Dear Lord,
Today, I have committed myself to some true time in prayer with You. So I am going to offer up my thoughts and concerns and then wait silently for You to answer me in some way. Though I am frustrated at the fact that our relationship doesn't seem to be on the same plane as it has been, I am not going to be the one to abandon what is right. And in that I know that You will be the one to come back and embrace me, because I am convinced that it is Your will to be known and loved. And I still love You, so much that I want to hear from You.
My prayer is simple. I want to be fully connected with You and aware of opportunities to live in "The Way of the Lord" everyday. I want the courage to see the uncomfortable places that I might need to help bring Your love to and the strength, belief, and courage again to do it.
And Lord, I pray the same for my community. Starting with my wife, extending through Exodus Community, even to the students that I teach each day. What would a community with courage look like? What could they do? How do I lead without fear myself? I need to speak the truth. It's time for us to do something uncomfortable. Help us to not let fear hold us back.
These are my big concerns. Of course, I could go through situations that I want You to be working in specifically, whether it be sickness within our community, Gideon growing healthily, Courtney finding a part-time job she enjoys, our community honestly facing its problems, our community honestly embracing the potential we have, my basketball team, my students, the tragedies that often surround any group of people. But I have faith that You are working in these specifics.
So let's attack some big things in prayer today Lord. Some big things that I'm going to constantly bring before You for this week (and probably on). Please work on removing the fear from our community. It's insidious, and it has crept in all over the place. Let people see it for what it is, give it up to You, and move on.
Secondly Lord, go after distractions. We are being pulled away from You in so many circumstances. Stop them. Allow us at least some consistent time to be focused. For me it is too much time spent at basketball, thinking about school, and just plain being tired. Give me the energy and the time.
I feel like this is a blabbering prayer God. I'm not sure how focused it was in and of itself. I know You hear it though. Accept it. Be pleased at my efforts to connect and show Yourself to me. Because I love You, I don't want to just leave You here for the day. Go with me. Lead me. Speak to me that You may speak through me.
For I always pray through Christ's name,
Amen.
Showing posts with label time. Show all posts
Showing posts with label time. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Friday, October 12, 2007
Overwhelming Obedience
Lately I've been terribly bogged down by the weight of all the different things going on in my life. When I start listing out all the different things that I should be doing, I just end up wanting to go to sleep. So in reading more about Noah today, I identify with what he must have been feeling after chapter 6, verses 14-21:
So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high. Make a roof for it and finish the ark to within 18 inches of the top. Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks. I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish. But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons' wives with you. You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive. You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them.
"Yea, no, excellent God, oh, yea, I can do all that, no problem. Now, cypress wood, where would I start to find that. Maybe after I take a short nap." I mean seriously, Noah is given way too big of a task for one man to carry out on his own, just in building the ark. Then he is also given the task of filling the ark with animals and because he needs to keep them alive, food for the animals. Wow. It stresses me out just to think about Noah having to do all that.
And what's my favorite way of dealing with the stress of too much to do? I avoid it. I avoid doing the things that I have to do all together. I've got papers that need to be graded sitting all around my classroom, I need to work on an offseason tennis plan, I need to talk to Exodus Community pastors about being more intentional, more excellent, I need to be more excellent as a pastor myself by spending more time in the Word, by getting more involved with the individuals in our community, by becoming more involved with individuals not in our community, by challenging our current pastors and leading the church. Whew. I didn't even add in there yet that I need to prepare for Gideon coming, or the teaching that I'm doing, or the middle school basketball season starting in a week.
Now, maybe the difference is that Noah was directed in his tasks by You. They were specific things that You wanted him to accomplish. I can't imagine that Noah had a whole lot of anything else going on besides what You called him to. That's what enabled him in the end to have this said about him:
Noah did everything just as God commanded him. (Genesis 6:22)
All that huge stuff, big ark and zookeeping, that You directed him to do and this is all we're told? That seems entirely too simple. The emphasized point here though is that he did what You asked him to, just as You asked him too. No comment about him being overwhelmed, ridiculed, questioned, tired, busy, not having enough time for family, etc. Those things may have happened, but the important part, the written part of the story is that Noah did what You asked.
So what are You asking from me? I've been struck lately with the sense that we, the pastors of Exodus Community, have shyed away from really giving more time and making things more excellent in any way because of our lack of time. I see that excuse for myself and say, "um, that's an excuse, not a reason to not do what God is prompting you to." Plain and simple, something must be done about the time crisis. Otherwise, You aren't going to remember me with a simple "Matt did everything just as I commanded him."
So what sacrifice has to be made? I willing to give it all up, even the good. What do you want and where do I start?
And hopefully You'll make it that simple.
So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high. Make a roof for it and finish the ark to within 18 inches of the top. Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks. I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish. But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons' wives with you. You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive. You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them.
"Yea, no, excellent God, oh, yea, I can do all that, no problem. Now, cypress wood, where would I start to find that. Maybe after I take a short nap." I mean seriously, Noah is given way too big of a task for one man to carry out on his own, just in building the ark. Then he is also given the task of filling the ark with animals and because he needs to keep them alive, food for the animals. Wow. It stresses me out just to think about Noah having to do all that.
And what's my favorite way of dealing with the stress of too much to do? I avoid it. I avoid doing the things that I have to do all together. I've got papers that need to be graded sitting all around my classroom, I need to work on an offseason tennis plan, I need to talk to Exodus Community pastors about being more intentional, more excellent, I need to be more excellent as a pastor myself by spending more time in the Word, by getting more involved with the individuals in our community, by becoming more involved with individuals not in our community, by challenging our current pastors and leading the church. Whew. I didn't even add in there yet that I need to prepare for Gideon coming, or the teaching that I'm doing, or the middle school basketball season starting in a week.
Now, maybe the difference is that Noah was directed in his tasks by You. They were specific things that You wanted him to accomplish. I can't imagine that Noah had a whole lot of anything else going on besides what You called him to. That's what enabled him in the end to have this said about him:
Noah did everything just as God commanded him. (Genesis 6:22)
All that huge stuff, big ark and zookeeping, that You directed him to do and this is all we're told? That seems entirely too simple. The emphasized point here though is that he did what You asked him to, just as You asked him too. No comment about him being overwhelmed, ridiculed, questioned, tired, busy, not having enough time for family, etc. Those things may have happened, but the important part, the written part of the story is that Noah did what You asked.
So what are You asking from me? I've been struck lately with the sense that we, the pastors of Exodus Community, have shyed away from really giving more time and making things more excellent in any way because of our lack of time. I see that excuse for myself and say, "um, that's an excuse, not a reason to not do what God is prompting you to." Plain and simple, something must be done about the time crisis. Otherwise, You aren't going to remember me with a simple "Matt did everything just as I commanded him."
So what sacrifice has to be made? I willing to give it all up, even the good. What do you want and where do I start?
And hopefully You'll make it that simple.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
