I was thinking through some plans recently. Nothing major, just a few tweaks here and there. Then I heard the Holy Ghost say, “Ok, but did you ask Me?” I had to stop. The honest answer was no. I hadn’t asked God about any of it. It didn’t seem important enough to bother Him with. But that thinking reveals something. Somewhere along the way, I had decided which parts of my life were worth bringing to God and which parts I could handle on my own. The big decisions got prayer. The small ones got my own judgment. Scripture doesn’t Read More
Category: Prayer
Teaching you to pray to get results
God’s Plan: Consult Before You Commit
The Condition We Skip “And this is the confidence (the assurance, the privilege of boldness) which we have in Him: [we are sure] that if we ask anything (make any request) according to His will (in agreement with His own plan), He listens to and hears us.” — 1 John 5:14 We love to quote this verse. We claim the confidence, the boldness, and the promise that God hears us. But too often we rush past four words that hold the whole verse together: according to His will. God Is Not Obligated to Your Plans Here is the pattern Read More
Deepest Recesses of Your Heart: Form or Power?
When the music stops, what’s left? When the lights go down, the band goes home, and the room goes quiet, does your worship stop with it? Matt Redman’s “The Heart of Worship” was written to bring a church back to this question. God is not after the sound. He is after the one behind it. If God searched the deepest recesses of your heart tonight, what would He find? Some of us want the form but not the power. We know the songs, the posture, and the language. We can lift our hands on cue; but Paul warned Timothy about Read More
Trusting God: The HOW Is Not My Business
I keep a note on my laptop titled “Musings.” It’s nothing fancy, just a running list of things I’m thinking about, wrestling with, or talking to the Lord about when nobody else is around. A couple of weeks ago, my pastor said something that landed in that note and hasn’t left me alone since. She said: “The HOW is not my business; Trust God!” I sat with that for a long time. Because if I’m honest, I’ve prayed plenty of prayers where I said the words “I give this to You, Lord” and then spent the rest of the week Read More
Count it all Joy!: Enduring the Pressure
“Consider it nothing but joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you fall into various trials. Be assured that the testing of your faith [through experience] produces endurance [leading to spiritual maturity, and inner peace]..” (James 1:2-3). Notice what James does not say. He does not say count it some joy. He does not say rejoice when the trial is manageable, or when the loss is small, or when the diagnosis is treatable. He says count it all joy — the totality, the whole weight of it. Not a fraction carved off and handed to God while we keep the rest for Read More
Who Are You?: Knowing and Understanding Your Identity
Have you ever stopped to ask why you love what you love? Why certain people draw near to your spirit while others never quite fit? Why your mind moves toward the things it moves toward? These are not random details of your personality. They are threads God wove into you before you ever drew breath. “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you [and approved of you as My chosen instrument], And before you were born I consecrated you [to Myself as My own]; I have appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” (Jeremiah 1:5) God did Read More