Pastor’s February Message
Dear Friends and Family of Hilton Baptist Church,
How is your New Year’s Resolution working out? For most people, January 1st is an ideal time to start something new but I’ve heard it said that most people give up on their resolution after two weeks. If that’s true, then your New Year’s Resolution may have been tossed aside by the time you read this.
However, our faith teaches us that something new can be started at any moment on any day. After all the prophet Jeremiah reminds us “The Lord’s mercies are new every morning”. If His mercies are new every morning, then the opportunity for us to begin anew is also available every morning.
Nevertheless, sometimes we still need a date on the calendar to nudge us toward attempting something new. In just a few weeks, the calendar will give us the opportunity again as the season of Lent will begin. Many people take these forty days prior to Easter as a time to reflect, repent or practice a spiritual habit.
I would like to invite, encourage and challenge you to consider deepening your life of prayer during Lent. To help you with this, our focus on every Sunday morning throughout Lent will be on prayer.
In preparation for this journey, I would encourage you to find a book or a devotional on prayer that you can read daily starting on Ash Wednesday all the way through to Easter. This will help you to stay committed to prayer throughout the forty days of Lent. Here are some of my own suggestions in no particular order of importance. You can probably find most of these online or request them through a local bookstore.
Prayer – Philip Yancey
Beginning to Pray – Anthony Bloom
Approaching God – Steve Brown
Handle with Prayer – Charles Stanley
Doors Into Prayer – Emilie Griffin
Prayer: Finding the Hearts True Home – Richard Foster
(The following are still on my bookshelf waiting to be read but look interesting)
The Only Necessary Thing – Henri Nouwen
Flee-Be Silent-Pray – Ed Cyzewski
Draw the Circle. The 40 Day Prayer Challenge – Mark Batterson
When it comes to prayer, we are always beginners because there is always something new to learn and to explore. Even “Prayer Warriors” need to keep themselves in shape or else they become lazy and flab.
I sincerely hope you will consider taking this season of Lent as an opportunity to pray deeper. May our Lord be pleased with our efforts; may our church be blessed so that we might be a blessing to others and may your own soul experience and encounter Christ in new and meaningful ways.
Be Still,
Dan
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