CONCERT OF PRAYER

Pray Week 714

“Minimum”

Isaiah 43:23 (The Message) But you didn’t even do the minimum—so stingy with me, so closefisted.
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The road sign reads ‘SPEED LIMIT 70’. There is a smaller sign beneath that reads ‘MINIMUM SPEED 45’. How many of us set our cruise speed at the minimum speed? In contrast how many of us set our cruising speed beyond the maximum? Why is it then that we default to the minimum in so many other areas of our lives?

WORK – … don’t just do the minimum that will get you by. Do your best. Work from the heart for your real Master, for God, confident that you’ll get paid in full when you come into your inheritance. – Colossians 3:22 (The Message) Two employees walk by the wadded paper on the floor of the showroom. One ignores it – It’s not their job – and the other picks it up and puts it in the trash can even though it is not their job either. Is your ‘work cruise’ set at the minimum or do you give your best effort, going above and beyond what is required on your own initiative without being asked?

CHURCH – “But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb, and neglect justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.- Luke 11:42 Do you calculate your tithe to the penny? Do you base it on your gross income or is your first offering to the government, retirement, and pre-tax benefits? Do you serve in your church using your God-given gifts and talents or do you feel you do not need to since you have paid your ‘membership dues’ (tithes)? Is your attendance and participation in your local church body part of a perceived ‘minimum set of requirements’ for being a Christian?

MARRIAGE – Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her – Eph 5:25 When courting you gave the maximum effort to win your spouse’s heart. Now that you are married do you take your spouse for granted? Has your spouse been reduced to one of your life possessions – just part of your collection of stuff? Do you put forth the minimum to maintain your marital relationship?

SERVING – What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works – James 2:14 It is by faith and faith alone that we are saved to eternal life with Jesus Christ. It is that same faith, if genuine, that activates your work done to the glory of God as you serve others in Jesus’ Name.

Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. – Phil 2:4

You say that you are willing to die for your faith in Jesus Christ. The real question for you now is “Are you willing to live for Him?” Jesus gave the maximum so that we may have eternal life through faith in Him. Can He have you to the max, or are you willing to apportion only the minimum to Him?

Close in prayer, thanksgiving & rededication of your work to the glory of God