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...
posted by zimmerzblogz at
7:19 AM
2 Comments:
The reading I'm doing in the EM Bounds book seems to be running parallel with "Gutsy Faith." Here's my thoughts on persistent prayer, based on the EM Bounds book, "Prayer & Spiritual Warfare."
Two thirds of the praying we do is for things that give US pleasure to receive. We operate in a spiritual self-indulgence that is opposite of the self dicipline we're instructed to operate in.
I remember a time, when I was in the 2nd grade. I thought I loved baseball and really wanted to play on a team. Our family had been to a Royals game (back in the day when the Royals were actually winning) and in my emotional and physical immaturity, I glamourized the whole event. For my birthday, which is in early summer, I begged for a nice bat and glove so I could play in the outfield and have the same pleasure as the "boys of summer."
The short story is that my parents, who wanted the experience of giving me something I desired, spent the money on the gift and paid for lessons. I went to practice - it was too hot. I swung at the pitch - it was too fast. I watited in the outfield for a ball to come my was - it was very boring, until the ball actually came. I tried to catch it - it hurt. Needless to say, I quit.
This is a lot like how we pray, and God often gives us what we think we want. But I think that there are times, when it really matters, that He wisely "puts us off." In those times, He gives us opportunities to count the cost of the prayer granted. Or simply builds our faith and maturity to handle the results of the answered prayer. Our persistence is evidence that our deepest desire is for that which we request and not just some flighty item, motivated by self-indulgence.
If we're going to arrive at the place where or faith has matured enough to think that we can say "be thou removed," and have confidence that God is waiting for us to make that request, we have to move beyond faith that asks for the "glamorous" or seeks primarily the things that give us pleasure. As we seek to become more like Christ, and find our strength in the Cross (dying to self), we will find that through the work of the Holy Spirit, our will is lined up with Christ and the desires of our heart are for those things that give him pleasure. In my experience, this becomes a circular event. I please God, which is actually pleasing to me. This is far more fulfilling than the shallow self-indulgent prayers of the flesh.
By
Just A Girl, at 10:42 AM, July 29, 2006
Just a girl...
See next entry.
By
zimmerzblogz, at 1:06 PM, July 31, 2006
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