Chase that Lion & Grow with God!

I recently read a book called, “In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day” by Mark Batterson. In the book, he encourages Christians to trust God and realize that the future God wants for them is hiding in their biggest problem, worst failures and greatest fears! He emphasizes, as does the Bible, that God is glorified as His people step into the seemingly impossible opportunities that stand between them and their dreams because these are the places where God’s involvement can be the only explanation for success.  Even if the outcome is not that which was hoped for according to our definition of success, we are still ahead because we will have the opportunity to grow in our relationship with God, thus, find ourselves changed. Besides, we can trust that God doesn’t waste anything. The efforts made will certainly be used for God’s purposes to bring forth the planned outcome of God.

For instance, a number of years ago, Jon (my husband) and I answered the call to plant a church in Lumberton, NC. With little financial support and little previous  experience; with statistics saying small towns that are no longer growing are not the place to plant a new church especially by an outsider, we left our jobs and we moved to Lumberton. Although there were many struggles, there were many great things that happened through the plant to include salvations, water baptisms, new commitments to the Lord, divine relationships established through the fellowship including two marriages, and our experience of God in at a whole new level that resulted from this walk of faith. All of this was God’s plan and what came out of our obedience to “go” even in the midst of defying odds.

As for the church plant, it fell apart in its sixth year and we have moved on. But you see, nothing was wasted! God was glorified in our obedience in many ways as He worked out His plan for so many people through our obedience; and Jon and I are that much closer to our own destiny of becoming like Christ. Our relationship grew with Christ through the experience of obedience and in the experience of letting go of God’s people for Him to do as He pleased. We are not even close to being the same today as we were when we set out on that journey. You can only WIN in being obedient to God!  As Batterson says, “I wish I could tell you that every lion chase ends with a lion skin hanging on the wall, but it doesn’t…the dot.com dreamer may become successful beyond his wildest dreams, but the guy with political aspirations loses the election he dreamed of winning. However, both of them are LION CHASERS. What sets lion chasers apart ISN’T THE OUTCOME. It’s the courage to chase God-sized dreams. Lion chasers don’t let their fears or doubts keep them from doing what God has called them to do.

So, we are called to run after these opportunities as God puts the desire on our hearts. Or, as Batterson puts it, “chase lions” and lay hold of God’s best by not allowing our past experiences, present circumstances, fears, doubts, bad decisions, or habits keep us from stepping into what God has called us to do. Instead, chase these opportunities and with God’s help defy the odds, face our fears and re-frame our problems, embrace uncertainty, take risks, and seize opportunities – all at the risk of looking FOOLISH. As our trust grows in God’s sovereign timing and positioning us for His purpose in our life’s circumstances, and as we learn to recognize and lay hold of our God-ordained opportunities, we are transformed from glory to glory. And, that is God’s best no matter what the exterior circumstances look like. Next time around, the outcome may be just what one expects! So continue on chasing lions knowing God is with you. It’s all good! It’s all in God’s hands to be used for HIS eternal purposes!

                                       What dream are you allowing fear or doubt to hold you back from pursuing? Go on…chase that lion!

Cover via Amazon

Priorities and A Yielded Life

Hello Dear Christian Readers and Friends. It has been only one weekend since Thanksgiving Day and I am hoping you all had a great day celebrating the goodness of God with your family and friends. I sure did. Even on my worst day, I have so much to be thankful for!

I realized at 1:30 this morning, that it was my turn to post on our site. Time sure does fly! Since I have been sharing different things with you that I am doing in school, I thought this week I would share the second of three sermons I had to write and give for my Homiletics class. Because it was written to be heard and not seen, the writing may be a little off. There are places I have used all CAPS for my speaking notes, but I sure do hope you will enjoy it anyway!  First, you need to know that when I refer to the video, it was a demonstration in which a man takes  a large jar, fills it with small beads, rocks, water, and then golf balls only to discover that all the golf balls will not fit. Then the same items are put in the jar in reverse, putting the biggest item in first: the golf balls, the rocks, the beads, and the water, and everything fit perfectly! It is a great demonstration of how you can fit more in by putting the biggest thing in first. With that said, following is my sermon in printed form:

The dictionary defines “priority” as a precedence, established by order of importance or urgency. Priorities are funny things…what’s big to me as a priority may not be what is big to you as a priority. So what I put into my life first, as represented by the jar in the video, could be different than what you fit first into your life. And priorities usually change from one season of life to another.

