Pursuing God with Dave and Gene

Are you at a pressure point in your life right now? Is the bottom falling out? Jesus gives us an example of how to pray in the Garden of Gethsemane before He goes to the cross. He did two things: First, He made a courteous request.. He said, “Father, if it’s at all possible, take this assignment from me.” Then Jesus followed up immediately with humble submission to God’s will. “But your will be done.” Gene reminds us in today’s episode to follow Jesus’ example of praying at life’s pressure points.

Pursuing God with Gene Appel is designed to help you pursue God, build community, and unleash compassion. Grounded in Scripture and shaped by Eastside’s conviction that God’s grace is for everyone, each episode invites you to discover God’s presence and activity in your life.

In today’s episode, Gene reminds us that asking God for His protection is a part of our daily prayer routine. He encourages us to use this model:  “Lord, put a hedge of protection around my life, around my family, around my kids, my grandkids, and around this church from the evil one… Protect us from disunity, from apathy, from destruction within or without.”

In addition, we need to affirm God’s lordship over our lives. This will ensure we don’t abuse the power that we have when we pray.

Pursuing God with Gene Appel is designed to help you pursue God, build community, and unleash compassion. Grounded in Scripture and shaped by Eastside’s conviction that God’s grace is for everyone, each episode invites you to discover God’s presence and activity in your life.

When we pray, it is important to go to God with the needs in your life. Gene admonishes us to ask for ‘daily bread,’ and not what we think we need to make us happy.

Another thing needed for balanced praying according to this model prayer from Jesus found in Matthew 6 is the confession component. Friends, this may be the hardest part for many of us to include in our prayers because the 2 hardest words in the English language to say are, “I’m sorry..” But Jesus said when you pray there ought to be a confession component where you say, “God, forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” Then you will experience God’s fresh grace for your life.

Pursuing God with Gene Appel is designed to help you pursue God, build community, and unleash compassion. Grounded in Scripture and shaped by Eastside’s conviction that God’s grace is for everyone, each episode invites you to discover God’s presence and activity in your life.

When we pray, it is important to include both worship and submission into our prayers. The Lord’s prayer begins with the words, “Holy is Your name.” I don’t think Jesus was saying, “Start every prayer with these words.” He was saying near the top of your prayer time ought to be the component of worship.

The second component needed to avoid prayer abuse is submission. Submission is where we pray, “Lord, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Submission is saying, “God, you are the potter, I am the clay…mold me and make me into what you want me to be.” 

Pursuing God with Gene Appel is designed to help you pursue God, build community, and unleash compassion. Grounded in Scripture and shaped by Eastside’s conviction that God’s grace is for everyone, each episode invites you to discover God’s presence and activity in your life.

Today, Gene reminds us that it is possible to abuse the power of prayer. James 4:3 says, “When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.” Sometimes we don’t receive because we’re asking with the wrong motives. We’re abusing the power of prayer because we’re more concerned about having our pain and discomfort removed, than in having God’s will done.

Instead we should pray: “Oh God, give me the courage to face what I need to face; the wisdom to learn what I need to learn; and to grow through this so that I might grow up in my faith.”

Pursuing God with Gene Appel is designed to help you pursue God, build community, and unleash compassion. Grounded in Scripture and shaped by Eastside’s conviction that God’s grace is for everyone, each episode invites you to discover God’s presence and activity in your life.

Do you know what Jesus did just before He miraculously fed over 5,000 people with a little boy’s sack lunch? …Matthew 14:19 says that He looked up to Heaven…and gave thanks. Jesus took 5 small loaves of bread and 2 fish from a child’s lunch… and he prayed, and then He broke the bread… and it kept breaking and breaking and feeding and feeding.

It was only after He prayed that God did immeasurably more than anybody could have asked or imagined. It was after that prayer, that these people discovered God is big enough. 

In today’s episode, Gene reminds us that there is power in talking to God.

Pursuing God with Gene Appel is designed to help you pursue God, build community, and unleash compassion. Grounded in Scripture and shaped by Eastside’s conviction that God’s grace is for everyone, each episode invites you to discover God’s presence and activity in your life.

In today’s episode, Gene reminds us that God wants to give us, His children, good gifts. Matthew 7:9 says, “Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake?” What Jesus is saying is: “If you will pray passionately... keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking… God is going to give you good gifts.” 

In other words, through that process, God is going to transform you, and grow you up and produce the kind of spiritual maturity and character in you that you wouldn’t have experienced apart from your prayers.

Pursuing God with Gene Appel is designed to help you pursue God, build community, and unleash compassion. Grounded in Scripture and shaped by Eastside’s conviction that God’s grace is for everyone, each episode invites you to discover God’s presence and activity in your life.

In Matthew 7, Jesus gives us some eye-opening insight into how we should conduct our lives. He was speaking to Jewish people who, all their lives, have been taught that goodness is about doing the right thing and following the rules. But Jesus comes along and says that with God, goodness is much deeper and starts on the inside… it’s about being transformed on the inside in your heart and spirit.

He knew the secret for pulling this off was the power of prayer. In today’s episode, Gene challenges us to pray with the passion Jesus describes in Matthew 7:7-8.

Pursuing God with Gene Appel is designed to help you pursue God, build community, and unleash compassion. Grounded in Scripture and shaped by Eastside’s conviction that God’s grace is for everyone, each episode invites you to discover God’s presence and activity in your life.

Don’t expect hundreds of these in your lifetime. You may only have a handful of these dramatic experiences throughout your lifetime.

Don’t hesitate to ask God for one of these world rocking experiences.

If God answers that prayer, Gene encourages us to say YES.

Pursuing God with Gene Appel is designed to help you pursue God, build community, and unleash compassion. Grounded in Scripture and shaped by Eastside’s conviction that God’s grace is for everyone, each episode invites you to discover God’s presence and activity in your life.

In today’s episode, Gene reminds us that we need to be open to the leading of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes God uses crises to get our attention. Other times, He speaks to us through the needs of others. We need to be ready to let God rock our world.

Pursuing God with Gene Appel is designed to help you pursue God, build community, and unleash compassion. Grounded in Scripture and shaped by Eastside’s conviction that God’s grace is for everyone, each episode invites you to discover God’s presence and activity in your life.