Day 15: What’s in Your Wallet?
For I cried out to him for help, praising him as I spoke. If I had not confessed the sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened. But God did listen! He paid attention to my prayer. Praise God, who did not ignore my prayer… (Psalm 66:17-20, NLT) You may have seen the CapitalOne credit card commercial whose motto is “What’s in your wallet?” Basically, its message is that if a person does not have a CapitalOne credit card in his wallet, rival credit card companies will inflict high rates and fees upon him. This commercial conveys a message of the problems a person may have if he does not possess something. By contrast, the Psalmist tells us in the Scripture about the problem we may face if we do possess something. In chapter 10 of the book Too Busy Not To Pray, Bill Hybels teaches about how we can be “Cooling Off on Prayer”. One of the things that can throw cold water on our prayer lives is “old-fashioned sin” in our hearts. Whenever there are elements of bitterness, jealousy, lust, pride, arrogance, frustration (which can be passive anger), etc. filling our hearts, these things can really put a damper on our prayer lives. Again, I must stress that consecration almost always involves the confessing of sin in our lives. So the question is: What’s in your...
read moreDay 14: Pray? Really?
SCRIPTURE: 1 Once Jesus was in a certain place praying. As he finished, one of his disciples came to him and said, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” 2 Jesus said, “This is how you should pray: “Father, may your name be kept holy. May your Kingdom come soon. 3 Give us each day the food we need, 4 and forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us. And don’t let us yield to temptation” 5 Then, teaching them more about prayer, he used this story: “Suppose you went to a friend’s house at midnight, wanting to borrow three loaves of bread. You say to him, 6 ‘A friend of mine has just arrived for a visit, and I have nothing for him to eat.’ 7 And suppose he calls out from his bedroom, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is locked for the night, and my family and I are all in bed. I can’t help you.’ 8 But I tell you this—though he won’t do it for friendship’s sake, if you keep knocking long enough, he will get up and give you whatever you need because of your shameless persistence. 9 “And so I tell you, Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. (Luke 11:1-9, NLT) “Look me in the eye and tell me-yes or no-if you you’ve prayed about this (situation) fervently and regularly over an extended period of time.” This is a quote from Chapter 9 of Too Busy Not To Pray, which is entitled “Prayer Busters”. In other words: Have you prayed about this consistently (undeviatingly) and persistently (continuously, constantly, perseveringly, tenaciously)? Wow! This really hit me right between the eyes, as in smack in the middle of my brain. I may think about my situations non-stop. I may complain to others about it passionately. I may even talk to myself constantly about it. But pray? I mean really, PRAY persistently, passionately, and perseveringly? Sadly, even as a pastor, I rarely do this. As Bill states on that same page (99), “Unfortunately I joined the club whose motto is “When all else fails, (then is when I decide to really) pray…” As April quickly approaches, let’s first repent and then make a list of our top three concerns and peace-stealers and begin a consistent P.U.S.H. (pray until something happens) into our new...
read moreDay 13: A God Who’s in the Details!
If the request is wrong, God says, “No.” If the timing is wrong, God says, “Slow.” If we, ourselves, are wrong, God says, “Grow.” But if all the above is right, then God says, “Go!” (Page 86 of Too Busy Not To Pray) SCRIPTURE: When I heard this, I sat down and wept. In fact, for days I mourned, fasted, and prayed to the God of heaven. Then I said “O LORD, God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps his covenant of unfailing love with those who love him and obey his commands…O Lord, please hear my prayer! Listen to the prayers of those of us who delight in honoring you. Please grant me success today by making the king favorable to me. Put it into his heart to be kind to me.” …The king asked, “Well, how can I help you?” With a prayer to the God of heaven, I replied, “If it please the king, and if you are pleased with me, your servant, send me to Judah to rebuild the city where my ancestors are buried.” (Nehemiah1:4-5, 11; 2:4-5, NLT) In reading this Scripture, I am both amazed and discouraged by the details of Nehemiah’s prayers. Even while he’s in the presence of the king making this huge request, Nehemiah is constantly praying. Chapter 8 of Too Busy Not To Pray is entitled, “The Hurt of Unanswered Prayer”. What struck me about this chapter was the amount of detail and length of time Bill and his staff spend praying over one staff decision as described in page 87 (Too Loving to Say Yes). And even while making the decision, Bill is still asking God to lead him as to what he should do. Then just before he makes the decision, the Holy Spirit tells him, “No.” But what startled me was when the potential candidate asks Bill, “Is there anything else you wanted to talk to me about?” Bill was disciplined enough to trust what God had told him. I wondered: what would I have done if I were in his place? Would I have taken this as an open door? Would I have disregarded what I sensed the Holy Spirit had spoken to my spirit and simply walked through the trap door Satan had opened, thinking it was God? Not only must every step of our lives be guided by prayer, but we must also be weaned from our need for circumstantial answers to our prayers. We must mature to a place where we walk with the Holy Spirit and obey what He tells us, even when Satan seems to use circumstances to confirm answers to our very...
