We usually give the first day of each week to God, and that’s a good thing. I want us to give the first week of the year to God too. We have to be people of prayer.
Not talking about prayer, but praying.
Not talking about our needs, but casting our cares on God.
Not talking about others’ needs, but interceding for them.
Join us in prayer all throughout this week. If you can come to the church at 6:30pm on any night, please do. But even if you can’t, then just pray on!
My wife is a beautiful, talented woman, but she tends to be, uh, directionally-challenged. That is to say, it’s not hard for her to get on the wrong road, heading the wrong direction. So a wonderful Christmas gift from my folks this year was a TomTom GPS unit.
Yesterday I took a trip and borrowed her TomTom. My first destination was a familiar one, but my second stop was somewhere I hadn’t been before. So I’m driving along when all of a sudden I hear a pleasant female voice tell me, “In two miles, exit to the right.”
Cool!
The Bible tells us that we can have a moral GPS system just like my wife’s TomTom. Check this out:
Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a Voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”
That Voice is the Holy Spirit. Jesus said the Holy Spirit would guide us in the right ways to go:
But when the Father sends the Advocate as My representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—He will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you.
You have this moral GPS system at your disposal. Are you using it? Prayer is the power supply that activates the Voice. Turn Him on and make better decisions, live a better life, and do greater things for God.
Prayer works. This phrase is powerful on so many levels—
Most Christians give the first day of each week to God. I’m challenging myself and our congregation to give the first week of the new year to God. January 3-9 will be a week of working in prayer. We’ve called this week Total Access: When we pray, we have total access to all of God’s blessings. He wants to bless us so that…
1. We can be more fruitful.
2. We can bless others out of our overflow.
3. We can glorify God.
Why don’t you join us in giving your first week of the year to God. It’s work to pray, but prayer works.
Last night my two young nephews were staying at our house. After dinner (and ice cream!) my youngest nephew decided he would rather go back home to sleep in his own bed. As I was driving him back toward his house, we had a fascinating conversation.
Fascinating for me because of the sincere simplicity of his young mind. He sees the world so innocently, and yet so sincerely as well. It reminded me of… me.
When I was a kid, my Grandfather offered me my choice of a dollar bill or a single penny. Without any hesitation, I chose the penny. “Why do you want just one penny,” my Grandfather asked, “Don’t you know that a dollar is worth 100 pennies?”
“Yes,” I replied in all my 3-year-old wisdom, “But you can’t put a dollar in a gumball machine.”
I robbed myself of a greater blessing because of my innocent simplicity. I saw only the immediate gain and not the greater blessing. I might have to go through an extra step to exchange the dollar for 100 pennies, but wouldn’t the effort be worth it?
Here’s what C.S. Lewis said:
“If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is no part of the Christian faith. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”
Are you too easily pleased? Can you believe God for greater blessings? You might have to give up the immediate gain, but won’t it be worth it to trade mud pies in a slum for a holiday at the sea? Don’t settle for a single penny, when there are immeasurable treasures waiting for you!
Some of you may know that my puppy Grace came to me on National Be Kind To Craig Owens Day. (What, you didn’t know about that holiday?!?) What a joy she’s brought to our family!
I’m trying to get some work done at home right now, and she insists on curling up on my lap. If I get up to get something from another room, she will follow me into that room. She loves going in the car with me or hanging out with me at my office. There’s no doubt that I’m her human.
So I was thinking today about how Grace just simply wants to be where I am. I sort of think this is what the Bible means when it says, “So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when He adopted you as His own children. Now we call Him, ‘Abba, Father.’”
Do you just want to spend time with God?
Do you simply want to be where He is?
Just to feel close to Him?
To go where He’s going?
And do what He’s doing?
To call Him “Daddy, God”?
Your Heavenly Father is calling you today to come closer to Him. Will you answer that call?
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
“Dear Lord, I pray that You will help me be successful on my job today. Help me to make that sale [close that deal, get the promotion, earn the raise]. Bless me today. Amen.” All over the world today people at work are praying something similar to this. Does God notice? Is this a prayer God wants to answer?
I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. I’ve been wondering if asking God to bless my efforts is praying a selfish prayer.
That well-known prayer by Jabez sounds very similar, doesn’t it? “Oh, that You would bless me and enlarge my territory!” This prayer must have pleased God because the verse ends with, “And God granted his request” (1 Chronicles 4:9-10).
In the life of Joseph, the phrase about his on-the-job success is repeated again and again. First in Potiphar’s house, and then in prison, and then in the royal court we see the phrase “Joseph prospered” (for those of you keeping track at home, that means Joseph was a success at the office). We don’t see Joseph praying for this success, but we see him walking in it nonetheless.
But here’s the key component: it’s all about your heart attitude. In other words, it’s all about how you intend to become successful and what you plan to do with your success.
Jabez wanted to be successful so he wouldn’t be a burden to anyone else. He asked God to give him success in a way that benefitted others. So, too, with Joseph: at every mention of Joseph’s success there is a corresponding phrase like, “The Lord was with him” or “The Lord gave him success in everything he did.”
Do you want success on the job? Go ahead and pray for God to “enlarge your territory” or help you to “prosper.” Then do things God’s way, and be sure to give Him the credit for your success. I believe that God wants to give you more and more on-the-job success so that He is glorified, and so that others around you recognize God’s provision.
Keep praying for success. I’m praying that for myself and for you too.
