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How to Pray When You’ve Blown It

Avid notetakers told me Sunday was a note-taking frenzy. I hear you. Here are highlights from Sunday’s sermon. Take whatever you want, cut and paste it, and hopefully God will imprint it on your hearts. I love seeing pens and journals in hand–love it! You guys preach me to death!

  • Has it ever occurred to you that, when we sin, we hurt the people we love the most.
  • Sin will take you farther than you intended to go, keep you longer than you intended to stay, and cost you more than you intended to pay.
  1. Own your sin
    • Transgression—going beyond a limit that has been set
    • Sin—missing the mark because you deliberately aim at a wrong one
    • Iniquity—lack of integrity; failure to fulfill the standard of righteousness
    • God will not forgive what you will not forsake.
    • Have you ever owned the fact that you are a sinner by nature?
    • Are you intentionally aiming at the wrong mark—living in rebellion?
    • Are you right now going beyond a limit that has been set?
  2. Be real about your temptations.
    • Godly sinners pray.
    • No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. (1 Corinthians 10:13, ESV)
    • And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. (Matthew 6:13, ESV)
    • Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The Spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. (Matthew 26:41, ESV)
    • And he said to his disciples, “Temptations to sin are sure to come, but woe to the one through whom they come! (Luke 17:1, ESV)
    • God will not redeem what you will not renounce.
    • Be real with God and others.
  3. Follow God’s counsel.
    • Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. (Galatians 6:7-8, ESV)
    • 3 principles of sowing and reaping: You reap what you sow.  You reap after you sow.  You reap more than you sow.

Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. Many are the sorrows of the wicked, but steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the Lord. Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!  (Psalm 32:1-2; 10-11)

How can David call himself righteous after everything he had done? Was it his righteous deeds? Not all all! He is only righteous, because God, through his forgiveness, has made him righteous. So it is with you. If you have trusted Jesus, if you’ve ever owned your sin, you must take it to the cross. There you will see Jesus hanging, bleeding, dying for you.  If you will renounce your sin, receive Jesus as your Savior, he will come immediately into your life. He will be your Savior and your Lord. He will declare you righteous. Only then will be you extremely happy (blessed).

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Praying Through Anxiety

Every day I talk with someone who deals with fear or anxiety. If your personal life isn’t falling apart, 5 minutes of the news reveals a world seemingly spinning out of control. This week I discovered a resource from Biblestudytools.com.  Use this as a prayer guide when you’re afraid.

  1. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:7) God, I acknowledge my need for you today. I pray that you would breathe peace onto me through your Holy Spirit. Guard my heart. Show me how to protect my mind. I am weak on my own and so I fall back on your strength today.
  2. When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. (Psalm 56:3) Jesus, I put my trust in you today. Anxious thoughts are taking over my mind, and it’s easy to take my eyes off of you when I feel afraid. Remind me of who you are. Pour out your love on me, that I might remember you are always good and always faithful, especially when I am afraid.
  3. So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. (Isaiah 41:10)  Lord Jesus, thank you for always being with me. Your name, Immanuel, means God with us. I’m so grateful today that you are near me no matter what anxious thoughts try to creep into my mind. Thank you for being my strength when I am weak. You are faithful always. I love you, Lord, and I rely on you today and every day. Amen.
  4. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. (2 Timothy 1:7) God, thank you for this truth. Thank you for the gifts you bestow on us–gifts that help ease our anxious spirits and remind us of who we are in Christ. Thank you for giving us power to fight the lies. Thank you for loving us even in our brokenness.
  5. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. (Joshua 1:9)  Lord Jesus, we know in you we are conquerors. Sometimes, it can feel so hard to believe that. We don’t feel strong or courageous, and we worry relentlessly about our lives and circumstances. Remind us today that we are strong in you.
  6. The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. (Psalm 34:18) Lord, my heart is broken. My mind is restless and my spirit is uneasy. When I feel broken down or defeated, I want to run to you, knowing you are always present and always near. Comfort me, Jesus.
  7. An anxious heart weighs a man down, but a kind word cheers him up. (Proverbs 12:25) Jesus, my anxious heart is weighing me down today. I confess that I have become consumed by my own thoughts and I have lost sight of who you are. Speak kindly to my heart, Lord, and remind me of what is true. Thank you for your forgiveness and your endless grace for me.
  8. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. (Colossians 3:15) Dear Lord, it is my deep desire that your peace would rule in my heart. When I feel uneasy or unsettled, I want to know you are near me. Calm my fears, settle my spirit, and bring rest to my heart as I surrender myself to you today.
  9. The Lord gives strength to his people; the Lord blesses his people with peace. (Psalm 29:11) Lord, thank you for giving me strength. On the hard days, help me to remember you are never far away. Your strength is always fighting for me–I need only to be still in your presence. Thank you for bringing peace to me. Thank you for every blessing. I want to name and remember them today, for you are always good. Amen.

