God Speaks to us in our prayers.

Dear Church,

Cornelius is a significant person regarding Gentile conversions in the early church. Luke describes him this way, "He and all his family were devout and God-fearing; he gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly" (Acts 10:2). We need to pay attention to the word 'devout' (eusebḗs), which consists of two Greek words, eú, "well, good," and sébomai, "pay homage, veneration." To be devout means to serve God well.  

Cornelius served God well, and it showed in two concrete ways. First, he gave generously to those in need. Cornelius did not hold back. Whenever he saw a need in people, he tried to help them out. Second, Cornelius prayed to God regularly. He had set times for prayers, just like what we are doing these days. While Cornelius was praying, an angel of the Lord spoke to him, "Your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God. Now send men to Joppa to bring back a man named Simon who is called Peter" (Acts 10:4-5). God wanted Cornelius to hear the gospel through Peter. God also spoke to Peter while he was praying himself. Peter went up to the rooftop to pray at his set time when God gave him a vision.  

Reading through Acts 10, we learn a precious lesson: God speaks to us during our prayers and tells us what we should be doing. There is nothing more important than prayer when listening to God. How foolish and dangerous it is to do God's work without hearing from him in prayer! Brothers and sisters, we began the year 2022 in prayer. But please do not misunderstand that we have done a year's worth of praying. Quite the contrary! We just started, like how we start the engine of the car. We will need lots of prayers to lift our weary hearts out of the pandemic. I pray that 2022 will be a blessed year to you all as you discover God speaking to us in our prayers. 

May the LORD bless you! 

Pastor Minho Song