Priorities are motivated by different things. Sometimes priorities are motivated by our selfishness – it’s all about “mwa.”  Sometimes our priorities are motivated by a desire for material things, successful careers or caring for our families. We can even be motivated by things such as “fear” in establishing our priorities. Many years ago, I was influenced by the fear of not ever being able to do anything really well.

Today with a fulltime class load and homeschooling Alex, it is what seems URGENT at the moment that tends to take priority. I know your life is busy too! We all have many things to try to fit into our days…church, jobs, school, childcare, parent care, housework, yard work, doctor appointments, exercise, vacations, club meetings, kids after school activities, dogs, chickens, FACEBOOK, and the list goes on.

We all have things we must prioritize in our lives as to how we will get them all in and when. We have some things that we can be flexible with and some things that don’t have much room for flexibility. So we order our priorities differently according to our own perspective on life and according to our personal decision as to how important something is to us. But there is one thing –one PRIORITY that should be COMMON to all Christians – one PRIORITY that is VITAL that you and I have as our BIGGEST priority! That is our devotion to GOD.  I want to show you WHY our Devotion to God must be our BIGGEST priority and HOW we live devoted to God.
I want to show you that a YIELDED LIFE is the BEST LIFE and it is a life that PROVES GOD!

 Turn with me, please to Romans 12:1-2. I want to give you some background leading up to our passage. Paul has just finished discussing in the first eleven chapters of this letter a theological discussion informing the saints in the church at Rome of what God has done for them through Jesus Christ and who they are in Him. Paul has said things like “You were once disobedient to God, you were at enmity…at war with God, yet now you have obtained mercy in Christ. You deserved to die, but you have obtained a pardon for your sins.”

Then Paul culminates his theological discussion stressing the ultimate wisdom and knowledge of God which are past understanding. He emphasizes how no one can be God’s counselor or give to God… for of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever.

Now Romans 12:1, Paul is switching gears from the THEOLOGICAL discussion to one of practical application. He says, THEREFORE I URGE YOU brothers and sisters…

Therefore is a connecting word. It implies Paul is saying that because of all these things that he just presented to them that have been done for them and given to them, and because who they are in Christ…and who God is… in view of these things and in view of God’s wisdom… I urge you.

“Urge” is serious exhortation. Paul is trying to MOVE them to ACTION. And notice he is talking to Christians like you and me. He says, “brothers and sisters.”

Then he goes on, “by the mercies of God”…the J.B. Phillips bible translates this as “in view of God’s mercy”…in view of the mercy God has shown. So again, he is emphasizing the mercy God has already given them.

Notice He wasn’t threatening them with hell and condemnation as some do today in order to manipulate and control people… it is the love of God shown in His mercy that draws us to Him. Romans tells us it is the goodness of God that leads people to repentance.

Then Paul says, “I want you to present your bodies a living sacrifice.”  Okay, everybody was probably doing just fine up to this point but “MY BODY…A LIVING SACRIFICE…DON’T KNOW ABOUT THAT. But stay with me here!

…This is where the BEST LIFE begins! Let me tell you why…

In Genesis, Adam and Eve walked in complete harmony with God and experienced peace, love, joy, awesome provision and purpose. Why? They were living yielded to God… They were living according to their design and purpose. This is what they were created for. You see the original nature of man wasn’t like the fallen nature we are familiar with. Originally human nature was yielded to God. They lived dependent on God.
Humans were created to be dependent on God and when we are not…when we are separated from Him…by choosing to be our own gods as Adam and Eve did…we lose our peace…
…there’s pain, thorns and thistles, and… sweat. There’s confusion, and lack of direction and purpose for life; and life can become overwhelming to us at times. We need help in making decisions about our education, kids, parents, finances, and when we are yielded to God, living dependent on–instead of independent of God, He guides our choices and we have everything we need. We live in HARMONY WITH God as we were created to be.

