Summerfest - 5 Day Reading PlanSample

DAY 1 - THE POWER OF PRAYER
by Amanda Stanmore (Young Adults Pastor - Hills Campus)

Do you have someone in your life that has a case of “selective hearing”?

It could be someone you live with, a close friend, a family member… sometimes my husband Rob has a case of it, maybe if I’m honest I do too.

Selective hearing is listening for what you want to hear, and ignoring what you don’t want to hear. It could look like ignoring the fuel warning light on your car dashboard when you are in a rush, or maybe it could be when you lose focus in a uni lecture and your lecturer says “This content will be covered in your exam” so you start taking notes frantically. 

The truth is, we have relationship with a God that does not have selective hearing. He hears us.

I love in the passage we read today, 1 John 5:14, it says:

“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.”

The beauty of our relationship with God is that he doesn’t just hear what he wants to hear, but his ear is attentive and ready to hear the smallest of requests to the largest of petitions.

I feel sometimes we can approach God with a lack of confidence when we think of prayer. The feeling of being burdensome or uncertain if God will or wants to answer our prayer.

I want to encourage you today that you can approach God confidently today with your prayers because you are speaking to a generous Father in heaven who has every desire to love us and give us his best according to His will.

As we approach Summerfest, I want to encourage you to voice the worries of your heart through prayer. He hears you & is attentive to your heart’s condition. I believe God is going to do something afresh in your heart within these moments.

Questions:

1. What is one thing that you are worrying about that you can start praying about
2. If God answered all your prayers today, would they change the world around you? Or just your world? How can you pray for the world today?
3. What are you praying and believing for Summerfest this year?

Prayer:

Dear God, Thank you that you hear me and care about the details of my life. Today I am worried about ________ and I choose to leave it in your hands, knowing that you will help me and see me through it. I pray that your peace that surpasses all understanding will guard my heart and my mind. In Jesus name. Amen.