SEPTEMBER THEME — “SEEING THE CROSS FROM GOD’S PERSPECTIVE”
Join us in praise and thanksgivingas Belmont Baptist Church celebrates ourYear of Jubilee—fifty years of God’s unfailing faithfulness. For five decades, we have witnessed answered prayers, souls saved, lives transformed, needs supplied, and grace sufficient for every season. As we turn our hearts toward the cross this September, we rejoice in the God who gave His only begotten Son and in the Savior who triumphantly declared, “It is finished.” We look back with gratitude, stand today in grace, and move forward with confidence, knowing the God who has been faithful through every yesterday is already waiting in every tomorrow. Thank You, Lord, for fifty years of faithfulness—TO GOD BE ALL THE GLORY!
BEATS FROM YOUR PASTOR’S HEART
CALL UPON ME, AND I WILL ANSWER HIM
“He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him.” —Psalm 91:15
There is something deeply comforting about knowing that when you call someone who loves you, they recognize your voice. You do not have to introduce yourself or explain who you are. The moment they hear you, they know who is calling. Psalm 91:15 gives the child of God an even greater assurance: “He shall call upon me, and I will answer him.” The God who holds the universe together is not too busy to hear you, and the God who knows every star by name knows the sound of your voice. You may feel unnoticed by the world, but you are never unrecognized by your Father. Before you face today’s responsibilities, decisions, uncertainties, pressures, conversations, disappointments, or unexpected circumstances, God gives you a simple invitation: call upon Me. Too often prayer becomes our last resort when God intended it to be our first response. We worry first, analyze first, call someone else first, imagine every possible outcome first, and only after we have exhausted ourselves do we finally pray. But God says, “Call upon me.” Before you panic, call Him. Before fear begins writing tomorrow’s story, call Him. Before you make that decision, call Him. Before you carry something God never intended you to carry alone, call Him. The burden becomes heavier every moment you carry it without the One who promised to help you bear it.
PRAYER IS AN ADMISSION OF DEPENDENCE
Prayer is not informing God about something He does not know. Jesus said, “Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.” — Matthew 6:8. God already knows about the diagnosis, the child you are worried about, the marriage that is struggling, the financial pressure, the difficult decision, what happened yesterday, and what you are afraid may happen tomorrow. So why pray? Because prayer is more than giving God information. Prayer is dependence. Prayer does not change what God knows; it changes the posture of the heart that comes before Him. Prayer is the heart saying, “Father, I cannot handle this without You.” It is saying, “Lord, I do not know what to do, but my eyes are upon You.” It is saying, “Jesus, I need Your wisdom, Your strength, Your peace, and Your direction.” One of the greatest spiritual dangers is becoming so accustomed to handling life ourselves that we forget how desperately dependent we are upon God. We can become experienced enough to make decisions without praying, strong enough to carry burdens without praying, busy enough to begin our day without praying, and confident enough to attempt things without praying. Self-sufficiency is often the quietest form of spiritual distance from God. Sometimes God allows something into our lives that reminds us of the words of Jesus: “Without me ye can do nothing.” Those moments are not always punishment; sometimes they are mercy, because they expose how much we have been leaning on ourselves. Prayer does not bring God up to date on your circumstances; prayer brings your heart back into dependence upon God. Sometimes the most powerful prayer you will ever pray is not long or eloquent but simply, “Jesus, I need You.” The shortest prayer can become the deepest surrender when it comes from a heart that has reached the end of itself.
GOD’S ANSWER MAY NOT LOOK LIKE THE ANSWER YOU EXPECTED
God makes a definite promise: “I will answer him.” He does not say, “I might answer,” or “I will answer when you become spiritual enough,” or “I will answer only if the problem is important enough.” He says, “I will answer him.” But we must understand that God’s answer will not always look like the answer we requested. Sometimes God says yes, sometimes no, sometimes wait, sometimes “I have something different,” and sometimes His answer is simply, “My grace is sufficient for thee.” — 2 Corinthians 12:9. An answer from God is always trustworthy even when it is not the answer we would have chosen. We often define answered prayer as God changing our circumstances, but sometimes God answers by changing us in the circumstances. Sometimes His answer is wisdom, sometimes strength, sometimes peace that does not make sense, sometimes protection from something we cannot see, and sometimes a closed door that later proves to have been mercy. Sometimes the answer is a delay because God is preparing us for something we could not have handled earlier. What looks like delay from our side may be perfect timing from God’s side. Sometimes God removes the storm, and sometimes He allows the storm to continue but gives us supernatural peace while standing in the middle of it. Faith says, “God, I have told You what I desire, but I trust Your wisdom more than I trust my understanding.” Our responsibility is not to dictate the answer; our responsibility is to call. His responsibility is the answer. Faith is not trusting God to do what I want; faith is trusting that whatever God does is right.
DO NOT MISTAKE GOD’S SILENCE FOR GOD’S ABSENCE
Some of the hardest seasons of faith are the seasons when we pray and nothing seems to happen. You pray, and nothing changes. You pray again, and still nothing changes. Days become weeks, and weeks sometimes become months. Eventually the enemy begins whispering, “God is not listening,” “Nothing is happening,” or “Your prayers are not making any difference.” Do not believe those lies. Silence may test your faith, but silence never cancels God’s faithfulness. Daniel prayed, and for twenty-one days there was no visible answer. But when the messenger finally arrived, he said, “From the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand… thy words were heard.” — Daniel 10:12. Notice those words: “From the first day.” Daniel was waiting on earth while something was happening in a realm he could not see. You may not see anything changing, but that does not mean God is doing nothing. What is invisible to you may already be in motion before God. You may not have received the answer yet, but that does not mean God has not heard you. You may be standing in the silence between your prayer and God’s visible answer. Isaiah 65:24 says, “Before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.” Before you knew the problem was coming, God knew. Before you knew you would need Him, God was already there. Before tomorrow becomes today, God is already standing in it. God never enters your future late; He is already there before you arrive. Nothing about your situation surprises Him. Nothing catches Him unprepared. Nothing forces God to develop an emergency plan. The God you are calling upon from here is already standing there. So keep praying, keep trusting, and keep calling. Heaven’s silence does not mean Heaven’s inactivity. The absence of visible movement is never proof of the absence of divine activity.