Adam and Eve chose to follow Satan’s direction instead of God’s that day in the garden.  They decided to be their own God and quit yielding to His direction. They decided their way might be better than His. They did it their way. They separated themselves from God.  How did that work out? Not so well. So Paul is urging these Christians at Rome to make a presentation of their bodies…to TURN OVER their lives to God… God has done His part. He is waiting for you!

As parents, don’t we want our children to be surrendered to us and our will…why? Because we know most times, our WILL is best for them…parents may lack wisdom at times, but God, our heavenly father, never lacks wisdom. Our heavenly Father always knows best!

Paul goes on to say, “This is your reasonable service…some translations say “spiritual” service of worship. This Greek word that is translated “reasonable” refers to a rationale decision. This isn’t about EMOTION. What he is saying is “this is your act of intelligent worship. Come on brothers and sisters – this only makes sense – it is rationale and intelligent to give God our lives and allow Him to be Lord! It is intelligent to live how He says is BEST and not what our flesh tries to tell us is BEST. We can trust God with our lives!

Christ had to sacrifice the desires that came from His FLESH. In the Garden of Gethsemane He sweat drops of blood as He fought the temptation not wanting to go through with the Father’s will, but in the end He said, “Not my will but yours be done!”  Do you see this? Sacrificing our will to God’s may feel a little painful to us for a short time, but it will always lead to the what’s best! His plan is better than ours! A yielded life is the BEST life and it proves God!

Listen. God doesn’t need you. He doesn’t need me. He doesn’t need anyone. He doesn’t need our worship. He is not egocentric. He is holy. He is perfect – always. That means He is perfectly happy and satisfied and is lacking nothing!  But He created us out of His divine counsel for His divine purpose and He created us to be dependent on Him. So, FRANKLY, we don’t do so well when we try to go our own way without Him. God knows a yielded life is the BEST life for us. He also knows it is the life that will PROVE Him. It’s what we were made for…designed for. It is an act of intelligent worship in response to what God has done and Who God is – merciful and wise.

Offering ourselves as living sacrifices isn’t losing something. God isn’t taking something from us. He is giving us something – Himself and His wisdom! He is giving us HIS will which is PERFECT for us. And in regards to being a “living” sacrifice – It means it is something we must do over and over again. We will always be tempted to allow other things to take God’s place – our devotion from Him by requiring our time, our money, our thoughts and emotions. So Paul urges us to make a GENUINE ongoing COMMITMENT that will be ongoing for the rest of our lives. This is not a one- time action. Due to the many distractions – priorities – we have to rearrange them and put these in 2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th place and sometimes give them up altogether.

We are simply sacrificing what we want to do that is in OPPOSITION TO GOD and presenting ourselves to God for His PURPOSE WHICH IS WHAT’S BEST FOR US anyway.

So Paul is saying, “In view of this great mercy that you have received from God, in view of HIS WISDOM, it would be an act of intelligent worship to give your lives to God. Yield your will for His when your will is in opposition to God’s.

Paul continues in verse 2… And do not be conformed to this world. You can’t be devoted to God and conformed to the world at the same time! The Greek word for “conformed” is soos-khay-mat-id-zoe. It refers to accommodating oneself to a model or pattern. It is used elsewhere in the N.T. describing those who conform themselves to worldly lusts.

The word “world” refers to a godless system. Any way other than God’s way is godless. That is what Eve and Adam did. Influenced by Satan, Adam and Eve went their own way. Don’t you know they regretted that moment for the rest of their life! We don’t want those kind of regrets, do we? Of course not! Paul is saying to the Christians at Rome and to us “don’t let the world mould you into its pattern…Don’t let it squeeze you into its mould. You are God’s child…a royal priest…you have been freed from the bondage of the world…freed from sin… you are free to choose the best way – God’s way! He is saying, “Don’t yield to the world’s ways and look like someone who doesn’t know Christ!”

