What’s on my heart today? A message from our new pastor.

Calvary has been thrilled to welcome Pastor Jack Homesley and his wife, Kim. It’s not even been a week since he became our pastor, and God has already used him in an incredible way at our church.

On both Sunday and Wednesday night, he spoke on the topic of relationships and what we can learn about them in Philippians 1:3-11. One thing he said that really stuck out to me was this: “Whatever you treat with dishonor, you will soon begin to dislike. Whatever you treat with honor, you will soon begin to like.”

That’s a pretty simple truth, right? But, it’s so profound. It’s true for so many things- from the way you treat your personal possessions, to how you care for your own body, to how you maintain your relationships.

Another point that he made was about how we pray. For me, it’s always been relatively easy to pray for the people that hurt me, simply because I know that’s what I’m called to do. What’s not always easy, is praying positively for them. My aggravated prayers for these kinds of people often come out something like this:

God, change their heart. 

Help them to see how wrong they are, God. 

Make them learn their lesson and not treat me like this again, Lord.

It wasn’t until hearing this message that I realized what I’ve been doing. The truth is, that this is not at all what our prayers should be like and I was so humbled knowing that my prayers have not been what they should be. Instead, we should be praying positively for those that hurt us. Pastor Jack shared four simple ways that we can pray for people:

• That they’ll grow in love (Philippians 1:9)
• That they will make wise, Godly choices (Philippians 1:10)
• That they will do the right thing (Philippians 1:10)
• That they will live for God’s glory (Philippians 1:11)

It’s so easy to judge people by how far they still have to go instead of appreciating how far they’ve come. If we pray positively for them, God changes our hearts, too.

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I’m so excited for the work that’s begun at Calvary. I plan to share lots of the messages that really touch my heart, so stay tuned! I love learning and growing in Christ with you!