Imagine a small child asleep in his bedroom when a violent thunderstorm suddenly shakes the house. Lightning flashes, thunder crashes, and the room that seemed safe a few moments earlier suddenly feels frightening. That child does not sit in bed and develop a theological explanation of thunderstorms. He does not analyze atmospheric pressure or first attempt to conquer his fear independently. He simply cries, “Daddy!” Fear does not need a polished speech when the heart knows who to call. His father immediately recognizes the voice. That one word communicates everything: “I am afraid. I need you. Please come. I do not want to be alone.” That is the picture I see in Psalm 91:15. Sometimes your prayer may contain many words, and sometimes you may pray for an hour, but sometimes the burden becomes so heavy that all you can whisper is, “Father,” or “Jesus.” Heaven understands everything your heart cannot put into words. God hears meaning in tears that human ears could never translate. God is not measuring the eloquence of your prayer. He is listening for the dependence of your heart. A trembling whisper from a broken heart can carry more faith than a thousand impressive words. When His child calls, the Father knows the voice. The power of prayer is not found in how beautifully we speak, but in the greatness of the One to whom we speak.
Psalm 91:15 gives us one of the most beautiful pictures of God’s relationship with His child. “He shall call upon me” is our invitation. “And I will answer him” is His promise. “I will be with him in trouble” is His presence. “I will deliver him” is His power. “And honour him” is His purpose. Everything we need is found in the character of the God who makes the promise. The security of prayer rests not in the strength of the one praying, but in the faithfulness of the One answering. Maybe today you are carrying something you cannot fix, someone you cannot change, a decision you cannot make, or a future you cannot see. Maybe you have prayed so long that you no longer know what to say. God is not asking you to control the outcome; He is asking you to call. Stop carrying what God is inviting you to bring to Him. God never asked you to carry tomorrow when He has only given you grace for today. Do not let worry become your first response. Do not let fear become your counselor. Do not allow the enemy to convince you that God’s silence means God’s absence. Call upon Him. You may not know what God will do when you call, when the answer will come, or what form the answer will take, but you can know this: when God’s child calls, the Father hears. You may not know the answer, but you know the One who holds it.
WARFARE PRAYER
Father, in the name of Jesus, I come before You because You have invited me to call upon You and You have promised to answer me. I confess that too often I have worried before I prayed, panicked before I trusted, and tried to control circumstances that belong in Your hands. Today I bring You the burden I cannot carry, the situation I cannot fix, the person I cannot change, the question I cannot answer, and the future I cannot see. What overwhelms me is never greater than the God to whom I bring it. In the name of Jesus, I reject every lie of the enemy telling me that You are not listening, that nothing is happening, that my prayers are useless, or that I must handle this alone. Satan, you will not control my mind with fear, torment my heart with imagined outcomes, or cause me to interpret God’s silence as God’s absence. I bring every anxious thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. The enemy cannot rule a mind that is continually surrendered to the truth of God’s Word. Father, Your Word says, “I will answer him.” I choose to believe Your Word over my feelings. When Your answer is yes, help me praise You. When Your answer is no, help me trust Your wisdom. When Your answer is wait, strengthen me to remain faithful. When Your answer is different from what I expected, give me grace to surrender my will to Yours. True surrender is trusting God even when His answer contradicts my desire. Guard my mind from fear, my heart from unbelief, my mouth from speaking defeat, and my spirit from discouragement. Remind me that You are already working in places I cannot see and already standing in the tomorrow I am worried about today. I surrender the outcome to You because You are my Father, my refuge, my strength, my defender, my provider, my wisdom, my help, and my God. The safest place for my future is in the hands of the God who already sees it. I have called. You have heard. Now I will trust You with the answer. I will not take back what I have placed in Your hands. I will not rehearse tomorrow’s fears when I can rest in today’s promises. Once I have placed the burden in God’s hands, faith refuses to keep carrying it in my mind. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
DAILY CHALLENGE
Before you talk to anyone today about the thing troubling you most, talk to God about it first. Before you send the message, pray. Before you make the decision, pray. Before you assume the worst, pray. Before fear carries your mind into tomorrow, pray. Before you try to fix everything yourself, pray. Make prayer your first movement, not your final emergency measure. Every time that burden comes back into your mind today, refuse to rehearse it in worry. Turn it immediately into prayer and say, “Father, I have called upon You. You promised to answer. I trust You with whathappens next.” Do that as many times as necessary, because repeatedly surrendering the burden is far better than repeatedly rehearsing the fear. Every returning worry can become another invitation to return to God. Carry these truths in your heart throughout the day: I will call. He will answer. He will be with me. He will work. I will trust Him. You do not have to understand everything God is doing in order to trust the God who is doing it. When you cannot trace His hand, you can still trust His heart.
MONDAY’S PRAYER NEEDS
Anna Belle Taylor
Britany Smith
Darlene Kelley
Darlene Thaxton
Ginny Ford
Susan Bankston
Kim’s McClain’s Mother
Nancy Brown
Rob Davis