When you Pray

In Matthew 6 Jesus gives us some amazing instructions in the area of Spiritual Disciplines. This is the conversation we are having at LifePoint during the current series called "Pillars". This past Sunday we discussed "prayer" as a discipline. Jesus begins His instructions in verse 5 with these words, "And when you pray."

Did you catch that? The assumption on Jesus' part is that we WOULD pray. He makes the assumption that we will so he gives us some direction and even a model to follow.
One of the ways that we pray is by turning God's word into specific, practical prayers for the life we have been called to live.

Sunday I used the illustration of the "Lord's Prayer" as a great place to start. In this blog I want to share a few other verses with you and show you how we might turn that into a specific prayer. Remember that we are learning to walk in these disciplines together.

Paul wrote in Philippians 4:8 "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things." (I love this passage and use it all the time)

Here's how I might pray this passage back to God:
"Lord, today I am going to be bombarded by many thoughts. I'm going to be confronted with things that are not true, there will be temptations I will be confronted with to embrace impure thoughts or actions, so I ask you to help me focus this day on truth. God, I know that truth is whatever you say regardless of how I think or feel so let me keep that in the front of my mind. When impure pictures or thoughts come my way help me to turn away and see you!"

Here's another passage:
Roman's 12:1 "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, this is your spiritual act of worship."

Prayer idea:
"Wow God! In light of all you have done for me the least I can do today is to make myself available to you. I present myself to you today, so take my gifts, talents and abilities and use them for your plans and purposes!"

For those of you who were there Sunday I referenced Ephesians 6:10-18. Here's a challenge. Grab your Bible, take a few minutes and read the passage and then formulate a prayer that you could pray back to God to make this passage come alive and become relevant in your life. You may even want to take a few minutes and write the prayer and spend a few days reading/praying it until it starts to lodge in your heart.

This Sunday we will look at the discipline of "Study" and that will give us a greater opportunity to grow in God's word and it will enhance our times of praying through scripture.

"And WHEN you Pray!"

Closing Ceremonies and Spiritual Disciplines

So the 2008 Summer Olympics have come to a close and what a great event it was to watch. As I sat in front of the TV watching the closing ceremonies my mind began to think about all of the hard work that had gone into making the games what they were.

First you had all of the volunteers and effort put forth by those in China that made it all flow and made the opening and closing events some of the greatest in history. Then you had all of the "discipline" by the athletes that actually competed in the games. Nobody showed up in China, hoping to win, having not put in thousands of hours in training and working out.

I think there is a connection between these games and the reality of the discipline that will be required of us to experience the life Christ has called us to experience. In our current series "Pillars" we are talking about some of the ancient paths of following Christ and the Spiritual Disciplines that when present in our lives, create space for God to breathe and work within us.

As I watched the athletes flood into the stadium last night I thought of Paul's words:

You've all been to the stadium and seen the athletes race. Everyone runs; one wins. Run to win. All good athletes train hard. They do it for a gold medal that tarnishes and fades. You're after one that's gold eternally. I don't know about you, but I'm running hard for the finish line. I'm giving it everything I've got. No sloppy living for me! I'm staying alert and in top condition.
I Corinthians 9:24-27 (The Message)

Are you giving it all you've got? Yesterday we looked at the discipline of prayer and this week we will take it a little further. My challenge for you today is to think through the four types of prayer we discussed and begin to spend some time in each area. If you missed the message you can listen to it on our "podcast" page and the four prayers are listed on our home page.

Start with conversational prayer throughout this day. As you go about living and being remember that God really does care for you and he longs for us to talk to Him. Stop right now, thank Him for his love and spend the day in constant communion with Him. More to come tomorrow!

Hospital Food

Don't you just love hospital food? OK, don't answer that!
Carey (my wife) is resting well after her back surgery today. This kind of jumped up on us from out of the blue this week. We are so grateful for all of our friends and family who have called, prayed and cared for us so far. We have a month or so of some slow recovery time but God is good and we will be better for it.
This past Sunday I talked about learning to pull away and have solitude and silence as part of Sabbath. This may be a way to have a Sabbath break but I bet tonight's stay won't involve solitude or silence. Probably right when Carey gets to sleep they'll wake her up to take a "sleeping pill". Gotta love it!
This Sunday we will continue our series "Pillars" as we take a deeper look at the need for spiritual disciplines in our lives. We will talk about how Jesus said that the way to clean the outside of our lives is to focus on the inside. Don't miss it!

