Rapha Abreu

Prayer: Examining the heart

Lord, restore my first love, examine my heart, and show me what, little by little, may be taking the place that belongs only to You without me realizing it.

Series: Churches of Revelation - Ephesus

Among the seven churches mentioned in the book of Revelation, Ephesus receives the first letter from Jesus. This community possessed important qualities, but it had abandoned its first love. What can we learn from this message today?

Prayer: Faithful Like Christ

Lord, may my faith remain firm in You. Help me to see life through Your eyes, and not through the eyes of this world. Often, I place too much value on what I can achieve, on the recognition I receive, and on the security that material things can offer. Teach me not to confuse prosperity with approval, nor difficulties with abandonment.

Series: Churches of Revelation - Smyrna

When we read the letters to the seven churches of Revelation, we find communities with different problems, virtues, and challenges. Between praise and rebukes.

Prayer: To the only Lord

Lord, do not let me negotiate my faithfulness. Help me to remain faithful to You, even when everything around me seems to follow a different path. I do not want to be someone who seeks You only when it is easy, nor someone who stands firm in the face of great trials but loses their way in the small compromises of daily life.

Series: Churches of Revelation - Pergamum

The Church of Pergamum lived in an environment where following Christ was not simple. Surrounded by pagan cults, the influence of the Roman Empire, and a culture that demanded loyalties contrary to the Christian faith, that community faced constant pressure. Even so, Jesus recognized their faithfulness. They had not denied the name of Christ, not even in the face of the death of Antipas, whom Jesus describes as a faithful witness.

Prayer: True wealth

Prayer: Seeing as Jesus sees

God, teach me to see as You see. Often, I look at myself through the lens of my mistakes. I allow my falls, my failures, and my wrong choices to become accusations against myself. I get stuck on what I have done and begin to believe that I am not who I should be. But today I want to remember that Your gaze is different from mine.

God's perspective

Perhaps you have learned to look at yourself through the lens of your mistakes. In every fall and failure, you accuse yourself, and everything becomes proof that you are not who you should be. But God’s perspective does not work like ours. While we see what went wrong, He is able to see what can still be transformed.

Prayer: Praying like Jesus

Jesus, I want to learn from You how to live in communion with the Father. Often, I try to walk alone, make my own decisions, and find strength within myself, but Your life showed me a different path. Even though You are God, You chose to live in complete dependence and communion with the Father.

If Jesus is God, why did He pray?

The Bible presents us with two simultaneous truths: Jesus is fully God and fully man. "He who is the Word became flesh and lived among us" (John 1:14). He did not cease to be God when He became man. He entered our reality and experienced the human condition: He felt hunger, fatigue, sadness, He wept, and He suffered. He was tempted, but He never sinned.

Thermometer of prosperity

We live in a culture that easily associates success, money, and comfort with God's blessing. When someone prospers, we immediately think they have found divine favor, and if someone faces loss, scarcity, or suffering, we may wonder what that person did wrong.

What are you doing here?

God's questions are not asked because He is unaware of the answer; He knows everything, but He desires to make us see what, on our own, we might not be able to perceive. In 1 Kings 19, Elijah arrives at a place of deep exhaustion, fear, and loneliness. After facing the prophets of Baal and experiencing a great manifestation of God's power, he is now hidden in a cave, even wishing to die.

Prayer: On our knees to reach

God, I thank You for the freedom I have to know Your Word, to open the Scriptures, to hear about You, and to share the Gospel. I know that I often treat this privilege as something common, but today I want to recognize how precious it is. Lead me to places where Your Word encounters closed doors. May I not remain indifferent in the face of barriers that try to prevent Your Word from acting.

Obstacles

Did you know that there are still places where the Word of God is not received freely? What are we doing with the freedom we have to proclaim it?

Prayer: Less of us

God, I acknowledge that I often look for in the eyes of others what only You can give me. I seek approval, praise, and acceptance, and sometimes I allow the opinion of those around me to determine who I think I am.

The addiction to being seen

It is good to be loved. It is good to know that we are cherished, respected, and welcomed. The problem begins when the desire to be accepted ceases to be just a wish and turns into a necessity. When the approval of others starts to determine our choices, our identity, and even the way we see ourselves.

Prayer: He is here!

Lord, I acknowledge that there are pains I cannot explain and questions for which I may never find an answer. But, in the midst of everything I do not understand, I want to remember that I was not created to walk alone. Draw near to me and also to those around me. May Your presence be at the center of my relationships so that, even when life seems difficult, I may find in the fellowship of my brothers and sisters a place of welcome, care, and hope.

The freedom of evil

There are questions that arise when pain arrives. Why did this happen? Why did God allow it? Why did a tragedy strike that particular person? Faced with disasters, accidents, losses, and suffering, it is natural to try to find an explanation. But not every pain has a “why” that we will be able to understand.

Prayer: Do not negotiate the encounter

God is not entertainment

We are always returning to speed, comfort, and entertainment. We want experiences that captivate us, immediate answers, and environments that do not demand too much of us. Gradually, we can carry this same logic into the church and begin to expect that the service entertains us, pleases us, and ends quickly so that we can move on to our other plans.

Prayer: Faith that is not ashamed

Father, I know that I, too, have often denied Jesus. Perhaps not with words, but with choices, attitudes, omissions, and moments when I was ashamed to demonstrate my faith. Forgive me when the fear of being rejected spoke louder than the desire to remain faithful to You. Give me courage not to hide Your name and to remember that it is a privilege to feel discomfort for choosing to follow Christ in a world that often rejects what comes from You.

Do not deny Him

I used to think it was absurd that Peter denied Jesus three times. How could someone who had walked so closely with Him, witnessed His miracles, and heard His teachings, under pressure, say he did not know Him? That was until I realized that, many times, I have also denied Jesus. Perhaps not with words, but with choices, attitudes, omissions, and moments where I preferred to hide my faith.

Prayer: Deciding to return

Previously, I spoke about the moments when we are the lost sheep and others when we are the prodigal son. But in both cases, the Lord remains available to us, knocking at the door.

The sheep or the prodigal son?

There are different ways to drift away from God. Sometimes, we do not realize we are getting lost. Other times, we know exactly where we are and, even so, we choose to walk away. Jesus revealed this difference through two stories that speak deeply about the heart of God: the lost sheep and the prodigal son.

Prayer: Destroying the "self"

God is not a friend to your ego

We often seek messages that confirm our desires, but God desires to give us a Word that transforms our hearts. True love does not hide the truth; it confronts us to set us free.

Prayer: More than promises

The valley and the goodness of God

Prayer: Beyond a place