Speaker 1: Most of us eat every day, some of us too
much because yesterday's food is not enough to supply energy
for today's needs. Why then, do some of us expect
yesterday's portion of heavenly manna, the word of God to
keep us through today's challenges. On this program, we are
going to change all of that. Let's experience God's words
today and receive the power we need to live healthy,
vibrant lives. Welcome to your Daily Portion with your host,
author speaker, Elle David Harris.
Speaker 2: Good morning, Good morning, Good morning. It is Wednesday, March eighteen,
twenty twenty six. Hello, my name is El David Harris.
I am your host, and this is your Daily Portion
where we give you God's Word every single day, and
today is no exception. We are continuing in our Lesson
study series uniting Heaven and Earth, christ in Philippians and Colossians,
and our caption for today is praying for one another.
Praying for one another. Before we get into that, I'd
like to just say welcome to everyone joining us, especially
those joining us for the very first time. I'm asking
you to please go over to your Daily Portion dot com.
Please join our online community. Will you pick up your
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us know where you are in the world at your
Daily Portion dot com. This is one of the ways
that we continue to build faith and fellowship. Let's pray. Father,
We thank you for giving us the opportunity to pray,
and I pray that we will we will keep keep
our brothers and sisters lifted. Please in Jesus' name, I pray,
Amen and Amen again praying for one another. The lesson
writer said some of the most important words. It's we
can say to someone who was struggling with issues of
various kinds, be they family, health, money, or something else,
is that I'm praying for you. Now, let me just
say what this is not like. Don't let that be
something that absolves you in your own mind of the
responsibility of being of service too. Like saying that I'm
praying for someone doesn't mean that I'm not going to
act on their behalf. That just means that I am
going to the one the only one that can truly
help is God, and I'm going to him for him
to give you the relief that you need. And if
God shows me how I can be a part of
the solution. Then by all means that too, okay, And
so it's not a cop out. Prayer is not a
way like saying I'm praying for you. Is not a
way for us to kind of say, okay, well, well
did that, so I don't have to do anything. Let
me know how it goes. M M. That's not it.
But now let's talk about what it is in this context.
We're going into the Bible book of Colossians, chapter four,
and we will read beginning at verse two Colossians chapter four,
and we are beginning at verse two, and the Bible says,
be devoted to prayer, keeping alert with thanksgiving. One of
the things that I say often is that when we
are talking to God and asking him for things, we're
asking for his will to be done, that we should
be spies, like we should be voyeurs, peeking into God's
windows to see when the very moment is that he
actions whatever it is that we've been praying about, whether
he says no and puts us in a position where
that thing ain't about to happen, or if he says
yes and we can see the movements there. In either case,
I want you to spy into the windows of God
and be the first one at the first moment that
He begins to act, to go in there and say
thank you. I want you to say thank you, like,
hurry up and get to the thank you part. Hurry
up and get to the gratitude part. I want you
to be the first ones to say thank you. Okay,
So we continue in prayer and watch unto Thanksgiving. At
the same time, pray for us too. So the Bible
writer the apostle is saying, pray for us too, that
God may open a door for the message, so that
we may proclaim the mystery of Christ for which I
am in Chaine. Of course, that had a specific application
to Paul in his current situation at the time. But
let me just say this. Let me say this, Hopefully
you are praying for me over here with your daily portion.
Hopefully you have it in your mind that you will continue,
that you will continue to pray because God is the
one that is in control, and that this Gospel of
the Kingdom must be preached for a witness, and then
and only then shall the income so continue to pray
for the spreading of the gospel. I just used your
daily portion as the example. But whatever it is that
you were doing in order to spread the Gospel, then
let that be your reality as well, that you pray
that the Gospel will be spread from your vantage point
as well. One of the ways that I knew that
the COVID nineteen crisis could not continue was because I
saw that even though there were some advances in technology
and the way that we would share the Gospel, some
lessons that we learned about how we could do things creatively,
I also could tell, besides the fact that so many
people were losing their lives, that it was an impediment
to the Gospel. Right. The pandemic was an impediment to
the Gospel and so many different ways. So I prayed,
and I knew that this had to end because it
was an impediment to the Gospel. The same with certain
kinds of paradigms in terms of how countries are ruled,
wherever there is an iron curtain where their politics are concerned,
or the rule of the governing bodies of a particular country,
like communism as an example, that is an impediment to
the Gospel. I remember that there were certain parts of
the Communist parts of the world where the Gospel could
not be preached in the way that we know it
should be preached. God brought those walls down, and even
the communist press of a particular place or region I'm
thinking of where beginning after that was over where God
broke those walls down. They were printing life giving, truth
filled literature on their used to be communistic press, you understand.
And so whatever is in the way, we pray that
God will open up the door and remove those barriers,
just like Paul preached, and he said, pray verse four,
that I may make it known, make what known the
mystery of Christ, make it known as I should. And
so when we are praying for one another, we are
praying yes for our well being. We are praying yes
for our success spiritually and practically. Yes, we are praying
for one another's safety, one another's health, one another having
wisdom in the things of God. But we also pray
that God will show us the pathway to success as
we spread the gospel of Jesus Christ, especially living in
the last days. And so we have just a quick
three lessons. Number One, prayer is persistent and watchful and grateful,
and that comes in from what we read in Colossians
for in verse to continue in prayer that's persistent, watchful,
well yeah, watch in the same yes, and grateful where
there's thanksgiving. So Paul presents prayer as an ongoing posture,
not an occasional response to some stimuli or maybe the
COVID crisis that I mentioned, or communism or whatever else
that's going on. The believer remains steady, the believer remains alert,
the believer remains thankful. Prayer stays active because God is active. Yes,
So when we're praying, we're speaking to God as to
a friend. And if God is active, then our praying
is active. Gratitude anchors prayer in trust rather than anxiety.
It's not always a desperate call. It can be at times.
Sometimes we are desperate, like Peter when he was drowning,
when he should have been buoyant and faithful, but he said, Lord,
save me, like I perish, like the do was drowning.
So sometimes there is that sort of emergency positioning. But
not only then. We should remain awake, remain spiritually alert,
remain steadfast, and connect it to God so that whatever
God is speaking in the moment, we're able to hear.
So prayer is a two way street. When we're praying
for others, when we're praying for ourselves, we are speaking
to God and also listening to whatever it is that
God has for us, and then we will do what
He says. By his grace. Continue to pray for one another,
especially in spreading the Gospel. Peace.
Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us listening. Friends. Always remember we cannot
live by bread alone, but by every word that comes
from the mouth of God. This has been your daily
portion with El David Harris. Make it a great day. Yeah,