 Good morning everyone welcome to morning prayer so glad you're joining us on this Monday and here in Michigan it's a little frosty it's a little chilly outside but we're drawing near to the presence of the Lord in our heart just like John Wesley said is going to be strangely warmed by the goodness of God and so wherever you're at we just want to invite you right now to get your bibles get your journal your coffee whatever it is that's going to help you engage with the Lord let's shut off all the other voices and all the other distractions and let's draw near to the presence of the Lord and give them our full attention undistracted this morning I want to begin just by reading Psalm 71 David writes Psalm 71 says in you a Lord do I take refuge let me never be put to shame and in your righteousness deliver me and rescue me incline your ear to me and save me be to me a rock of refuge to which I continually come you have given the command to save me for you are my rock and my fortress this is the promise of all the saints and God is our safe place he's our refuge our deliverer he's the God who never takes his eye off of us and when we put our eyes on him we're not trying to get his attention trying to steer his face towards us he's already looking at us because he's super intense over our lives and he loves us as a father loves a child so when we put our eyes on him there's this moment of lock that takes place our heart gets locked in with his heart and that's where worship becomes a reality that intersection where our praise touches his heart and his words become stones that build up a refuge around us a wall of fire that the enemy and his lies cannot penetrate so this is why Jesus tells us to run to the secret place to run to the place where the father's waiting for us it's in that place that we find his heart and we find our safety and our refuge and our deliverance so this morning I just want to encourage you we're going to begin as we often do with just worship we're going to minister to the Lord first before we do anything else for no other reason than just he's worthy and we're going to worship him and exalt him praise him by the way it's one of the most counter cultural things that you can do in a world obsessed with self to take your eyes off of you and what you want and what you're trying to get and to just give yourself fully to the one that you can't even see but you believe is there that you know sees you and as we minister to the Lord this morning he's going to minister at peace and joy and protection and refuge over us as well so let's go before him right where you're at let's just open up our hearts and our hands before him and we say father here we are to love you and minister to you we say and we even command our soul to bless the Lord oh my soul and all that is within me bless his holy name for you have done great things you are our rock and our fortress you have been in our refuge in many generations the tower that we run to the stronghold of our soul Lord today would you hear Thanksgiving overflow out of our lives and would you throw open the gates so that we might have access to you and to your heart we want to know your heart we want to know what you're thinking what you're feeling and we want you to hear praise rise up out of us that blesses you in a way that only us the redeemed can offer it to you so Lord let this be a divine crossroads and intersection this morning an altar where we meet with you and we bless your holy name majesty you are of the majesty by the sound and strength none in wisdom none in knowledge none in power splendor and magnificence majesty we exult your name we join with saints we join with the angelic beings and the seraphim and the cherubim you never grow tired never grow weary for claiming holy god you are holy you're other than you're different eternal almighty you have no rival there's nothing there's no one compares you dwell in irreproachable light surrounded emerald rainbows and a sea of glass before you holiness majesty emanate from who you are you're not a small god you're not like us you're not made in our image but lord we bow before you because we find ourselves in our image in you everything comes from you flows through you it was made for you the unfathomable riches who you are god stand we never want to move so quickly reality klesiast he says do not be in a hurry to leave the presence of a king lord we don't want to be in a hurry to move beyond who you are and to proclaim that that to you we never want to be in a hurry or become familiar we always want to be caught off guard come on just wherever you're at just tell them these holy just join in with the echo of the angels say look with me in first peter chapter one beginning in verse number seven says so that the tested genuineness of your faith more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of jesus christ though you have not seen him you love him and though you do not now see him you believe in him and you rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory obtaining the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls so much of the new testament is focused around going through the challenges and trials and difficulties and trusting that in the midst of it god is working and god is refining us as pure gold so that we might be found ready for him when he returns and walking by faith and so this morning we're going to be praying for god to give us grace and endurance in the midst of fiery trials and difficult situations we're also going to ask