Category: Uncategorized

This morning I’m basking in a wonderful truth about God…the real God who is actually there.  Not the god who conveniently upholds all my desires & cravings, nor the god of rules who stands waiting before me with a whip…but the God who perfects both truth and love, who models the right path, and fills me with what is needed for me to follow Him this day.  He helps me to see behind the veil of appearances of the world I live in.  He helps me to recognize the depravities & errors in my own thoughts & feelings, and to choose His better way.  He fills me with courage and strength to take a step in that direction…one step at a time.

The verse that’s blessing my socks off this morning is Romans 2:4…that God’s kindness leads us to repentance.  Repentance is a wonderful thing, truly a gift from God.  He grants us the ability to see when our path is diverging from His, and to make course corrections at any time.  We’re never too far away from God that He can’t reach us in a second, never too dark that His light cannot reach us!  I don’t know about you, but I’ve experienced countless “repentances” in my life that have put me back on the right track in my relationship with God and His plan for me.  I can’t tell you how thankful I am for His great, overarching love and faithfulness!

Repentance” comes from the Biblical Greek word “Metanoia,” which means “change of mind”…or, like in the military, doing an “about face.”  Jesus talked a lot about repentance…turning away from the broken promises of the world and following Him instead.  In a world that is chronically broken and in-crisis, we don’t make progress by trying to manage or eradicate darkness…but by focusing on God’s light.  I repented initially as a teenager many years ago, and He changed the course of my life forever.  But there are also smaller-scale course corrections in daily life, that are essential for keeping me in close connection to my Lord.  I used to believe that repentance was something we only needed to do once, but in a way it’s a daily thing…an opportunity for us to choose to follow Jesus again this morning, and tomorrow morning, and so on.

This morning I’m praying about what I need to repent of so that I can see & follow Jesus more clearly.  How about you?

John 20:19 – “On the evening of that first day of the week [after Jesus’ resurrection], when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 20After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. 21Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.”

This is an amazing passage of scripture for many reasons.  Today I want to focus on just one of them…the connected words “sent” and “sending”.  This reveals one of the purposes of Jesus.  We have this way of putting Jesus’ work into our self-centered boxes, and I think most of us might say that His purpose in coming to our world in the flesh was for the cross…to pay for sin.  Of course, this is absolutely true – and praise God for that, right?!  But there were other reasons as well.  HE WAS SENT HERE TO SEND US.

The “sent-ness” of God’s people is certainly not limited to the professional religious people we’ve come to associate with God’s work: Pastors, Missionaries, Chaplains, Reverends….there are lots of titles.  I’ve lived in that world vocationally, in various forms, for 22 years.  One of my greatest struggles during this time, a struggle that is shared by many of my “comrades of the cloth”, is the ongoing difficulty of trying to convince all the people of the church – aka “the laity” – that THEY are the Pastors, Missionaries, Chaplains….and that the job of leaders is to equip them to be & do what God has called them to.  The modern system of “church” isn’t like this, it has a way of perpetuating the myth of the clergy as God’s true sent ones, and the rest of His people as their supporters.  Often we see the clergy reinforcing this type of thinking.

The ministry of Jesus was all about empowering those around Him to continue His work in their own circles of influence.  His work was about loving, healing, sacrificing, and helping people transform into citizens of a New Kingdom….to discover their true spiritual identities and devote themselves to His mission in their everyday lives so powerfully that it exploded like a good virus.  This was, has always been, and still is the way of His Kingdom…and it’s available to anyone who will answer that calling.  Notice that the scripture says “disciples” and not “apostles.”  His sending commission was given to the whole group of people there, not just “the leaders.”

It’s interesting that when we see the word “sent” in this context, we automatically think in terms of changing location to take the message of Jesus somewhere else.  Surely, this is true of people who are called to raise support, leave their homes and go “out to the mission field.”  But what about the rest of us?  When we have this limited view of “sent-ness,” it breeds the false idea that God’s work is happening somewhere else…and those of us who aren’t called to it, or can’t afford it, are stuck here in our own lives with little missional purpose.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  What about the mission field outside your door?  What about your neighbor or co-worker or friend who desperately needs to know the Good News of hope that lives in you? Who’s going to serve & love that person if not you?  Who’s going to listen? Who’s he/she going to turn to in times of trouble if not you?  Every single follower of Jesus is sent to be His representative in the ebb & flow of daily life….with people we already know.