Paul goes on to tell us how… HOW we can devote our lives to God? How we can remain yielded to Him with all of the world’s distractions and temptations pulling at us…

He says, don’t be conformed to the world but (He says, instead) be transformed by the renewing of your mind. The Greek word for transformed is “Metamorphoo” and is the same word that we get our word metamorphosis from. It implies a restoration to an original state. God is in the restoration business. He wants us to be restored in our relationship with Him to the state humans originally had with Him when they walked in “oneness” with Him with their intellect and will in alignment with His.

I can be transformed by renewing my mind. This is a choice we make for our lives! We choose to be transformed (changed) by making the decision to do what we have to do to renew our minds. The KEY is our minds. Understand, God changed your spirit and made it alive. We are a new creation in Christ but our mind is still the same ‘ole mind. It is our job to get our minds in alignment with the new heart, the new nature God has given us. The mind constitutes the intellect, understanding, and the mind-set, the feelings and the will. It describes a complete change, like that of a caterpillar into a butterfly. It indicates a literal change in the form or formulas of thought or being. So we are transformed “changed” by the Holy Spirit’s energizing within us as we renew our minds to God’s thoughts, purpose, and will found right here in the bible.

And Paul continues saying do this so “that you may prove what is that good, acceptable and perfect will of God.” We prove or test God’s will out in our lives as we live it out through our lives. In other words, we take it for a test run. We practice it in everyday living and as we do, His will, will be proved to be good and acceptable and perfect!

Doing these two things, yielding our will and renewing our minds leads us into God’s perfect will for our lives. And, this means He will be glorified through our lives. Others will see His goodness. They see God’s will is proven to be PERFECT AND GOOD. There is no better way to glorify God than this. This is worship, my friends. A yielded life proving God’s good and perfect will, thus, glorifying Him.

Priorities don’t just get out of balance over night. They get out of balance a little here and a little there as we are DECEIVED with worldly ideas and ways, DECEIVED by our flesh (un-renewed minds), and DECEIVED with the urgent. How about you? Have your priorities gotten out of order? Is your devotion to God somewhere down the list or completely off of the list?

Has God become a stranger to you? Are you living without purpose, peace and joy?
Do you need a wise counselor to help you make decisions in life or to find God’s will for your life?

I want to encourage you TO MAKE A DECISION TODAY TO LIVE YOUR LIFE devoted to GOD. Make Him your biggest priority. Remember, you do this starting with your mind, you choose. This is NOT AN EMOTIONAL decision! Love grows as you spend time with God.
Today you just need to use your intelligence, your mind and make this decision.

 WHY? Because of God’s mercy and wisdom, IT IS an act of INTELLIGENT WORSHIP and BECAUSE THE YIELDED LIFE will prove God!

HOW? By yielding and renewing your minds according to His Word. Say “no” to the godless system and fallen nature that is in opposition to God’s will and purpose for you.

Just imagine what your life will be like as you yield to His will which is good and perfect for you!  Just imagine what life would be like if we were ALL living life YIELDED TO GOD. We would all experience God’s wisdom, love, and peace and we share it with one another. Serving one another in love! Just imagine how wonderful all of our relationships would be – Relationships with parents, spouses, children and friends!Imagine what our church would be like, what our community and nation and world would be like if everyone would yield their lives to God!

One day that will happen. But for now, we can be that beacon of light to those living in the godless system that surrounds us. Together, we can be that light that PROVES God and begins to permeate the darkness to change the world around us! Won’t you join me and recommit your life today–Lets devote our lives to God by making our devotion to HIM our BIGGEST priority—

After all, it is a yielded life that is the BEST life and it is the life that proves God!

 In Sisterly Love,

Sarah Goebel

 

Lessons from Aurora and other Tragedies by Julie Arduini

I loved Vicki’s post and on my own personal blog I shared how drawn I am to the stories coming out of Aurora. Maybe it’s my mama’s heart or the nose for news I’ve had since I was a child. When there is a tragedy, I’m always looking for take-away lessons for my own application, and to share with my kids.

Aurora is no exception.

I found three principles to not only honor the victims, but transform my own life for the better.

