Tag Archives: God

October 15, 2012 · 3:57 PM

Purpose and Power

I talk to my friends and family quite often. Some more than others, but I try to keep in contact. Keep the communication lines open. See what is going on in their lives. Make sure they have what they need and offer assistance where I can. Sometimes I just miss a particular person and want to chat for awhile. I have long conversations with some people and small talk with others, but the end result is that I actually communicated with that friend or family member. It all helps to ensure that my relationships are sustained and we know what is happening with each other. The good, the bad, and the ugly, so to speak.

The same thing happens with God. And the communication is called prayer. Two people talking to each other and making requests of one another. Keeping in touch. Knowing what’s happening with the other person.

I’ve heard a lot of people pray.  Some are so eloquent that you feel totally embarrassed to pray out loud in front of them. Others just say what is on their heart. Some of my own prayers have been the long and fervent and weeping-on-my-knees kind. Other prayers have been a short sentence, or even just one word. I have whispered a prayer, said it aloud in the shower, lying in bed, in the car while driving. It doesn’t matter. It’s all communication.

The conversations I have with God are similar to the conversations that I have with my friends and family. But just as I don’t call those friends every time and only when I want something, I don’t talk to God only when I want or need something. I am sustaining a relationship. I am letting Him know how I am doing. He is my friend, so I call Him whenever I want to talk my friend.

This is the purpose of prayer.

And prayer gives you purpose. You won’t understand God’s purpose for your life or walk in the fullness of your destiny without prayer.

Prayer gives you power. There is no other way to experience the power of God in your life.

We don’t think enough about prayer. We don’t focus on prayer. And sometimes we get so far away from God’s voice that we can’t even hear it anymore. It’s ironic, really; our lack of interest in prayer. Because it’s the very thing that sustains our connection with the Father. Prayer should be woven into the very fibre of our being.

It’s not about eloquence. It’s not about religion. It’s about a relationship with the living God.

God can’t stand pious poses, but he delights in genuine prayers. Proverbs 15:8 (The Message)

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January 18, 2012 · 5:26 PM

God and the Pie Chart

Our pastor preached a sermon several weeks ago and talked about God in a pie chart. The illustration above shows how we tend to fit God into our daily lives. But there’s a problem with that. God doesn’t want to be a slice in our pie charts. He wants to BE the pie chart, where everything we do is contained in Him.

Enough said.

 

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January 13, 2012 · 2:24 PM

Are You a Person of Interest?

I’ve become a bit hooked on the TV show Person of Interest. I started watching it last fall because I really like the two stars, Jim Caviezel (aka Jesus in Passion of the Christ) and Michael Emerson (aka Ben Linus of Lost).

The whole premise of this series is that Mr. Finch (Michael Emerson), a mysterious billionaire, developed a computer program for the government that predicts terrorist threats in New York City. It was designed as a means to prevent another 9/11-type disaster, but Finch discovered that it was also predicting many “irrelevant” (non-terrorist) violent crimes. The non-terrorist data is dumped to a separate database and deleted each night. Finch realized that a great many domestic crimes could also be prevented if that data could be used. Finch built a back door into the machine that allows him to retrieve a list of Social Security Numbers of people who will be involved in those crimes in order of occurrence. Unable to investigate on his own, Finch hires John Reese (Jim Caviezel), a former Green Beret and CIA field officer who is presumed dead, to help stop the crimes from taking place. Finch made the choice of only transmitting the Social Security Numbers of the persons of interest so that if the back door is discovered, the government would have no clue as to what the numbers mean, or who is acting on the data. (From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Person_of_Interest_(TV_series))

As I was watching last night’s episode, it dawned on me that I am a Person of Interest (POI), perhaps not in the sense that the television show depicts, but a POI nonetheless.

You had to know I was going to say this: I am a Person of Interest to God. Do you have any idea how awesome that is? But I am also a Person of Interest to the enemy, Satan. Not so awesome. But if you will allow me to draw some parallels to the TV program, I think you’ll see what I mean.