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Tick, Tock! “There just is never enough time in my day!”
Tick, Tock! “Wow, this day has just flown by and I got nothing done!”
Tick, Tock! “Why do I always have so much To Do List left at the end of my week?”
May I suggest that instead of Tick, Tock! you focus on Drip, Drop!
I’ve gotten some great insight on time usage from Paul Meyer. Check it out:
“Most time is wasted, not in hours, but in minutes. A bucket with a small hole in the bottom gets just as empty as a bucket that is deliberately emptied.”
Usually our time doesn’t just Tick! by, it Drips! by. In other words, it’s really easy to spot the huge time-wasters; it’s much more difficult to find the time-leakers. But they can be found and plugged. Listen to more good advice from Dr. Meyer:
“Time is usually wasted in the same way every day.”
You cannot add more Tick, Tocking! time to your day, but you can keep more of your day from Drip, Dropping! away. Here are two things I’ve done which have really helped me:
If you can identify the time leaks, God can give you the wisdom to help you plug them. When you can control the Drip, Drop! you’ll get more out of your Tick, Tock! each day.
UPDATE: The thoughts in this chapter became a whole chapter in my book Shepherd Leadership. The chapter is called ‘Can’t, Won’t, or Don’t,’ and it addresses the three attitudes that hold us back from stewarding our time.
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
Life’s coming at me way too fast today!
Like a runaway commuter train.
I’ve got way too much to get done today!
Like a shorthanded deli owner at the peak of the lunch rush.
My To-Do list is longer than my To-Day’s hours.
What goes first?
What can wait until tomorrow?
What can I delegate to someone else?
Wait… listen to this odd counsel about busyness:
“Tomorrow I plan to work, work, from early until late. I have so much to do that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer.” —Martin Luther
The first hours praying?!?
Not responding to emails.
Not getting a head start on the piles of stuff.
Not folding laundry before the kids get up.
Not going to the office before the phones start ringing.
Yes, get up earlier to pray more!
God knows your schedule.
He knows your To-Do list.
He knows your To-Day’s hours.
He knows what’s important … really important.
God says, “Love Me. Love others. Serve the world.”
“You must love God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength. And you must love your neighbor as yourself. Nothing else on your To-Do list is more important than these.”—Jesus
Too busy today?
Get up earlier tomorrow and talk to God about it.
“I direct the steps of those who seek Me. I delight in every detail of their lives.” —God
Get up and get praying.
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Do you ever doubt Scripture? I don’t mean doubting its inerrancy, but its application to real life. You know what I mean: “Okay, that sounds interesting, but I’m not sure that’s for now or for me. C’mon, that can’t mean me!”
Here’s the verse that got me thinking: “He has made everything beautiful in its time….”
Everything?! Really? Everything?!
My viewpoint is subjective. That’s a fancy way of saying, “Things should be the way I want them to be.” I see some things as beautiful, but about other things I say, “This is a pain, or this is ugly.” But if I believe God’s Word, in God’s timing everything is beautiful.
I think the second part of the verse illuminates the problem of my subjectivity. “…He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.”
Eternity—my soul’s longing for God—is in me, yet I cannot grasp it. Not naturally, at least. God knows how everything will end beautifully because He made everything beautifully.
Even me.
My life might seem like a mess at times: ugly, scared, scarred, even worthless. But God sees beauty. And we know that in all things [even the ugly stuff] God works for the good [the beautiful] of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. (Romans 8:28). God gives His beauty to replace my ashes.
With subjective thinking, this doesn’t seem very likely. It’s hard to subjectively see how God could turn my ugliness and my pain into anything beautiful.
That’s why Scripture also contains this prayer: A prayer that will change my subjectivity (seeing only my ugliness) to objectivity (now seeing God’s beauty). If you struggle to see everything as beautiful, pray this prayer right now:
When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from His glorious, unlimited resources He will empower you with inner strength through His Spirit. Then Christ will make His home in your hearts as you trust in Him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep His love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.
Amen!
I’m up early (as usual, since this is the best time of the day!) getting ready for a full weekend. As a general rule I consider Saturday my Sabbath Day. Sundays are usually “work days” for me, although I don’t feel like I’m working when I’m at church… it’s just way too fulfilling. But this weekend is going to be a little different.
Studying my Bible this morning, because it’s the best way to start every day. Looking at the life and leadership of Nehemiah.
Still fasting along with our Impact! youth group until noon today. I’m just so proud of these leaders for setting a great example. Hey, if you’re in the area over the next four Wednesdays at 7:00pm we’re talking about setting an example from the life of Timothy. Join us and you’ll see some real live example-setters!
Sipping some green tea and praying for some very special friends. I love the connection to our Heavenly Father I have in prayer.
Scooting south in a couple of hours for a family reunion with my missionary relatives. These family members are my heroes! They serve in Israel and Sudan, and it’s rare that they’re in the USA at the same time. This summer is one of those times, so we’re going to enjoy catching up.
So missing (already!) not being at our new home on Sunday. I haven’t even spoken on a Sunday as the “official” pastor yet, but it already feels like home. I can’t wait to get back!
Synced my iPod with some great listening for the 8-hour roundtrip this weekend. Going to get some good stuff in me while I have the windshield time.
A busy weekend, but one I know will recharge my physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual batteries. What’s on tap for your weekend? I pray it is as fulfilling as I know mine will be.
Craig T. Owens 