1. Forgive.Craig Scott was a teenager and a survivor of the 1999 Columbine shootings. I was a new mom at the time and I cried with the rest of America when Katie Couric interviewed Craig soon after. Although he survived, his sister, Rachel, did not.One of the news shows I watched last weekend featured Craig, now an adult with a decade plus perspective on the impact the shooting had on his life. He told of a long season I didn’t know he struggled with, or to what extent: forgiveness.No one could blame Craig or his family for harboring ill-will towards his sister’s killers. But the bitterness was toxic and accelerated inside his heart and spewed like lava over his actions. One day the rage hit rock bottom when he recounted pinning his brother down and holding a knife to him.He realized he had to let go of the unforgiveness. He explained forgiving didn’t excuse the people or what they did, forgiving was unlocking the prison door and realizing it is you that is set free. I’ve heard this before, I’ve even shared it. But what a powerful statement when it comes from a shooting survivor who saw the path of destruction he was on.
2. Know the One, True God who created you. This isn’t so much an altar call based on what if today was your last day (which I hope you know your eternal destination because we aren’t promised tomorrow) but a reflection on why God made you the way you did. One of my favorite stories comes from Lysa TerKeurst in Made to Crave where she recalls a high school dance where the boy confessed they could never date because she had “tankles.” She grieved over his statement for years until one day she asked God why He made her with tankles. In the quietness of her heart He asked if she had coordination issues, which she admitted she did. With love He told her that was why she had tankles. Those thick ankles supported her and kept her from broken bones. What was a curse suddenly became a blessing.

Aurora survivor Petra Anderson has a miraculous story about why God created her brain the way He did for such a time for this. I strongly encourage you to read this post to learn about what doctors discovered.

Julie Arduini and her dad on her wedding day

3. Release tributes to the living. Alcoholism robbed my dad and I of critical years, but I’m thankful the many good years we shared were precious. When he was near death, I was the last to have a conversation with him that he was able to comprehend and respond to. I let him know there were no regrets, there was love, and a promise because of our mutual faith in Christ we would see each other again. While he waited, I asked that he watch over the baby I miscarried. The peace and joy I had sharing this tribute was something only God could put together, and I’m so glad it did as a tribute and not an eulogy.

The victims from Friday’s senseless tragedy thought they were seeing a movie, a couple hours plus of summer entertainment. They had no idea it would be the last thing they would ever do on Earth. To honor them and all who have died in such tragic fashion, can I challenge you to join me by giving tributes to those around you? Nothing fancy, but a verbal pat on the back to the one who never asks for credit. For the weary mom or the dad working three jobs. Have you given applause to the grandparents who gave up their empty nest to raise their own grandchildren? Have you encouraged a teacher? A colleague? Doctor? Gas station attendant? How about your own child or spouse?

It’s important to me to take what the devil meant for harm, to transform for good. I know applying these lessons won’t bring loved ones back, but it’s my way of honoring those who no longer have a voice, and those still living who deserve to see the best out of me before it is too late.

By the way, the lyrics to this Matthew West song, Forgiveness, really sum up how hard it is, yet how it really is the right thing to do.

God’s Warning Signs for America

Looking outside of ourselves to our nation, I want to encourage the body of Christ to repent for the sins of our nation, including their part in it, and pray for our country’s future. We know that God often sends warnings before He disciplines a nation, as seen in His dealings with Israel throughout the Old Testament. I believe our nation is living in a warning period right now that may very well be followed by God’s correction if we do not turn back to Him. That said, I recently read a book called, The Harbinger, that identifies the events that have recently transpired in our land beginning with 9/11 to an ancient biblical prophecy. The book correlates these events and our actions that have preceded them with the actions and events of ancient Israel as revealed particularly in the Book of Isaiah. Isaiah 9:8-9 contains Israel’s warning and her response to it is found in verse ten. The similarity in America’s response
compared to Israel’s is astounding! The judgment that follows Israel’s defiant response is then pronounced in verses eleven and twelve. The author, Jonathan Cahn, ties Israel’s purpose with America’s saying:  “no other nation has been called into being for the will of God or dedicated to His purposes from conception. No other people had been given a covenant. But the covenant had a condition. If they followed the ways of God, they would become the most blessed of nations. But if they fell away and turned against His ways, then their blessings would be removed and replaced by calamity…” Israel did fall away and their blessing was replaced with calamity (eighth century B.C.).  Our hope is that there is still time for America to heed the warning signs God has given, repent, and avoid similar judgment.