You don’t need to go to another country to be “on mission”…you just have to “live sent.”  Geography is irrelevant.  THAT is the mission that we are all sent into.  There’s nothing wrong with overseas missions, they’re a noble & God-given pursuit, but many of us want to jump over the familiar & mundane opportunities He’s already given us in order to shine His light somewhere else.  That’s part of the reason why short-term mission trips often produce a short-term depression after the experience….because temporary transformative experiences don’t replace the long-term relationships and circumstances that God has already sent us into.

Where is your mission field?  Where is God sending you?

Contrasts help us understand ourselves and the world around us.  Some people are more contrast-oriented than others.  You know the type…”black & white” personalities that see everything through worldview-lenses that turn everything into one extreme or the other.  It helps them make sense of things by comparing them to the contrast-types they carry around in them.  I’m kind of like that.  It has its benefits & detriments, just like all character traits.  (Hm…benefits & detriments in itself is a contrast…).

“The LORD your god is with you, He is mighty to save.  He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.” (Zephaniah 3:17)

It’s always vital that we interpret the messages of scripture through the lens of itself, rather than importing our own ideas & values and imposing them on the message.  Getting this right is tricky, not just because of the language & culture barriers between our lives today and those of the original writers & recipients of scripture…but also because it takes time.  We don’t tend to like things that require lots of time & attention, we like microwaves and smartphones for a reason.  But then again, the most important things in life are not quick & easy.

This passage comes after several pages full of judgments and forecasts of doom against the historic enemies of God.  At that time, before the coming of Jesus the Messiah, the “Chosen Family Of God” was limited to the Nation of Israel.  Messages of warning and condemnation were leveled against people & nations who were operating in active defiance against God’s purposes, including some within the fold of Israel.  In a nutshell, the posture of most of Zephaniah’s book was him waving his arms and saying “Wake up people! You cannot spit in God’s face forever!”  Some of these admonitions were contemporary, others looked forward to the end of time.  Timeless principles are woven through the fabric.

At the end his prophecy, Zephaniah’s tone changes as he addresses those who remained true to God in the midst of all the hypocrisies of their contemporaries.  People who, though imperfect, repeatedly came back to the place of faith in God…refusing to allow themselves to get swept along by the lies and temptations to give-up hope that God is actually among us, that He is good, that He is ultimately in control, and that we can put our trust in Him no matter what’s going on around us.  The words are meant to give hope and promise and healing to those who have suffered in the pursuit of God.

“The LORD your god is with you, He is mighty to save.  He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.” (Zephaniah 3:17)

“Physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.” 1 Timothy 4:8

I wrote a blog on Tuesday correlating physical training with spiritual training.  As I exposed in that blog, I tend to lapse into inactivity and apathy when I don’t have a physical goal I’m working toward. So….that begs a question.  THE QUESTION.  What is the goal you’re striving toward in your walk with Jesus?  That you’ll have a comfortable life? That things will go well for you and all your circumstances will be “blessed?”  This seems to be the mindset we often fall into, making God out like He’s some kind of Celestial Santa Claus who exists to fulfill our desires.  Not so. In fact, DESIRE ITSELF is a ongoing foe that we must bring into conformity under the Lordship of Jesus in our lives if we want to experience TRUE BLESSINGS.

A lot of people believe lies about God’s intentions for us…His desires / aka His “will” for us.  Indeed, he wants us to be happy, but He defines happiness differently than we do.  His definition doesn’t include dependence upon circumstances going “our way.”  In fact, it often is experienced most powerfully and transformationally when things are NOT going our way!  We have a fine way of wanting God to meet our needs in ways that don’t require us to posture ourselves so that we can.  One classic & common example is the phrase “God wants me to be happy”….which is used all the time to justify decisions and alliances He would never want us to make….and will not bless.  We all do stuff from time to time that mutes God’s voice in our spiritual ears.  How do we position ourselves to hear Him better, find His path for us more readily, and give us courage to DO IT?

