“But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you; and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” Acts 1:8

The words of Acts 1:8 were spoken by Christ. We don’t find the word maybe or perhaps so this shouldn’t be optional to us. In the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20, He even included a promise to be with us as we carry out His plan. We look around and see the sin and indifference in the world. We are no longer bold in our witness so we avoid sharing the good news of the gospel or what God has done in our lives. When we were first saved we couldn’t wait to share our experience with anyone who would listen. We had a joy in our hearts we couldn’t and wouldn’t contain. Now we almost deny His existence by what little we say around the unsaved.

Not all are called to travel to foreign lands with the gospel, but we have a responsibility to win that foreign neighbor who may live right next door to us. We must be willing to give, pray, or go that people all over the world will be saved before it’s eternally too late. We may try to take the attitude of “why bother?” If someone had not shared with us the verse, “how shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation,” where would we be?

PRAY TOGETHER: Policemen and firemen need our encouragement and prayers as they protect us.

“Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.” Hebrews 10:25

Neglect for God’s house is seen in all the empty pews from week to week. It’s one thing when we neglect Bible study and prayer, but, unfortunately, that usually leads to forsaking church. We may stop attending Sunday night or Wednesday night or both. We begin to think it’s not necessary to be in church every time the doors are open. We never thought that would happen because we used to love to go to church and be with God’s people. What changed? It sure wasn’t an unchanging God. Our areas of neglect have changed us and maybe we don’t realize it. We started out not neglecting God’s plan of salvation. Our zeal and desire to please God were strong. Now we have removed some spiritual priorities and wonder what is going wrong in our Christian life?

We need to think of church as our spiritual filling station. We go and we worship but we take home with us the Word of God we heard preached and the edification of fellow believers. All of this fills our spiritual “tank” so we can travel life’s road another week no matter what we face. The world offers no other place for this to happen, so let us ‘forsake not the assembling of ourselves together.’

PRAY TOGETHER: Pray for safety of denominational leaders as they travel.

“Seek ye the Lord while He may be found, call ye upon Him while He is near.” Isaiah 55:6

The companion to Bible study is prayer. Though we understand the importance of prayer and Bible study, they may be the first things we may abandon when the battles of life become too heated. This kind of neglect is steering us away from God. This doesn’t happen overnight and with each passing day we omit these from our lives, we grow spiritually weak. We feel our prayers aren’t being answered when we do pray, but we won’t admit our failure to maintain close fellowship with God. If we seek the Lord daily when crisis hits we won’t have to go looking for Him. He offers mercy, peace, joy, and hope to all who diligently seek Him. Don’t neglect prayer time; God wants to hear from us.

Sue Winchester
Missouri

PRAY TOGETHER:  Remember Marjorie Workman in her final year of leadership.

“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” 2 Timothy 2:15

Dust should not collect on our Bible. Once we are saved we should have the desire to learn and understand more about Christ. Reading and studying God’s Word is God conversing with us. He can teach us His truths if we set aside time to spend in His Word. We are a work in progress and if we forget our dependence on Him, we are setting ourselves up for defeat. He knows everything about us, but He wants to commune with us. It’s only reasonable as He is our greatest Friend. How long would we have friends if we never spent time with them?

Time alone with God is never wasted. If something is lacking in our walk with God, maybe we could trace it to how little time we spend in the Word.

Sue Winchester
Missouri

PRAY TOGETHER:  Our President and national leaders need a special anointing of prayer to lead our nation.

“How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation . . .” Hebrews 2:3a

The worst kind of neglect is to disregard the opportunity to be saved. Many think there is plenty of time to accept Christ. There will be a rude awakening if Christ comes back before a decision is made. Jesus paid an extreme price for our soul. While there is time and opportunity we should not neglect this tremendous gift of God. There are other things in life we may tend to be careless with, but salvation should never be taken lightly. Once we give our heart to Jesus, we will find there are areas we will not want to neglect lest we fall away from God.

Sue Winchester
Missouri

PRAY TOGETHER:  Home missionaries need funds and manpower for building repairs.

Abound in hope. There is hope, joy and peace in knowing Christ. When the entire world around is falling apart, we who know the Christ can abound in hope. We can stand firm and rock solid, through the power of the Holy Spirit. “Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.” (Romans 15:13) There is much power to be had in believing in the power of the Holy Ghost. We can do nothing without Him. We are poor, miserable, hopeless people wandering lost and undone. But, WITH Christ we abound in hope!

The Christian has love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, meekness, temperance, and faith through the fruit of the Spirit. If you have the Spirit you have all these. You don’t have to pray for patience; you can wait because of His power; you have self-control at your fingertips. Just take it and apply it to your circumstance. Go and do what you need to do by faith. The Holy Spirit is here to give you hope and peace.Have faith in God and believe what he says. Take Him at His Word. There is hope.

Tammy Miller
South Carolina

PRAY TOGETHER:  “Together in the Word” is so important. Bathe these studies in prayer.

“So that we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.” (Hebrews 13:6) 

Praise the Lord! With the Lord’s help we can be victorious over fear. Many of our fears stem from what others think about us or do to us. “Boldly” I say unto my sisters, the Lord will keep His promises to us and that we do not have to fear. We can be the Christian God wants us to be and not fear what others think about us or do to us to hinder our spiritual lives. Praise the Lord, “the Lord is my helper.” 

LaCrecia McFaddin