Monday, August 18, 2008
Prayer Conference
Hey! For those who were in church yesterday, I thought it would be cool to hear about the different prayer workshops that you went to and how you were challenged. I'm excited to see how God continues to use prayer along with our availability within the church and our relationships. Matt and I went to the Listening Prayer workshop w/the Berean class teacher. I think we were the youngest ones there but it was so cool to learn from those who have so much wisdom and have walked before us. He had a cool insight on journaling and using scripture by taking a passage, summarizing it, then applying it to your life. I've journaled a lot but haven't done it quite like that so am excited to try it out. Overall, it was a great reminder that we serve a creative God (like Daniel Henderson spoke about) and it's ok to find creative ways to pray and seek Him. Anyone else learn anything?
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4 comments:
I really liked Danie's "Upward, Downward, Inward, Outward" pattern for prayer. I've seen patterns like this in the past such as "ACTS" and "PART" but I like his better. Those latter patterns stop at his "Inward" step and remain all about me and what I want.
But I like how he recognizes the step of us asking God to work in us and prepare us for His ministry. It takes the focus off ourselves and makes it so our prayers aren't just us asking God for things or even thanking him for things in our life. Not that either of those things are bad, but I find my prayer time always tends to focus on me. I pray for MY family, MY friends, MY job, MY wants, etc.
But if we practice that "Outward" step and ask God to renew us, teach us, change us, and equip us for the day, I think it helps us see a larger picture. Then the time we may be about to spend reading His Word has a purpose beyond just Christian duty. We can pray that the Holy Spirit work in us to use His living Word to transform us and make us more useful for His service. I really do think that could help prepare us for doing "battle" as Daniel put it.
Just to add some detail to Scott's comments. Teresa and I went to the Creative Prayer Time held at BBC Sunday night. If it wasn't for Peter and Rochelle and Mark and Lisa we might have been the youngest couple there. =) Anyway, it was a sweet opportunity to move through the 4/4 pattern and it is something I think we as a group should make a priority to do together sometime soon. Here are the four steps for those who aren't sure what we are talking about:
Upward - Reverence: Seeking God's face, rather than His hand. Worship Him and specifically Who He is.
Downward - Response: Having the same reaction to a focus on God that people who have really seen His face have had for all of history. In other words, surrender, yieldedness.
Inward - Requests: Give and Forgive. Asking for His provision and for purity in our lives.
Outward - Readiness: Lead us...What does God want to do, be or change in us?
Looking forward to being back in class with everyone this Sunday.
See you then!
Hi all - ok, so I wasn't at church on Sunday so I didn't make the prayer conference, but I did listen to an awesome series that touched on some prayer issues. The series is called "The Pinepple Story" by Otto Koning (pioneer missionary in New Guinea in the middle of the last century). One of the things he talks alot about is the issue of surrendering our rights to God. He made the comment several times that we motivate God to move on our behalf WAY more by rejoicing and surrendering our issues/problems/circumstances/people in our lives to Him rather than begging and pleading our case over and over again. He said he used to pray 1. God take away my problems, 2. God bless me, my ministry, my wife, my kids, my work, etc... and felt that overall that was a pretty selfish outlook on life. He started experiencing major "problems" (yeah, like war parties and demon possessed natives... real problems) in his daily life in New Guinea and would run to God begging and pleading to save him... and God would tell him to rejoice and surrender his life, his family, his will, his expectations to Him and sure enough if he was able to humble himself enough and obey what God was saying to him, he woudl see God do absolutely mind blowing things in and through the painful circumstances on his behalf.
When I read Steve's comment on the "downward" part of the 4/4, I thought of what I had listened to this weekend. Its powerful stuff that really is countercultural even in the church culture in America... I mean we equate comfort, health, security, easy living as God's blessings and problems as a sign of God's displeasure. Simply not the case. Through it ALL God longs to be honored and praised... and if we will only surrender our perceived rights and rejoice in ALL circumstances, I think we would see more powerful demonstrations of His grace towards us than we could imagine.
I wasn't there either but I not so far away because Mark and I have been learning these very things. Our lives REALLY are to glorify God. Not to be blessed or take the easy road. We are learning about God's glory and praying for this very thing. So often in America when someone is sick we cringe at the prayer of "your will be done Lord" We think oh no not God's will but mine. I want healing! Well, God gives and he takes away. He will refine us and this requires fire. These are the hard issues of life but praying God's will, God's glory, and praying the words in Scripture for our friends and selves and family is so anti American if you will. Our generation is very post modern and "Inward" "Self" It is all about us. That doesn't mean we personally believe this way but we are looking at the world through these glasses to some extent. God help me because I'm sick. Not, glory to you Lord. Please glorify yourself through my life.
It is so exciting to be learning these things. It is so cool that we are all learning these same concepts. I hope to practice this more and more because it is so easy to bring our laundry list to God instead of praying for God to be glorified in our lives.
We miss you all. And can't wait to see you again in October!
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