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Prayer Strategy #8 – Pressures

Step 1. Watch This Week’s Video by Priscilla

Step 2. Review the Lesson Below

Step 3. Join the Group Discussion

Join Us in Person – Join our group discussion on the first and Third Thursday of every month July 18th through Dec 5th from 7:30 am to 9:00 am CT at:

Salem United Methodist
1200 S Lindbergh Blvd.
St. Louis, MO 63131

Join Us Virtually – Join our group discussion on the first and Third Thursday of every month July 18th through Dec 5th from 11:00 am to 12:00 pm CT via Zoom video conference call.

Not every good thing is a God thing. We can use decrement to know when God is asking us to do something and when He is not. 

Key Scriptures: Exodus 20:9-10,  Genesis 2:2-3, Ex 16:27-30, Galatians 5:1 ESV

We must observe the Sabbath and learn to rest if we are to experience true freedom and escape the slavery that comes from busyness and overwhelm. 

“If I were your enemy, I’d make everything seem urgent, as if it’s all yours to handle. I’d bog down your calendar with so many expectations you couldn’t tell the difference between what’s so important and what’s not. Going and doing, guilty for ever saying no, trying to control it all, but just being controlled by it all instead… If I could keep you busy enough, you’d be too overwhelmed to even realize how much work you’re actually saving me. ”

— Fervent By Priscilla Shirer

Key Points:

“You don’t need to keep pushing, rushing, gathering, hustling. You’ve already received approval from the only One whose approval really matters. He has stamped His value on you, and that is enough. Even the activities He gives you to steward are not given to see how many balls you can juggle, but instead so you can participate with Him in staking a kingdom claim on the patches of ground where you live. ”

— Fervent By Priscilla Shirer

Remember the Sabbath Day. The Sabbath means to cease, rest, be completed.

God not only commanded the Israelites to rest, cease from work, but He demonstrated the importance of rest  when He rested after the creation.

Rest was such a foreign concept to the Israelites because they were so used to being enslaved in busyness they actually disregarded God’s command to rest.

We are like the Israelites in that we get so used to being busy, we don’t know how to stop and rest. It feels foreign to us.

We have become slaves to saying “yes”; we don’t feel like we have the freedom to say “no”.

But, the Bible says we have been set free!

 

Group Discussion Questions:

  • What “good” things in your life might not be GOD things?
  • Are there any pressures that leave you feeling empty?
  • Are there commitments that you need to say NO to instead of YES?

 

Prayer Strategy

Write Your Prayer: Use your prayer cards and write a prayer asking God to help you deal with your pressures!

Here are some scriptures you might consider adding into your prayer strategy for your pressures:         

  • I am at rest in God alone; my salvation comes from Him. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold; I will never be shaken.  Psalm 62:1-2, HCSB
  • You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.  John 8:32
  • Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you.  Matthew 6:33, HCSB
  • Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart.  Psalm 37:4
  • You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out of there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to observe the sabbath day.  Deuteronomy 5:15
  • He is not impressed by the strength of a horse; He does not value the power of man. The Lord values those who fear Him, those who put their hope in His faithful love.  Psalm 147:10-11, HCSB