We need daily reminders to avoid putting our faith/hope in things, circumstances, and people that will never “make us happy”, so that our souls can firmly rest on the Solid Rock of Christ.  THAT is the goal….connection to Him.  And the starting point is SURRENDER/SUBMISSION.  When we are walking in His love, acquiesced to His leading; we will see through His eyes, be filled with His heart, and speak with His words.  I want to surround myself with people who want to be sold-out to Him, and will help me as well.  Training partners.

Here are some scriptures that are inspiring me this morning:

Colossians 3:1 – “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4When Christ, who is youra life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. 5Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. 6Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.b 7You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. 8But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. 9Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. 11Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all. 12Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”

Galatians 2:20 – “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

1 Peter 2:11 – “Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. 12Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.”

I’m in the middle of training for my annual Summer Triathlon.  I tend to take care of myself best when I have a physical goal to work toward….something big that I’m preparing for that won’t go well unless I prepare for it…you know what I mean?  Without the goal, I easily fall out of shape, muscle atrophy, and I gain weight quickly; but WITH the goal, something inside me drives forward and creates new abilities as I work toward it….this is especially true when the race costs money up-front!

I didn’t actually start exercising seriously until 2005-06.  During that time, I signed-up for a big race and trained hard for 9-months.  I lost 35 pounds.  Since that time, I’ve done about 2-3 race events each year to keep the fire burning.  I seem to vacillate back & forth with weight, but have stayed in relatively good shape…AS LONG AS I’M WORKING TOWARD A GOAL.

I’ve seen that this is also true of my spirit.  Did you know that your spirit is a muscle?  Not literally, but it requires and responds to activity & goals just like your physical body does.  Why would we think it to be different than that?  Scripture teaches all kinds of things about our spirits.

• Each one of us is made uniquely, wonderfully, in the Image of God…aka we have “God Stuff” in us, which differentiates us from everything else in creation.  
• We are God’s sons and daughters, made for relationship with Him. 
• We are given special gifts to contribute with those around us as well as the world at large.
• When we come into the Lordship of Jesus, we become part of His Body, His physical presence in this world….His ambassadors…..His agents.
• God’s favor & power flows freely through His people who are fully connected & committed to Him and His purposes (Kingdom).  The more we focus on His reign in us and through us, the more we experience of Him.
• God’s Kingdom is continuing to advance, behind the veil of human history, until one day it will break through what is temporal and become fully, unreservedly, inaugurated.  We have very little idea of what that will look like, but we put one step in front of the other each day in faith.

So if this is reality, why do we often find ourselves living as if it were not?  If this is our priority, why do we become distracted & enamored by temporary pleasures and hypocrisies?  If this is the type of life we are meant to live, why do we settle for the mundane, apathetic, purposeless model of the secular culture around us?  We allow ourselves to fall out of spiritual shape, and our faith-muscles to atrophy!

Most often, the aspect of God’s character that we need most is His GRACE.  It reminds us that He loves us no matter what, and that He’s there to help us no matter how much we screw up.  That’s something we will always need in liberal quantity!  But sometimes we need a big kick in the ass also!  God’s grace is His part, and although there is certainly no effort involved in our SALVATION in Christ…there is certainly is effort involved in our SANCTIFICATION in Christ.  That’s a big churchy word that means “becoming set apart for Him.”  What would happen in your life if you…

• Read your bible for 30-minutes every day, because You knew that without it your mind would be full of your own thoughts?
• Prayed daily that God’s Kingdom would be manifested through your life, and prayed for the people in your life, whether you like them or not?
• Adopted an attitude that each of your days belonged to God, not you?
• Viewed relationships as opportunities to benefit others, rather than benefitting from them?
• Looked for opportunities to serve others and share your hope Christ when ask why?
• Truly believed that you were God’s agent, and that your life’s goal was to become who Jesus would be if He were you?

This is the kind of training mindset I need to have in order to compete in a Triathlon…working for a prize that will not last.  More, I want to live in order to build my spiritual endurance and strength so that I can become more able to be like Jesus today.

SCRIPTURES:

1 Cor. 9:24 – Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. 25Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. 26Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. 27No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.

Matt. 16:24 – Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25For whoever wants to save their lifef will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. 26What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? 27For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done. 