Like Finch, who gets the daily list of Social Security numbers to deal with, I get my to-do list from God. Finch can choose to ignore the numbers and let the crimes happen without his intervention, just as I can choose to ignore what God is telling me to do. Finch needs assistance as he works on each case, which is where Reese comes in. I need help to do what God has entrusted me to do, so I call on the Holy Spirit to guide and direct me, and I ask friends or family to stand with me.

But there are always the bad guys. As soon as Finch and Reece get going on their current task, the enemies show up and do everything they can to stop the progress. Well, I have an enemy too – that puss-head, Satan. (Thanks, Dad, for that very visual nickname!) Whenever I start diving into the next level in my walk with Jesus, there’s the devil, attempting to thwart me at every turn. It takes perseverance, determination, and faith to keep him off my back. Sometimes that means taking a different direction than I had originally planned. And sometimes it means plowing through, with the Sword of the Spirit drawn. In any case, I’ve got to put my Armor on and keep it on.

Yes, I am a Person of Interest. I am of great interest to God, the Father, who loves me and let His only Son die to give me eternal life. He has a plan for my life and He is unfolding that plan as I step forward, keeping my eyes on Jesus. And I am a Person of Interest to the enemy, who really, REALLY wants to distract me from God’s plan and, in plain English, wants to destroy me. You don’t get one without the other.

Think about that.

 

 

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January 11, 2012 · 10:47 AM

Putting Procrastination Behind

I am a procrastinator by nature. Yes, I admit it. This is not a characteristic I like or even want, so in order to keep it under control I have to discipline myself to complete the to-do list. Every. Single. Day.

And how am I doing with that, you ask? Well, yesterday was not my star performance. I made a big mistake in confiding to one of my daughters that I was bored. As soon as the words came out of my mouth, I sucked in my breath as if to take the words back, but it was too late. We always had this rule in our house: if you say you’re bored, you get to clean all the toilets in the house. Good thing the toilets needed cleaning yesterday. But my point is that despite my boredom, I had a whole lot of things to do that I just didn’t feel like doing.

Shame on me.

I read a quote this morning that caught my attention. “Covering laziness in prayer is not a spiritual discipline.” It was an eye-opener, because first of all, isn’t procrastinating just being lazy? And second of all, don’t we often tend to cop-out by praying about something instead of acting on it? We go to God in prayer – which is a good thing – and then walk away when we’re done, satisfied that we can say we prayed. Meanwhile, God is wondering when we’re going to get the hint that He’s required more than just our prayers. And we’re wondering why our prayers aren’t answered.

So I’m working on the whole procrastination thing. And I’m also working on the action list God’s has given me.

Maybe someone else will clean the toilets.

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January 9, 2012 · 11:48 AM

One Word


Have you heard about the “One Word” New Year’s resolution thing? Click on the image above to go to the site.

The whole idea behind this concept is to trash the resolution and focus on just one word – a word that becomes your own personal creed, so to speak, for 2012. I like this for many reasons, largely because I have a history of not keeping any kind of New Year’s resolution past about January 3rd. At least I think I made it that far once.

You may not be able to get through your laundry list of resolutions, but you can focus on one word. Or in my case, two words.

Listen. Do.

This is a shortened version of: Listen to God. Do what He says.

I am really good at talking, but not so good at listening. And when it comes to the doing part of what I was supposed to be listening to – well – let’s put the past behind and move forward, shall we? This is a new year.

2012 is just over a week old and already I can see that Listen and Do will be a learning process. I have a lifetime of bad habits to break where this is concerned, and I think my biggest hurdle is to be still long enough for God to say what He wants to say. I want to be attentive. I want to hear what He is saying to me. And I want to act on that, whether it be something He has spoken to me in His Word, or during my prayer time, or through someone else.

So even though my One Word is actually two, I think I can do this.

I’ll keep you posted.

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