Wild Goose Chase

Mark Batterson has done it again! I just finished reviewing a copy of his new book, "Wild Goose Chase" and I feel like I need to grab my backpack, head to North Georgia, and start hiking the Appalachian Trail. That's one of my "life goals"

One of the main thrusts of the book is setting goals and pursuing the things God has put in your heart to do. Most of us sell ourselves short and by doing so we are selling God short.
Mark says that if we are going to experience God's best for our lives then we must learn "to play offense. You've got to play to win!"

Last year I had the privilege of hearing Mark speak and then talking with him for a few minutes at the Catalyst Conference. He's one of those guys that has become a long distance mentor to me through his speaking and writing both from books and his blog.

I would encourage you to make his blog a part of your daily reading! You can connect at: www.markbatterson.com

One of the greatest challenges that I have faced in several years came from Mark's inspiration: sitting down and developing a list of 100 Life Goals. He speaks of this practice in his newest book.

It has been said that "we will all end up somewhere in life so why not end up there on purpose."

Today, I encourage you to purchase a copy of "Wild Goose Chase", read it the minute it lands in your hands, and then spend the rest of your life chasing the Wild Goose.

Find out more at www.chasethegoose.com or go straight to www.amazon.com and order your copy!

Thanks for the challenge Mark!

Spiritual Disciplines and Personal Rhythm's

Today we continued our series, "Pillars" by introducing the need in our lives for spiritual disciplines. I mentioned that the bridge between God's grace that is for forgiveness of sins and God's grace that leads us to a life of obedience is built by spiritual disciplines.
Over the next several weeks we will look in detail at some of the specific practices that allow us to experience spiritual formation. This is the diligence to do the hard things that are part of following Christ. It's one thing to believe in Him but to follow requires paying a price.
One of this biggest part of that price is to focus on some proper and healthy rhythm's for life. As of last week I have engaged a personal coach to help me manage my life's rhythm's. Sometimes we may think that we can do it all on our own and that we don't need a coach but even the greatest enlist the help of others.
Tiger Woods is one of the greatest golfers to ever play the game and yet he has a coach. It's because he understands that even though he has many skills there are still things that he doesn't see in his own game.
As we pursue this life of disciplines I encourage you to surround yourself with people who will help you grow. People who will speak into your life.We all need encourager's and coaches.

Night of Worship

Last night we had one of the most amazing times ever at "Night of Worship". For those of you not familiar we gather the first Wednesday of the month about 8-9 months out of the year for a time of music and communion. Some months I share some brief thoughts as I did last night on suffering. You can get the basics from my post yesterday.
My post today is really not about anything I shared but about the amazing time of worship through song that Chris and our band lead us into. We are so fortunate at LifePoint to have a guy like Chris with his gifts, talents and passions to see people truly experience Christ. That's exactly how I left feeling last night. (I experienced Christ)
We go through life a lot of times knowing about God but to experience Him takes our journey to a new level.
Kudo's to Chris, the band, the guys in the sound/media booth, the ladies who set up the room and anyone else who made last night possible. Today I have been able to continue the experience in my heart because of your efforts and availability.
If you missed last night join us in September for what I know will be another great time!

The Benefits of Suffering

OK, so not my favorite title or subject! However, I think we have to face the reality that suffering has a place in our lives. I will talk briefly about this at Night of Worship this week.
It seems to me that whenever we talk about suffering, especially as followers of Christ, that we have this negative tone in our conversation. What if we could begin to see suffering for what it really is, "An opportunity to see God in unique ways and an opportunity to grow." The Bible doesn't seem to share this negative view we have of suffering.
As a matter of fact James said "Consider it pure joy, my brothers when you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance." James 1:2-3
May I suggest that you go and read the verses that follow for a better grasp on the benefits of suffering in our lives.
Today, no matter what we are facing could we ask God to reveal himself to us in unique ways and allow us the strength and grace to persevere!