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DAILY DEVOTIONAL - JEREMY
Devos with Napier from Hope Chapel Maui on Vimeo.
UNITED PRAYER
Let's pray for divine appointments and doors of opportunity for each of our Hope Chapel family members to serve and minister with the love of Jesus to others in this time of need.
And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ — to the glory and praise of God.
Philippians 1:9-11
Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.
Ephesians 5:15-16
FAMILY RESOURCES: Three Practical Ways to Pray More
We’re all spending a lot of time in the same spaces right now. Our homes, kitchens, bedrooms, lanai’s, yards, and neighborhood streets are becoming ever more familiar to us as we try our best to practice social distancing and keep others safe.
Whether you live on your own, have just a roommate or two, or have a full house of five kids and three dogs, you can cultivate a culture of prayer.
1. Sticky Notes
Take fifteen minutes to an hour to write down different people and needs that come to mind on sticky notes. As you walk around your home, find places that you frequent often and place the sticky notes on the wall or doors. Above the sink in the bathroom is a great place, next to your mirror, on your closet door and by light switches are all areas we look at multiple times a day without thinking! Then, spend some time walking through your house praying for the specific needs and people that you’ve written down.
If you’d like, leave the sticky notes up so that you can continue to pray in the days ahead as you see the notes during your day.
2. Prayer Walks
Daily walks are also a good opportunity to connect with the Lord. As you walk use your surroundings as prompts for prayer.
Are you passing the home of someone you know? Do the plumeria flowers remind you of a friend who moved back to the mainland? Pray for those people!
It can be encouraging to know that someone is praying for you, so don’t be shy about texting your friends and family letting them know that they’re in your thoughts. You could even text them the prayer itself so that they can read your words of intercession for them, or call them and pray in person.
3. Use Cues to Pray
What tasks are already a part of your daily life? We all have rhythms and routines to our days, and the simplest activity can be used as a cue for prayer. It doesn’t have to be right before the evening meal! You could start small and decide to pray for your family while you’re brushing your teeth, or for our government and the many decisions they have to make while you’re in the shower.
What are some ways you integrate prayer into your daily life?
HOW-TO: Get Your ‘Ohana Group Online
Here’s encouragement from our ‘Ohana Groups team, Kyle Knight and Mila Espinosa!
As we settle into this new normal for a while, one of the most important things you can do is to "not give up meeting together" (Heb 10:25). We are built for community, and designed for interaction- and times like this make connecting not just a good idea, but vital for good self care and loving one another well. We’re commanded to do it!
As we continue on as the church distributed in homes across Maui, we are calling all of us to get together online in small groups and do just 3 things:
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Worship with us for 1 weekend service
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Meet online with your ‘Ohana Group (don’t have one? Grab a few friends!) and walk through the Message Application Questions together. Pray and encourage one another as you check in- how can you help one another?
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Go and make a difference: Pray for someone or submit a request, serve a friend or neighbor in need. (Have an encouraging story come from this? Share it with us here!)
Thankfully, technology has made it possible to continue meeting together, even now. If you're connecting with a friend or two, FaceTime or just a conference call works great! But to get bigger groups together we're using a free platform called Zoom. Here's how to use it.
OPENING AND RUNNING ZOOM:
Zoom can be used on your phone, a tablet or iPad, or your computer (if it has a camera).
1. Download Zoom: Go to your app store, and download it on your laptop, phone or iPad (it is a blue app with a white camera in the middle). If you're on a computer, go to https://zoom.us and install the application.
2. Create a free account (note that free accounts are limited to 40 mins, but you can jump right on another call if you want to go longer!). It'll warn you as you get close to the time limit.
3 . Have each of your 'Ohana Group members download the app and create accounts as well.
4. Start a new meeting and invite your friends:
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From your phone or iPad: Open Zoom and start a new meeting. Tap the screen and touch "Participants" at the bottom of the screen. Then, again at the bottom of the screen, tap "Invite"- then choose to send an email or text to invite people to your meeting. On their end- they simply click the link that is sent to them, and they will join your screen!
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From your computer: Open Zoom, and start a new meeting. Mouse over the Zoom screen and click "Invite," which will pop up a new screen. Click "Copy URL" or "Copy Invitation", and email or text this to your group members. When they click the link, they’ll join your screen. *If for some reason the software requests a Meeting ID or Password for your attendees, it’s found in the “Copy Invitation,” copy and paste this into an email.
There are some advanced features like setting meetings in advance- if you’d like to know more about that, here’s an in-depth tutorial:
https://vimeo.com/400310934
OTHER WAYS TO STAY CONNECTED
Phone Calls:
Although seeing each others’ faces is nice, phone calls are always a great way to connect. You can pray together over the phone, stay updated on each others’ lives, and study God's Word together. You can read it out loud, and have them follow along or simply listen and engage afterwards.
Email & Text:
There is always email and text as well, where you can send encouragements, songs, verses, videos and share prayer requests with one another as the week goes on. This is a great way to care for your group from a distance in an ongoing way.
We pray that you find yourselves encouraged by this time, and that the Lord continues using you mightily!