The book is written in a gripping narrative style and sounds like fiction, yet it is real. It reveals nine warnings of coming destruction that God gave to Israel and how these same nine warnings have reappeared here in America in precisely the same pattern. It is beyond extraordinary! I was unable to put this book down until I finished it!

I encourage you to watch CBN’s interview with Rabbi Cahn as they discuss The Harbinger: http://youtu.be/-SVhZCh0yDc .

How to Avoid Great Expectations in 2012 by Julie Arduini

With Christmas behind us, the conversation of the week seems to be about resolutions. People are reflecting on their year and making goals for the new one. I giggled watching Live with Kelly as Kelly Ripa mentioned resolutions and how she avoids the gym for the first three weeks of the new year. Her observation is that new members with great intentions take over the facility those first three weeks. But day after day the numbers drop until that third week when it’s pretty much back to the regular members. I can relate to that.

I’ve read that it takes 21 days to form a habit, good or bad. When I talk with friends about resolutions, one thing stands out—they have great expectations. They place a huge burden on a single month, expecting immediate transformation. For those who have a personality like mine, all or nothing, this is a plan destined for disappointment.

My take is to prayerfully take stock of your life and see what God has for you. He knows you best of all, why not ask Him what He wants for you this year? His answer might surprise you. Whatever your 2012 goals are, why not implement this strategy into making these goals success stories—

1. Eat that elephant one bite at a time. I have a writing friend who received great news, but with her contract came a formidable deadline. When she looked at the end date and total word count, she grew anxious. The task was daunting and the more she looked at the big picture, the more she felt she would fail. After praying she realized to scale things down. She looked at how many words a day she needed to write to meet that deadline, and factored in days where life would get in the way and she might not get a lot of writing accomplished. Turns out she needed 1,000 words a day to meet that goal. That overwhelming task was now manageable. She’s well on her way because she took that elephant and as the joke goes, she ate one bite at a time.

2. Make it your job. This is for the all or nothing personality. I look at what I want to accomplish as a wife, mom, writer, and ministry leader and break each category down. Last year I wanted to lose weight but knew from previous failures just saying I wanted to lose wasn’t going to be enough. I researched methods and chose following Lysa TerKeurst’s Made to Crave online study. The principles in that book gave me the “want to” and I watched the weekly webinars for additional support. I knew I needed accountability so I started teaching the study in a small group study. I put in my Outlook calendar tasks for my goals, breaking them down to quarterly, monthly, weekly, and sometimes daily deadlines. I’m someone that needs to see small goals in writing, and I love checking them off when completed. Although I’ve slacked off during the holidays, I hit that initial weight loss goal. I got specific, set deadlines, researched methods, and looked at my strengths and weaknesses to implement the tasks. If you are a details oriented person, make hitting your goals  your job. Don’t just randomly announce your resolutions.

3. Pray! It’s so simple we miss it, I know I do. I’m someone who writes and speaks on all things surrender, so you’d think I’d pray first when starting something new. I’m a firm believer that prayer changes things and can make the impossible possible. I’ve had too many diagnosis and negative events that looked like obvious failure on paper turn into the biggest success stories of my life because I believed God through Christ. My next post will expand on this to explain why I’m a believer in creating a prayer team to cover you no matter what you do for the Lord. Prayer is the foundation of everything I do—writing, marriage, parenting, and everything in between. Start the new year right with prayer.

My goal is pretty much to keep on keeping on. I want to return to the high fiber eating I adopted in 2011 and remember regular exercise. I have this broken down and hope to start even before the ball drops.

I want to keep working on my contemporary romance, listening to the Lord’s leading as I wrap up sharing it with two critique groups. Perhaps this is the year I seek an agent.