I love songs. This one will serve as a good backdrop to this prayer.

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Why I Love Lucy

Then Samuel said, “Gather all Israel at Mizpah, and I will pray to the LORD for you.” So they gathered at Mizpah and drew water and poured it out before the LORD and fasted on that day and said there, “We have sinned against the LORD.” And Samuel judged the people of Israel at Mizpah. Now when the Philistines heard that the people of Israel had gathered at Mizpah, the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel. And when the people of Israel heard of it, they were afraid of the Philistines. And the people of Israel said to Samuel, “Do not cease to cry out to the LORD our God for us, that he may save us from the hand of the Philistines.” So Samuel took a nursing lamb and offered it as a whole burnt offering to the LORD. And Samuel cried out to the LORD for Israel, and the LORD answered him. As Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to attack Israel. But the LORD thundered with a mighty sound that day against the Philistines and threw them into confusion, and they were defeated before Israel. And the men of Israel went out from Mizpah and pursued the Philistines and struck them, as far as below Beth-car. (1 Samuel 7:5-11 ESV)

The Israelites desperately needed prayer…for the enemy within (we have sinned) and the enemy without (the Philistines). Samuel interceded to God on behalf of Israel for their sin. No sooner had they repented than the enemy reared his ugly head. While they were gathering in revival at Mizpah, the Philistines heard about it and decided to attack. The people were afraid and Samuel prayed. God answered.

My dad has shared many times that he was anything but a model teenager. He lived a reckless life of sin. One night, while staggering up the gravel road toward home, having been on one of his many escapades, he heard cries coming from a small white frame house across the creek. “Who is up at this hour of the morning?” he thought. It was Lucy. In the moonlit night he stopped to listen to what Lucy Hensley was saying. Her words pierced the darkness–and his heart. She was calling his name out in prayer. “Lord, save Ross Lewis,” was her prayer.

God answered that prayer. That’s why I love Lucy. I have wondered many times where I would be if Lucy hadn’t prayed. What if Lucy hadn’t loved God and my dad enough to intercede on behalf of my dad?

I love Lucy. When I get to heaven I’m sure I’ll thank her.

Who prayed for you? And who are you praying for?

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How Now Shall We Pray?

Much has been said, written and debated about last Friday’s Supreme Court decision: blurred lines about right and wrong, confusing ideas about how love wins, and foreboding realities about a court of nine whose decision mandates a country of millions. Fears abound regarding potential threats to religious freedom. Regardless of what comes next, you can do one thing: pray. That freedom can never be revoked. You can pray in a courthouse, the White House and your house. No one will hear you but God…and He’s the one who matters.

How now shall we pray?

  1. Pray for informed children. A 2010 Kaiser Family Foundation study revealed that kids spend 7 1/2 hours a day “consuming media — watching TV, listening to music, surfing the Web, social networking, and playing video games.” Apple, Yahoo, Facebook, Youtube and Google promulgated much of the errant message regarding right and wrong in the recent gay marriage campaign. Pay attention to what your children are hearing, watching and reading…and pray.
  2. Pray for faithful marriages. Inattention to a biblical definition of marriage among heterosexual couples gave way to a widespread redefinition of marriage among everyone. When one lesbian couple was asked in a CNN interview what the rings meant on their fingers they responded, “Nothing. Nothing at all. It’s just a ring.” Sadly, their view of marriage is no different than many heterosexuals’ view of marriage.
  3. Pray for Gospel clarity. Paul asked believers in Ephesus to pray for him. “Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel...” (Ephesians 6:19, NIV) The good news that Jesus died for sinners, whatever their sin, and rose from the dead is inherently powerful. The proclamation of the Gospel is the hope of our country.
  4. Pray for gracious truth-telling. The new intolerance suggests that disagreement equals discrimination, that principled thinking is prejudiced thinking.  Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ. (Ephesians 4:15 ESV) Grownups speak truth to one another. A sign of maturity is gracious truth-telling.
  5. Pray for a genuine turnaround. Though written to a people in different circumstances, God’s message in 2 Chronicles 7:14 still resonates today: “If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. (2 Chronicles 7:14 ESV)

Billy Graham said, “To get nations back on their feet, we must first get down on our knees.”

