Assoc. Pastor Keith MacDougall
Old Hymns - KJV
Traditional Services
Sunday School 9:30 AM
Sun. Worship 10:30 AM & 6:00 PM
Wed. Prayer Meeting 7:00 PM
Thurs. Bible Study 1:00 PM
Independent - Fundamental Soul Winning
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These same three pressures will diminish our prayer life as well.
There is one verse that offers clear directions on at least one way to gain control over the flesh in our lives and that is: Romans 13:14Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and “make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the desires thereof.” As we relinquish control of our life to Christ, the flesh will have less influence. The last portion of the verse is our focus: “make no provision for the flesh” to gain control in our prayer life. The flesh says I am too tired to pray. Pray when you aren’t tired. Choose good times to pray. Pray that we make prayer a priority. The flesh breeds self reliance as Peter said, “I will never deny you,” in other words… I got this. He yielded to the temptation of fear and denied the Lord because he didn’t pray. The only way to head off temptation is to stay prayed up. We cannot, cannot, cannot live the Christian life by the flesh. The command is clear; watch and pray We don’t want to enter into temptation, it is far better to