read moreDay 9: Focus!
Then Jesus said to the disciples, “Have faith in God. I tell you the truth, you can say to this mountain, ‘May you be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and it will happen. But you must really believe it will happen and have no doubt in your heart. I tell you, you can pray for anything, and if you believe that you’ve received it, it will be yours.” (Mark 11:22-24, NLT) I had a picture taken of me last week in the balcony of our church. The photographer wanted to try something new, so he asked me to lean against the balcony railing so that he could get the main auditorium as a good background to the picture. I thought this was a great idea, but the problem was that I am afraid of heights. Wondering how I was going to sit on the balcony railing without panicking, I came up with a great idea. Instead of focusing on the drop behind me, I would focus on the photographer and his camera. And guess what? It worked! My focusing on the right thing made the difference, not only in me and my fear of heights but also in how the picture came out. My face was full of calm and not anxiety. In Chapter 7 of Too Busy Not to Pray, Bill Hybels teaches us about “Mountain Moving Faith”. His main thought is that mountain moving faith focuses on God and not the mountain. In reading the Scripture on which he bases this Scripture, I began to see three keys need in order to possess a faith that brings God results to impossible situations. I observed that mountain moving faith: 1. Sees God, not the mountain. (Mark 11:22) 2. Speaks what it believes. (Mark 11:23) 3. Secures in the heart what it believes before seeing it happen. (Mark 11:24) If we are going to have the productive prayer lives both that God wants and we desire, then we must learn to discipline ourselves in the area of focus. (Psalm...
read moreDay 8: Fess Up, Again!
It was the first year of the reign of Darius the Mede, the son of Ahasuerus, who became king of the Babylonians. During the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, learned from reading the word of the LORD, as revealed to Jeremiah the prophet, that Jerusalem must lie desolate for seventy years. So I turned to the LORD God and pleaded with him in prayer and fasting. I also wore rough burlap and sprinkled myself with ashes. I prayed to the LORD my God and confessed: “O Lord, you are a great and awesome God! You always fulfill your covenant and keep your promises of unfailing love to those who love you and obey your commands. But we have sinned and done wrong. We have rebelled against you and scorned your commands and regulations. We have refused to listen to your servants the prophets, who spoke on your authority to our kings and princes and ancestors and to all the people of the land. “Lord, you are in the right; but as you see, our faces are covered with shame. This is true of all of us, including the people of Judah and Jerusalem and all Israel, scattered near and far, wherever you have driven us because of our disloyalty to you. O LORD, we and our kings, princes, and ancestors are covered with shame because we have sinned against you. But the Lord our God is merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against him. We have not obeyed the LORD our God, for we have not followed the instructions he gave us through his servants the prophets. All Israel has disobeyed your instruction and turned away, refusing to listen to your voice.” (Daniel 9:1-11, NLT) In Chapter 6 of Too Busy Not to Pray, Bill Hybels teaches us a simple format to assist us with our prayer time with God. In this chapter, entitled “A Pattern for Prayer”, he uses the acronym A.C.T.S. in order to describe each step we should take to have “balance” in our prayer lives. Again, one of the steps he describes is called “Confession.” This is the time during our prayer where we confess our sins to God. I believe that, prior to any significant revival or move of God, there must be confession of sin. (Nehemiah 1:4-10). So let’s use this season of consecration to be honest with God. And let’s also remember that just before James told us that “…The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective,” he first said, “…Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.” (James 5:16; NIV). So again, let’s all be honest with God and fess...
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