It’s time to get on our knees.

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Why the Hope of America is Graduating This Weekend

To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings. (1 Corinthians 9:22-23 ESV)

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This week hundreds of students will graduate from McDowell High School–hundreds of thousands from schools across the United States. What could happen if the thousands of Christian students graduating this week showed up on college campuses this fall with an agenda: to rock that campus for Christ. In order to better understand this, let’s step back in time to 1790. J. Edwin Orr, longtime professor at Fuller Seminary, shares this:

In 1790 America had won its independence, but it had lost something as well. In the wake of the Revolutionary War, French infidelity, deism, and the generally unsettled condition of society had driven the moral and spiritual climate of the colonies to an all-time low. Drunkenness was epidemic; profanity was of the most shocking kind; bank robberies were a daily occurrence; and far the first time in the history of the American settlement women were afraid to go out at night for fear of being assaulted.

Surprised! Colleges were seedbeds of apostasy and debauchery. Orr continues:

A poll taken at Harvard revealed not one believer in the whole student body. Conditions on campus had degenerated to the point that all but five at Princeton were part of the “filthy speech” movement of that day. While students there developed the art of obscene conversation, at Williams College they held a mock communion, and at Dartmouth students put on an “anti-church” play.  In New Jersey the radical leader of the deist students led a mob to the Raritan Valley Presbyterian Church where they burned the Bible in a public bonfire. Christians were so few on the average campus and were so intimidated by the non-Christians that they met in secret. They even kept their minutes in code so no one could find out about their clandestine fellowship.

America seemed to be on a hopeless trajectory toward devastation when 1790 happened. Tomorrow we will talk about how a group of students impacted an entire country. Wow!

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The Wrong Question

The Lord turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?” “But Lord,” Gideon asked, “how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.”  Judges 6:15-16

Gideon asked the wrong question. “How can I save IsrGideon1ael?”

God never asked Gideon to save Israel. And God has not asked you to save anyone either. You can’t. You can’t even change them.

Some of you are trying.  You’re trying to save your husband. Only God can do that. Others would love to save your boss–before you lose your job! As a mom, you would save your son in a heartbeat. You can’t. You can’t even change your husband, your boss, or your son.

Your prayers will never be answered as long as you ask the wrong question.

How can you save? You can’t.

So there’s no need to list your weaknesses. They don’t matter. You’re not doing the saving anyway. You’re not doing the changing. Your weaknesses are inconsequential to what God is wanting to do through you.

Change the way you pray.

Change your focus.

John said, “He must increase; I must decrease.”

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7 Questions

In the Lord’s Prayer (probably more accurately known as the disciples’ prayer), Jesus teaches us how to pray.  Ken Hemphill has written seven accountability questions connected to this prayer.  Let me encourage you to ask these questions of your spouse or your accountability partner.  They take Jesus’ prayer and make it applicable to everyday life.

1.  What did you do today (or this week) that hallowed God’s name?

2.  What actions, words, or deeds may have brought reproach on God’s name?

3.  What kingdom opportunities did you encounter, and how did you respond?

4.  How have you responded to God’s will throughout the week?

5.  How have you experienced God’s daily provision this week?

6.  How is your spiritual debt ledger?  (What do you need forgiveness for, and who do you need to forgive?)

7.   Have you avoided all issues of temptation and experienced spiritual victory throughout the week?

Be honest and watch God transform your time with him, and as a result, your very life.