I believe praying for others will be a big part of the new year, and I want to make sure I’m spending time with Him and His word so that I’m filled. I overextended myself this year and I don’t want to burn out again. The word I believe God has for His people this coming year is “Justice” so I’m reading up on that and want to be open for His leading.

How about you? Have you set yourself up for disappointment but creating great expectations for the new year? What are your goals for the year and how do you plan to implement them? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Image by OdRodyssey

The Truth About Prayer Habits by Sarah Goebel

Whatever exercises we practice in the Christian life, they are in vain if done without the reading of Scripture and prayer. Yet sadly, most Christians go through life without an active prayer life. They worship, they go on mission trips, they serve in the church but many seldom pray. Donald Whitney in his book, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, tells about a survey done in the 1980s. “More than seventeen thousand members of a major evangelical denomination were surveyed about their prayer habits while attending seminars on prayer for spiritual awakening. Because they attended this kind of seminar, we can assume these people are above average in their interest in prayer. And yet, the surveys revealed that they pray an average of less than five minutes each day. There were two thousand pastors and wives at these same seminars. By their own admission, they pray less than seven minutes a day.”

On the other hand, can we really pray continually as we commanded in 1 Thessalonians 5:17. Yes, we can do this because Scripture is not speaking here of prayer as an activity. This is important for us to understand.  “Pray continually” speaks of relationship. My friend, Jennifer K. Dean in her book, Heart’s Cry, explains that God is calling us to live a praying life versus a prayer life.  She calls this lifestyle “living behind the veil in the presence of God throughout our days, living in Christ and Christ living through us. Prayer is in this sense living in an unbroken awareness of the presence of God as we move through our day.” It means you may be concentrating on another activity at the moment, but at the same time, you are aware of God’s presence and the need to return your attention to Him. In other words, you never really stop talking with God; you just have interruptions in your conversation. Praying continually is chatting off and on all day long as we take care of our responsibilities and enjoy the activities we are involved in as though God is our companion, traveling right along with us. The thing is – He is. We simply fail to acknowledge it.

Living a praying life does not mean, however, that we never set aside a particular time for devoted prayer. We are told in Colossians 4:2, we are to devote ourselves to prayer. When we devote ourselves to something, we make it a priority. God wants us to live with a continual awareness of His presence, communing and communicating with Him while doing life as well as to have focused dedicated times of prayer. His expectation for us to pray flows from His love for us, not from a heart to put us to task. To illustrate, when I travel, my husband expects me to call him when I arrive at my destination. I expect the same from him. We don’t put this expectation on one another as a means of control or distrust. The one traveling communicates to put the other’s mind at ease by informing them they are safe. Besides, Praise the Lord, we are still after all these years eager to hear one another’s voice when we are separated by distance. My point here is just as our expectation to phone one another flows from our love, God’s expectation for us to pray is also born out of love. When we set aside special time alone with God where our attention is all on Him, we are in a place of intimacy where God can reveal to us His most intimate secrets.

So how is your prayer life? Does it seem lifeless or alive? Do you receive direct answers to your prayers? Are you experiencing the reality of God’s continual presence in your life?

To develop a praying life lifestyle combined with special times of dedicated prayer starts with a decision to do so. God will help you once you commit to it. I would also highly recommend you read Heart’s Cry: Principles of Prayer and Live a Praying Life, both by Jennifer Kennedy Dean. Regardless where you currently are in your walk with God, I truly believe these books will set you on course for a deepened intimacy with God and a more powerful, answered prayer life.

            

To end this post, I want to share one exercise I have found helpful to developing a praying life relationship with our Father. Spend 5 to 10 minutes in prayer each morning upon awakening before your thoughts become clouded with the day’s plans. Thank Him for your life and day and ask Him to be Lord over it. Focus your thoughts on Him and His love, sovereignty and majesty. This should help you to remember He is with you from the time your feet hit the floor and as you go through your busy day.

How about you? I know we have many readers who walk closely with God. Do you have an exercise you could share that has helped you to live a praying life or increased your intimacy with God?