A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the burden I feel about prayer. I basically challenged the devil to a fist fight, and unfortunately, the devil won this battle.
Life came along. I was busy. Distracted. And in that short period of time, my passion faded. I was still praying, but not with fire. Not with passion.
After a week of this, by last Friday I was discouraged. I had no vision or desire. And I was taking everything personally.
How is it that everything I do or think becomes so selfish? Why am I surprised when the devil finds me, and attacks me? Especially when I pretty much challenged him to a duel.
What have I learned from this? That you have to be on guard. All the time. That you have to constantly and consistently surrender your will to His. That no matter what happens, it's not about me. It's about Him.
The blessing of this tough lesson is that the people I've been praying for were at church today. Three of the four couples. That's a joy. And it's a reflection of His power. Definitely not mine.
I don't know that I am adequately describing my self disgust. I blew it. To clean my house and work and just do stuff. What do I have to show for that week? Not much. (although I cleaned out my garage. That's pretty awesome.)
I'm going to be studying the armor of God, and I'll be posting at times. I'm still learning a lot in this journey. All I know is that I want to be like John the Baptist, in John chapter 3. "He must become greater; I must become less.”
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
My Challenge
<I shared this in an email with my Sunday School class this morning. I decided to post it, to recreate this blog into a communication tool for the purpose of prayer.>
As many of you know, in Sunday School I asked you to join me in a prayer challenge. I realized last week that a couple who had been coming to church had sort of disappeared, and they are not responding to any communications. I'm really worried about them, and so mad at myself. There had been drugs and alcohol in their past, and I'm so mad that we - no, I - didn't aggressively, assertively pray for them. Of course Satan was going to attack them, tempt them, seek to undermine them when they started coming to church. Why didn't I see that? Why wasn't I prepared for it? Why wasn't I storming the gates of hell for them, refusing to let Satan go after them?
Well, no more. I'm mad now. I've been a wimpy Christian before, but no more. I've been given a burden, and I'm going to be praying for them in a major way now, and I asked you all to join me in this kind of "storm-the-gates" prayer for the new families who have been coming into our church family. Satan is going to attack them! And we have to help them!
Specifically, I'm talking about Frankie & Brandy, and Tracey & Amber. I think Frankie & Brandy's last name is Adams; I don't know about Tracey & Amber. I was reminded last night about another couple that I haven't seen for awhile - Gary & Brandy . . . Manship, I think.
In Sunday School, I talked about some reading I had been doing about Roman warriors. Their battle motto was, "Take one square of ground - clear it - advance. Take one square of ground - clear it - advance." Never retreat. Hold your ground until victory or death!
Isn't that what we should do spiritually? Take one square - be it temptation, a bad habit, bitterness, etc - and fight until you clear it. Then advance. And do it again. Never retreat. Never surrender. Hold your ground.
That's how I want to approach this prayer for the lost. Never stop praying. Never give up.
OK, so that's the background. The new information is what happened yesterday. At our morning Bible study in Romans, we got to talking about verse 16 in chapter 1: For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Long story short, we got to talking about what shame means, and that talk turned to prayer - the kind of prayer that is shown in 2 Chronicles 7:14, the kind of prayer that is on-your-face before God, wrestling, interceding, focused prayer.
It was a great discussion, and then last night we went to camp meeting. The church praise team served as the camp praise team last night, and Dr. Nina Gunter was the speaker. And guess what she talked about? Prayer! (She told me last night that that wasn't the sermon she had originally planned. God woke her up around 3 AM and told her to give this message!)
She said things like, God has called us to move forward! And the only way to do that is through prayer. She asked if we were desperate for God. She asked what will happen if we fail to pray. She challenged us to be warriors! To take on the armor of God and fight! It was amazing. (I recorded it if anyone wants to hear it!)
I cried. I wanted to curl up in a ball and sob. Not because I felt bad. Because I felt overwhelmed by the presence of God. She was challenging me in exactly the same way I felt God challenging me. He has spoken so clearly over the last few days . . . I feel so blessed.
So here's the thing. I'm praying. In a huge way. I'm not letting go. You don't have to join me, if you don't want to. But I hope you do, because I believe there is HUGE power in communal prayer. There's nothing in my way - get behind me, Satan! Dr. Gunter said last night, Satan dreads prayer. Of course he does! He knows we have the most powerful nuclear weapon in the universe, and when we don't use it, we are no threat. But when we do . . . he'd just better watch it! I'M. NOT. GOING. AWAY.
