Building a Better Relationship with God

Building a lifetime of great relationships

This means our ongoing relationship with God as well as with self and our neighbors. On Monday night, February 28 we will have a workshop on Spiritual Disciplines or "How to build a better relationship with God". I hope we can see you there and build a relationship with you as well as God.

Preparation for the workshop.

“For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding.” – Colossians 1:9

Following his graduation from Boston University in 1923, Raymond Edman arrived in Ecuador as a missionary. Two years later, the 25 year old American had contracted a rare tropical disease and was dying. He was so near death that the villagers had already dug his grave. His wife dyed her dress black for his funeral. He had great beads of sweat on his brow and there was a death rattle in his throat. But one night, he suddenly sat straight up in bed and said to his wife, "Bring me my clothes!" Nobody knew what had happened to cause this miraculous change of events.

Edman recovered and eventually became the president of Wheaton College.

Many years after his time in Ecuador, he was retelling the story in Boston. Afterward, a lady with a small, dog-eared, beaten-up book, approached him and asked, "What day did you say you were dying? What time was it in Ecuador? What time would it be in Boston?" When he answered her, her wrinkled face lit up. Pointing to her book, she said, "There it is, you see? At 2 a.m. God said to get up and pray - the devil's trying to kill Raymond Edman in Ecuador." And she'd gotten up and prayed.

Don’t just pray once for someone, keep on praying for them. Today in prayer, lift up to the Lord someone who needs your prayers.

“Pray often.” – John Bunyan

God’s Word: “I thank God, whom I serve, as my forefathers did, with a clear conscience, as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers.” – 2 Timothy 1:3

What is in your prayer journal? Dreams, visions, words, answers? What might be added Saturday?

Shalom,

Gary Sweeten

See Sweeten Life Systems for more resources.

Contact the Lifeway Health Initiative to register.