the lord as we intercede through this and other passages that the lord would give us greater faith to be able to walk by faith even though we don't see him to grow deeper and stronger in love and intimacy with him so father today we do we call upon you the god who is always with us and the god who never forsakes us the lord we're standing on your word and all the promises that you've given to us that you said even when we go through testing lord that it will not destroy us but it will actually refine us and so many of us find ourselves continually in the crucible where the flame has been turned up hot and the trials and the difficulties that we face following jesus feels as if at times it might melt us destroy us leave us scarred but father you are with us in the fire you're the fourth man in the fire with us in every test in every difficulty in every circumstance and so lord we say to you have your way in us lord we want our faith we want our hearts and our relationship with you to be pure as gold all the impurities of our doubt of our selfishness of our false desires and even our pride and ambitions lord that it would be like dross that is brought to the surface in every circumstance lord you're the god who doesn't cause everything but you're the god who works everything for our good so we're calling on you the god who stands with us in the fire lord to have your way in us so that we might be pure gold before you in the refiner's fire have your way refiner have your way oh god and remove all dross and all doubt from us as we draw near the promise test that when we go through trials and testing that it would produce endurance and steadfastness in us and that once it's had its perfect work that it would leave us complete mature and lacking nothing so father we lean into that this morning we actually step in closer to you trusting that in the midst of all of our testing lord you're doing something in us or you're producing endurance strength in us that we never had before and you're bringing us into maturity lord we can endure the flames when we know that you're doing something in us that we're not alone you stood with Shadrach Meshach and Amendigo in the fiery trial of the furnace and even when it was turned up 10 times hotter you never left them and you never pursued them and i'm praying for those who right now are finding themselves in the midst of difficult circumstances trials that seem to be overwhelming to them where the flame has been turned up 10 times hotter Jesus be with us in the trial be with us in the flames so that endurance might grow steadfastness in us might grow David said i would have i would have given up had i not believed that i would see the goodness of the lord and the land of the living lord i'm praying that you would give us just a glimpse of what you're doing even in the midst of the trials for every parent that's going through a trial every spouse that's praying every single person young adult divorced individual that's feeling alone in the midst of the fiery trials that they're going through right now Jesus would you step in to the planes and would you have your way go to bring us into a place of maturity strong not weak and not in our spiritual adolescence where we're overcome by every force gale force wind that comes against us but we're able to stand strong we're able to go from glory to glory from strength and to strength this is the work of your presence in us and with us even in the most difficult circumstances that we're facing so we're asking that lord that you even in the testing would bring us out stronger than ever before the goodness of the lord and the land of the living or that every trial is going to be turned to gold or in our love for you mature and your purposes for us lord we're praying that even though we don't see you the love that we have for you will grow and lord even though we don't have all the answers on this side of eternity what we can know is your goodness and your character your heart so lord we trust you we trust you god that in the middle of the fire you're bringing us through lord in that even though we don't see you we can see your hand at work in our lives and we rejoice with joy because we know who you are but when you're with us presence of your spirit with us it brings joy to our lives lord joy you said in james chapter one counted all joy when you find yourself in various trials lord you are the joy in the midst of our trials you are the joy that we find that's inexpressible words can't describe it but lord we want our hearts and our capacity to love you even more to expand in every season of our life lord if we just go through tests and we come out with scars there's no joy on that but lord when we come through the fires of testing and trial and we know that you've been with us and you're wise and you're good and you've made us strong lord it fills our hearts with great joy i'm praying for new joy and eyes of joy to fill us even in the midst of the flames of trials today fill us with the joy of your presence we trust you and we trust that in every season of our life you are good and you do good lord today give us a vision of your goodness in our lives hearts tender towards you knowing that you are with us we ask this today in jesus name our daily bread we say amen amen thank you for joining us want to invite you to come down here today all throughout this week morning noon and night 6 30 p.m as we pray and we minister to the heart of the lord from the center of our city god bless you have a terrific day