If you join me in this, he's going to attack us, too. It won't be easy. He'll try to make us feel discouraged. He'll create problems. He'll create distractions. He'll try to divide us, so he can conquer us. Uh-uh. I'm not standing for it. I'm not going to fall for the devil's schemes. If you're going to join me, we'll need to pray for each other, too. And not just during Sunday School. Continually. All week. We'll have to pray for unity and joy and strength and energy. Don't be afraid! God is bigger!
I found a Roman battle cry as I was doing my reading and research on the warriors. It's "Stete!" It means, "Stand Firm!"
Anyone care to join me?
As many of you know, in Sunday School I asked you to join me in a prayer challenge. I realized last week that a couple who had been coming to church had sort of disappeared, and they are not responding to any communications. I'm really worried about them, and so mad at myself. There had been drugs and alcohol in their past, and I'm so mad that we - no, I - didn't aggressively, assertively pray for them. Of course Satan was going to attack them, tempt them, seek to undermine them when they started coming to church. Why didn't I see that? Why wasn't I prepared for it? Why wasn't I storming the gates of hell for them, refusing to let Satan go after them?
Well, no more. I'm mad now. I've been a wimpy Christian before, but no more. I've been given a burden, and I'm going to be praying for them in a major way now, and I asked you all to join me in this kind of "storm-the-gates" prayer for the new families who have been coming into our church family. Satan is going to attack them! And we have to help them!
Specifically, I'm talking about Frankie & Brandy, and Tracey & Amber. I think Frankie & Brandy's last name is Adams; I don't know about Tracey & Amber. I was reminded last night about another couple that I haven't seen for awhile - Gary & Brandy . . . Manship, I think.
In Sunday School, I talked about some reading I had been doing about Roman warriors. Their battle motto was, "Take one square of ground - clear it - advance. Take one square of ground - clear it - advance." Never retreat. Hold your ground until victory or death!
Isn't that what we should do spiritually? Take one square - be it temptation, a bad habit, bitterness, etc - and fight until you clear it. Then advance. And do it again. Never retreat. Never surrender. Hold your ground.
That's how I want to approach this prayer for the lost. Never stop praying. Never give up.
OK, so that's the background. The new information is what happened yesterday. At our morning Bible study in Romans, we got to talking about verse 16 in chapter 1: For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Long story short, we got to talking about what shame means, and that talk turned to prayer - the kind of prayer that is shown in 2 Chronicles 7:14, the kind of prayer that is on-your-face before God, wrestling, interceding, focused prayer.
It was a great discussion, and then last night we went to camp meeting. The church praise team served as the camp praise team last night, and Dr. Nina Gunter was the speaker. And guess what she talked about? Prayer! (She told me last night that that wasn't the sermon she had originally planned. God woke her up around 3 AM and told her to give this message!)
She said things like, God has called us to move forward! And the only way to do that is through prayer. She asked if we were desperate for God. She asked what will happen if we fail to pray. She challenged us to be warriors! To take on the armor of God and fight! It was amazing. (I recorded it if anyone wants to hear it!)
I cried. I wanted to curl up in a ball and sob. Not because I felt bad. Because I felt overwhelmed by the presence of God. She was challenging me in exactly the same way I felt God challenging me. He has spoken so clearly over the last few days . . . I feel so blessed.
So here's the thing. I'm praying. In a huge way. I'm not letting go. You don't have to join me, if you don't want to. But I hope you do, because I believe there is HUGE power in communal prayer. There's nothing in my way - get behind me, Satan! Dr. Gunter said last night, Satan dreads prayer. Of course he does! He knows we have the most powerful nuclear weapon in the universe, and when we don't use it, we are no threat. But when we do . . . he'd just better watch it! I'M. NOT. GOING. AWAY.
If you join me in this, he's going to attack us, too. It won't be easy. He'll try to make us feel discouraged. He'll create problems. He'll create distractions. He'll try to divide us, so he can conquer us. Uh-uh. I'm not standing for it. I'm not going to fall for the devil's schemes. If you're going to join me, we'll need to pray for each other, too. And not just during Sunday School. Continually. All week. We'll have to pray for unity and joy and strength and energy. Don't be afraid! God is bigger!
I found a Roman battle cry as I was doing my reading and research on the warriors. It's "Stete!" It means, "Stand Firm!"
Anyone care to join me?
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