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We Don’t Know What To Do

Last night Adam, Rachel, Greg and Jackie (Rachel’s parents) and I spent some time in the Word together. Here’s what God taught us…and I wanted to share it with you today. What follows is the simple prayer Jehoshaphat prayed when he received word that three armies were advancing against him–they were less than 30 miles away! From Jehoshaphat’s prayer we learn these simple, yet profound principles for praying during difficult times. His prayer opened with these words:

“O LORD, God of our fathers, are you not God in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. In your hand are power and might, so that none is able to withstand you. (2 Chronicles 20:6 ESV)

Pray the character of God. Jehoshaphat was praying in the presence of all of Judah. They needed to be reminded of God’s great character. God, in heaven, has a perspective you and I will never have. He knows the end from the beginning. For Jehoshaphat, it was important to remember that God ruled over all the kingdoms of the nations. Do you believe that God rules over whatever you’re facing? He continued to pray:

Did you not, our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel, and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham your friend? And they have lived in it and have built for you in it a sanctuary for your name, saying, ‘If disaster comes upon us, the sword, judgment, or pestilence, or famine, we will stand before this house and before you—for your name is in this house—and cry out to you in our affliction, and you will hear and save.’ (2 Chronicles 20:7-9 ESV)

Pray the works of God. God doesn’t need to be reminded of what he has done in the past–we do. Jehoshaphat, in the hearing of his people, prayed God’s mighty works. What has God done for you? What mighty works has he performed? As Christians, we need only go back to the agonizing cross and the empty tomb to see God’s greatest work for us.

And now behold, the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir, whom you would not let Israel invade when they came from the land of Egypt, and whom they avoided and did not destroy—behold, they reward us by coming to drive us out of your possession, which you have given us to inherit. O our God, will you not execute judgment on them? For we are powerless against this great horde that is coming against us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.” (2 Chronicles 20:10-12 ESV)

Pray your personal problems. Jehoshaphat named them–men of Ammon, Moab and Mount Seir. What are you facing today that seemingly has a stranglehold on you? Name it. Ask for God’s help. Be real. We do not know what to do. What hard words for a king to pray in front of his people!

But our eyes are on you. Turn your eyes on Him today.

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The Unthinkable

When I heard the news I was floored. How could a pilot intentionally fly a plane into the mountain in the French Alps? And the tormenting final minutes the passengers endured–the agonizing attempt by the main pilot to get into the cockpit. It’s unthinkable. The experts are hard at work trying to figure out what could have motivated copilot Andreas Lubitz to kill himself and 149 others. Thirteen of the passengers were exchange students returning home from a year-long stint away from their parents. It is gut-wrenching.

What was going through his mind? We will never know the details, but we do know his human condition. And though we don’t like to admit it, apart from Christ we share that same human condition:

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. (Romans 8:5-8 ESV)

Notice the qualities of the mind set on the flesh. Death. Hostile to God. Unable to submit to God’s law. Unable to please God. Lubitz adds his name to a list of people who fit that description. Saddam Hussein. Adolf Hitler. Osama Bin Laden. Kim Il Sung. Joseph Stalin. And, believe it or not, you–before Christ.

I know…it takes my breath away too. Our capacity to sin is only limited by God’s grace to save. What Lubitz did pains me, breaks my heart, and makes me angry. And I’m saddened to say that things I have done have pained me, broken my heart and made me angry.

Today, pray for the families of those who died.

And thank God for his grace–grace that saves us from doing the unthinkable.

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A Prayer for Friday

Resting on God (from The Valley of Vision)

The thought of your infinite serenity cheers me, for I am toiling and moiling, troubled and distressed, but you are forever at perfect peace.

Your designs cause you no fear or care of unfulfilment, they stand fast as the eternal hills.

Your power knows no bond, your goodness no stint. You bring order out of confusion, and my defeats are your victories:

The Lord God omnipotent reigns.

I come to you as a sinner with cares and sorrows, to leave every concern entirely to you, every sin calling for Christ’s precious blood; revive deep spirituality in my heart; let me live near to the great Shepherd, hear his voice, know its tones, follow its calls.

Keep me from deception by causing me to abide in the truth, from harm by helping me to walk in the power of the Spirit.

Give me intenser faith in the eternal verities, burning into me by experience the things I know; let me never be ashamed of the truth of the gospel, that I may bear its reproach, vindicate it, see Jesus as its essence, know in it the power of the Spirit.

Lord, help me, for I am often lukewarm and chill; unbelief mars my confidence, sin makes me forget you.

Let the weeds that grow in my soul be cut at their roots; grant me to know that I truly live only when I live to you, that all else is trifling.

Your presence alone can make me holy, devout, strong and happy.

Abide in me, gracious God.