1 Thess. 5:15 – Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always strive to do what is good for each other and for everyone else. 16Rejoice always, 17pray continually, 18give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 19Do not quench the Spirit. 20Do not treat prophecies with contempt 21but test them all; hold on to what is good, 22reject every kind of evil. 23May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it. 

I received a very thoughtful email response to yesterday’s blog, and in my reply I ended up writing another blog in the process 🙂  Here’s a clip from the dichotomy I addressed yesterday:

“Today in America we’re seeing a huge spiritual backlash against the traditional christendom of our predecessors. Generations have been growing-up believing increasingly that truth is relative, religious people are mean-spirited, and churches are full of hypocrites. The travesty is that this has been sometimes true…enough of the time that it’s poisoned an otherwise Godly heritage and given birth to a pendulum swing.  I may be oversimplifying to make a point, and forgive me if that’s so, but it seems to me that the type of faith that was promoted & exemplified in most of the 1900’s was characterized by an overzealous pursuit of true doctrine, separatism and growth formulas; at the expense of honesty, brotherly love, and the lifestyle of service that was displayed by our Master. This backlash has produced a tidal wave of followers of Jesus who are very sincere, accepting, and accommodating; but who really don’t know what they believe or why…and they’re falling prey to all kinds of false, misleading, and cancerous beliefs that don’t look anything like Jesus. ” 

Of course, I was simplifying a very complex issue in order to make a point….sort of poking at both ends of a spectrum.  There’s a tremendous amount of polarization in America generally, and within American Christendom specifically.  My effort here is to shake this up a bit and point to a uniting force that Jesus and the Apostles talked & wrote about a lot…and modeled as well.

This has to do with Biblical interpretation…what lens do we look through?  In speaking to a polarized situation, I think that those on the more “doctrinal/legalistic side” are often in need of more self-aware and loving motivations.  And I think that those on the “anything goes as long as we act lovingly” side need reminders that there actually is absolute truth and it’s important.  The point is that there is no “right place”…there is just tension between these two values.  Even Christ’s assertion, often called the “Great Commandment” in Matthew 22, is that all the law & prophets hang on the 2 commandments to love God with everything we are and to love others as we love ourselves….and upon further investigation we learn that “loving God” is synonymous with obeying His commands.  So we again are faced with this interesting dichotomy because if you chase truth and love to their ends, they seem to lead to different places…But they actually both lead to God.

I still struggle to find balance in this every day, in every situation, because life is messy and not prone to stasis.  I think we’re called to live in this dynamic tension, gradually growing more wise and peaceful in it but never really mastering it…that’s part of my understanding of “walking by faith.”

There are certainly portions of scripture that are meant to be taken literally (don’t steal, love people, honor your parents, learn the scriptures and pray, etc.) and others that are meant to be taken figuratively (cut off your hand if it causes you to sin, eat Jesus’ body and drink his blood, hate your father & mother so you can love Jesus more, etc.), the trouble is that there’s bound to be disagreements about which is which…and this will always be the case…but we can put differences aside in what Paul calls “disputable matters” and remain unified in the “main things” (There is one God and He is real, Jesus is Him on earth, Our connection with His work saves us, wow).  If all of us Jesus people can see our differences as secondary or tertiary, perhaps we would be so condemning and dismissive of each other when we disagree.

On the other hand, throwing doctrine out the window so that we can just blindly love everything can’t be right either.  There are a lot of Jesus people I know whose belief system has been so affected by the PC environment we live-in that, if truth be told, they would say that their belief in Jesus is no different/better than their co-worker’s belief in Buddha or Allah or Krishna…that all the other deities worshipped in humanity are all different forms of the same truth, and that the one chosen isn’t as important as a person’s sincerity of belief.  In my research & experience, this belief (universalism) is more prominent in America, especially the Northwest, than Biblical Christianity…and it has definitely impacted and infiltrated the ongoing Body of Christ.  The critical path with believers caught in vortexes of false belief is to emphasize the historical reliability and spiritual uniqueness of God’s “salvation history” as chronicled in the Bible…and where we are now in that story.

If the Bible is real, then Jesus was the most theologically true person AND the most inviting and loving person who ever lived.  Although we are not Him, we are called to follow.

Truth Or Love?

