Prayer - asking, seeking, knocking

Asking God

I was going through some old files today and ran across the following
saying, "Never is there a knock at Heaven's gate, that it is not heard in
Hell and the devil rushes out to silence it." That saying has a lot of
meaning if you stop and think about it for a moment. When is the last time
you "knocked at heaven's gate?" What am I talking about? When is the last
time you talked with God? When is the last time you spent time praying and
communing with the ruler of the universe? If you want to have a relationship
with God and have the power of heaven on your side, then you have to spend
some time "knocking on heaven's gate" in prayer.

Understand this, the more you pray, the more Satan is going to fight against
you. When things don't seem to go the way you want, it doesn't mean
necessarily that God has refused you, but perhaps that Satan is just working
harder to stop you from seeing the answer. I have a friend (George) who one
time told me, "If you are having problems you must be doing something right,
otherwise Satan wouldn't bother you. he doesn't care about those he already
has." Peter says it well in 1 Peter 5:8-9, "Be self-controlled and alert.
Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone
to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that
your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of
sufferings."

So keep these things in mind and continue to "knock," maybe even bang on
heaven's gate. God hears us and will listen to us if we take time to keep
our lives in tune with him. John 9:31, "We know that God does not listen to
sinners. He listens to the godly man who does his will".

My prayer for you is that you will continue to "knock on heaven's gate,"
often, repeatedly, again and again trusting that our Father will hear you
and grant your requests.

Russ Lawson

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The "difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug."

Grenada or Granada?

Grenada or Granada? Does the difference really matter? It does if you're
trying to reach one instead of the other!

A Maryland man is suing British Airways after the airline flew him to
Grenada rather than his intended destination, Granada. While the spelling
difference may be slight, the geography isn't. Grenada is a country located
in the Caribbean Sea; Granada is a city in the country of Spain.

The passenger first noticed a problem when the electronic flight monitor
showed his flight from London to Spain heading west over the Atlantic toward
the Americas. He asked a flight attendant, "Why are we headed west to go to
Spain?" he said.

"His response was: 'Spain?' We're going to West Indies,'" the passenger
reported.

It was a booking mistake off by one letter but spanning nearly 4,000
miles.....

A U.S. judge noted that the situation reflects the wisdom of Mark Twain's
comment that the "difference between the right word and the almost right
word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug." *

Consider TWO ways and TWO destinations:

"Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that
leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is
the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who
find it." - Matt 7:13-14

The WIDE gate and easy way is the way of sin that leads to destruction.

The NARROW gate and difficult way is the way that leads to eternal life.

Our sins condemn us, but God loves us so much that He gave His Son to die on
the cross for our sins so that we might receive salvation and the gift of
eternal life (John 3:16; Romans 6:23). Jesus "opened the way" to heaven
through His atoning sacrifice. Actually, Jesus IS the Way! "I am the way
and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." -
John 14:6

God will save and give eternal life to those who place their faith and trust
in Jesus (Acts 16:30-31), turn from their sins in repentance (Acts
17:30-31), confess Jesus before men (Romans 10:9-10), and are baptized
(immersed) into Christ for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38). Those who
continue to seek to follow the "difficult and narrow way" are assured that
they will continually be cleansed by the blood of Jesus (1 John 1:7).

"The most important thing for a human being is to arrive at the proper
eternal destination. If we don't get this destination right, nothing else
matters." - J. Randall Matheny

God said of Israel, "If only they were wise and would understand this and
discern what their end will be!" - Deuteronomy 32:29. We also need to
identify the road upon which we are traveling and consider its destination.

Grenada or Granada? The wrong destination can spoil a vacation. But even
more importantly, it can have eternal implications.

David A. Sargent

* Information gleaned from "Man Sues Airline After Landing in Grenada Rather
Than Granada" by Hasani Gittens of www.nbcnews.com and "Grenada or Granada,
or Does It Matter?" by J. Randal Matheny in Forthright Magazine (7/14/14) at
http://forthright.net/.