This Prayer Thing...

I'm in this book Gutsy Faith and reading about prayer and wow am I taking a good hard look at how much I pray and how I pray. The quantity factor is vital because Jesus modeled daily prayer with the Father and the quality factor is vital also because you gotta know what questions to ask and the motive by which to ask.

Well, along with Gutsy I chose to pick up Living the Lord's Prayer because of something Jeff said on page 77. The context is "did Jesus really mean mean it when He said that anything that is asked for in His name will be granted?"..."I believe Jesus meant exactly that...The issue at hand is knowing what exactly it means to ask for something in Jesus' name."

Now enter Living the Lord's Prayer.

Coming back to this foundational prayer is helping me see where Jeff is going with all this. Think about it..."Our Father...." That's saying #1 that He's in control right off the bat!

Well, invoking His name and His sovereign name is primary to the thought pattern of asking anything in His name. It also coincides with waht Jeff is saying on 77 that when we pray in a person's name we are really praying for the will of that person to be done not just trying to drop a name so we can get something. For instance if I say I need Royals tickets (yeah right!) in a luxury box or something then I would maybe drop a name of a person in the front office that might help me get what I want. What biblical perspective provides is the fact that this would never work in those days. A servant would never say the name of His master to procure something unless "the deal" was already done. SEE?

We pray in Jesus name only in a way that's in keeping with the nature and will of what Jesus desires. Not our desire.

Gutsy Faith may just be another book in the legions of books out there on what it means to understand the mysteries of God's ways, but then again it may be one of the few that helps it's readers truly evaluate in this "me" centered, self-centered quasi-Christian world what it means to truly pray in the Name of Jesus.

My question for you today is this...have you assessed your prayer life lately? Are you praying in ways that truly reflect how Jesus taught us or has your prayer life become stale and mundane and utilitarian?

Consistant Conversation with the Father

Chapters 4-6 of Gutsy Faith

Jeff is treading on softer ground here with discussion on the Lord' Prayer and what this prayer means along with the Luke 11:1-13 passage. My challenge to you is to read this passage carefully because here we have Jesus teaching His disciples to pray and then following it with an example of contemporary need with a "banging of the door at midnight."

Remember that we must read this contextually. How normal would it be for someone to bang on your door in the middle of the night for BREAD!? The idea here is that we can come to the Father...I'll let you contemplate without my "play by play analysis."

So, as you read this chapter do you feel you have the right to ask God to reveal His will to you? If not, why?

Chapter 5 corresponds with Matthew 21:18-22. The whole moving the mountain and calling the fig tree barren scene helps us ponder whether we to can say to this mountain, literally, "be thou removed?" This whole talk to me seems to beyond the 'respectable.' I've contemplated deeply the yearning of some for respectable faith and logical faith. Through this passage I've asked God to unravel the respectability and sane notions of my faith and simply ask myself what would naked faith look like in order to truly believe if I say to that mountain 'be removed.'

Come on people - this is not kooky religion this is gutsy faith!!!!!

Finally, back to prayer in chapter 6.

Jeff lays it down and states that "we want to have guts, the faith for God to use us to move mountains. But if we don't develop our prayer life, it will never happen." I'm asking you and me - How 'bout the prayer life? Is it hot? Or is it not? Maybe you could take time to reevaluate your prayer priority with me - not so we can just get all God's yes', but to get all of God and Him all of us.

Walk with me...

Where'd You Get Those Super Guts?

So, I'm in this group talking about gutsy faith and how you can make some decisions and then sorta realize that maybe those decisions in life we make as Christians really aren't as super holy as we'd like to think. Often times we do things in this faith walk scared yet we trust? It's a bit hard to put the bat on the ball, but in chapter 1 of gutsy faith Jeff is asking what it means to have gutsy faith. What do you think gutsy faith is? I think gutsy faith is the kind of faith that day in and day out consistantly trusts in the soverign nature and good will of God for my life (Jer. 29:11).

On page 12 Jeff even talks about gutsy faith as something you live out even in times of great distress and trial. You just gotta plow through cuz you know God really is in control. Who in your life resembles the kind of faith that is gutsy?

Chapter 2 - we are asked to read John 11:1-43. The big question of God's "yes" - "no" - or "maybe" answering system is the issue here. Jeff's sorta idea is that God does desire to say "yes" to our prayer requests all the time. No before you go beating your head against the wall and call for excommunication - I think we should give Jeff a listen.

I know the whole garden scene plays in your mind, but here are some thoughts.

1.Even though you may not be a parent think about this from a parent's perspective. I really do desire to say "yes" to all my children's requests, BUT...I say no or maybe later BECAUSE my role as parent is PROTECTOR and PROVIDER.

2. The other thought that my friend Jenn brought up is "what's so wrong with no?" Good one! All I can say is chapter 2 was a whopper!

Chapter 3 - we were asked to read Matthew 14:13-23. The premise here is that the Father alway gives Jesus what He asks for...

Issues like intimacy with the Father and understanding how and what to pray creep up here.

The final question now in this post is this...If God always answered Jesus' requests with a yes, do you think it's possible for Him to answer all your requests with a yes? Why or why not?

Yep, I told you this was a good book!!!!

Let me hear from you, and by the way, I'm not too sure about the 'yes to every prayer thing, but as a parent I can understand where Jeff might be headed. Walk with me...

Do You Have Guts?!

It's time to step up to the blogging plate and write about something that really matters - faith! Gutsy, wrestling with tough issues, looking at the hard Gospel truth, faith.

For the next six or seven weeks, maybe more, me and some other known and unknown Christians are gathering around a table and a book to explore the topic of "gutsy faith." Now I could tell you what Gutsy Faith is, but then you won't tune in to the next blog, "same bat-blog URL" to find out. That's right! You are going on this journey with me and my bud Jeff who wrote this book and a bunch of other "walk by faith, not by site, don't know better Christians." I want to ask all whopping three of you to chime in on my blog thoughts as I move through chapter by chapter so we can really tackle the tough faith issues from God's Word and life in general.

A few words about Jeff. If you pick up this book you will soon see that Jeff is pretty much a "tell it like is" guy. Yet, my bud Jeff doesn't always speak his peace, he throws stuff out at ya to to help you think and ponder what it really means and what it really takes to be a Christ follower. Both traits are a good, good thing. Well, strap on your helmet because this should be a fun and hopefully bumpy ride!

People do things...

A prof. in my masters classes once told us that people do things that make sense to them. Well people do ride motorcycles without helmets in the streets of Pittsburgh, people do take better care of pets than kids, people do max out credit cards and people do and say things in the church that are justified with what ever biblical content they choose. People do things that make sense to them and so this unwritten law of human nature has taken its course in my life this summer causing a brief amount of hardship. However, whether it's the odd ball decisions of others that effect me or my own briefly uncalculated actions I am so glad that even through actions that seem to make sense to us that we can go to Jesus and it is His ultimate supply of help and grace that keeps us steady and focused...even when dealing with the pain of the decisions of others whose actions make sense to them but cause great trial for you. I wish I could expound in detail, but after all this is the internet highway and once posted my words stand forever to be read by someone of whom I probably could offend.

Moral of the story, if a life decision or a small split second decision makes sense to you, you might consider thinking about the community at-large around you and how your choices might effect them. This would be good advice for all concerned.