The Bible gets blamed for all kinds of delusional thinking.  We tend to misunderstand for a variety of reasons, and chief among them is our propensity to read into it what we already think and then extract a sentence or two that upholds our view.  In this way, many unwittingly re-create a god of their own making…rather than allowing it to speak for itself and form the lyrics of truth from God’s anthem to our own.

This morning’s example of this is an often misquoted passage from the end of Matthew chapter 6:

“So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.” (Matthew 6:31-33

Seems like a really great deal, right?  Taken by itself, it seems to be a promise…one that is very self-explanatory and amazing.  However, do you see that first word?  “SO”….This implies that it’s looking back to what was just said.  Anytime you see something like that, you’d better read the part before so you’re sure that you’re understanding the purpose of what you’re reading.  Here’s the full section, which is often broken up into 2 sections in our modern Bibles.  Here, read the full section (Matthew 6:19-34):

“Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be. Your eye is a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is good, your whole body is filled with light. But when your eye is bad, your whole body is filled with darkness. And if the light you think you have is actually darkness, how deep that darkness is! No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

“That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing? Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith?

“So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of Godd above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. “So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.”

So you see, this section is not about getting all our nutritional and clothing needs met.  It’s about focusing our “seeking” on our relationship with God rather than the needs of today & tomorrow.  There is an aspect of promise in there, however, it’s not the point…and it surely isn’t meant to be instructing us to approach God with our daily needs as if He were our person Genie to meet all our needs.  It’s about having different framework than the corrupted, materialistic world around us.  It’s about teaching us what truly makes us content.   It’s about the connection between WORRY and DESIRE.  It’s an object lesson to teach us that “If I only had _____ I would be happy” doesn’t actually produce the contentment we seek.  I’ll leave you with this:

“I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.” (Philippians 4:11-13)

So often we pray wrong.

There’s a right way and wrong way to do it.  But this has nothing to do with saying religious words in just the right way, or with how much emotion is put into them.  It has to do with motive…what’s in the heart of the pray-er.  You know what I mean?  God sees through all the fancy & emotional words we might say, and looks into the heart.

On the one hand you may have someone who seems to be very comfortable in prayer, and who likes to pray out loud in public settings with words that sound knowledgeable and holy, but who’s heart is actually very far from God’s.  And on the other hand a person who stammers & struggles to express the things within but who’s heart is intimately lined-up with the purposes and character of the Spirit within.

Which one does God hear? Well, He hears both of course.
Which one does He appreciate and respond to?

Scripture teaches us about the nature of prayer and the ONE we pray to (or, with), so we don’t need to come up with our own self-centered definitions and impose them upon a Lord we don’t understand.  The mistake we often make is that we tend to view the Lord from our own limited perspective, and we tend to interact with Him accordingly.

“God please do this for me…”
“God this is what You need to do about….”
“God please give success to ….”

These are not good examples of prayer’s purpose…although they certainly exemplify the pattern of many of our prayers.  The purpose of prayer is to weave our hearts/desires/circumstances/choices…. to the Lord’s.  Prayer isn’t about getting God to do what we want done, but getting ourselves lined-up with what He wants done.  This is the definition of “praying according to God’s will.”  Indeed there are many scriptures that speak about asking God for things/people/circumstances, but the common denominator is HIS WILL not mine or yours….HIS evaluation of the interworking of circumstances from His time-less perspective.

The English word “prayer” comes from the Biblical Greek word “proseúxomai” – prós, meaning “towards, exchange” and euxomai, meaning “to wish, pray” – literally, to exchange wishes; to interact with the Lord by switching human wishes (ideas) for His wishes as He imparts faith.

“Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:10)

“You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God?” (James 4:2-4)

“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything ACCORDING TO HIS WILL, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.” (1 John 5:14-15)

“You fathers—if your children ask for a fish, do you give them a snake instead? Or if they ask for an egg, do you give them a scorpion? Of course not! So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.” (Luke 11:11-13)

“Always be joyful. NEVER STOP PRAYING. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)

So, perhaps our role in prayer is not to inform God of what we want….but to remain close to Him so that we know what HE WANTS and WHAT HE IS DOING…and then align our lives and priorities around Him in a lifestyle of prayer. The peace & joy that we seek will follow.

“Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.” (Psalm 37:4)