Glad to See You! (Praying with Confience in God part 2)

My mother died from cancer eighteen years ago at the age of 51. I remember the last time I was with her alive. It was Mother’s Day 1992. We had driven from Kansas City back home to Pueblo, Colorado to see her and my dad. She was very sick; yellow from the jaundice because her liver and kidneys were shutting down; almost too weak to get out of bed. We sat with her, read scripture together, sang hymns, and read her Mother’s Day cards to her. She was suffering and on pain medication. But on that day she was vibrant. She was positive. She smiled and radiated the love of God to all of us in the room with her.

Thinking about her and Psalm 119:74 has me asking myself: Are other believers encouraged when they see me? Do I have a positive, vibrant testimony? Do I have the type of smile and countenance that reflects patient confidence in the Lord?

Psalm 119:73-80 reflects that kind of patient confidence in God in spite of afflictions. Yesterday I told the first reason to have confidence in God and His word:  1. My Creator a Plan for My Life (Psalm 119:73).

The second reason we can pray with confidence is:

2. My God Can Still Work Through Me (74).

74  Those who fear You will be glad when they see me, Because I have hoped in Your word.

The writer of Psalm 119 is not free from affliction, but he responds to struggles in life in such a way that the Lord is glorified, others are benefited, and he himself sees it turn out for good in his life.

A beautiful example of this truth is in Paul in Philippians 1:12-14, “But I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel, so that it has become evident to the whole palace guard, and to all the rest, that my chains are in Christ; and most of the brethren in the Lord, having become confident by my chains, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.”

That is one of God’s purposes in comforting us through our affliction, that we could then be used by Him to comfort others. Look at the truth found in 2 Corinthians 1:3-6, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ. Now if we are afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effective for enduring the same sufferings which we also suffer. Or if we are comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation.”

Part of that comfort that Paul received was the encouragement of a man named Titus, “Nevertheless God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus,” (2 Cor. 7:6). It is good for our eyes to see someone whose life testifies that the Lord is true. The sight of a faithful person gladdens the God-fearing. Hopeful men bring gladness with them.

Are you spreading gladness where ever you go?

How Do You Pray with Confidence?

Long ago two boys on the bank of the Mississippi River watched a mighty paddle wheeler majestically move down the river. As it drew near, one boy laid down his fishing pole and began to wave frantically and yell. The other lad laughed at the effort of his friend to get the attention of the paddle wheeler, but suddenly the giant vessel began to slow down and then turned toward the bank.

In amazement, the second boy wondered aloud how his friend could possibly flag down a massive paddle wheeler. The excited boy simply told his bewildered friend: "My father is the pilot."

As children of God we, too, can have confidence that our Father will respond to our petitions. Psalm 119:73-80 is a prayer of confidence in a good God in whom we can trust. Verses 73-75 focus on the character and works of God. They form the basis for the psalmist’s confidence for making his petitions in verses 76-80. He prays trusting in God and in God’s word. So in this section of Psalm 119 we see three reasons for confidence in God and His Word and five requests based on that confidence in God and His Word.

Reasons for Confidence in God and His Word.

1. My Creator a Plan for My Life (73).

73 Your hands have made me and fashioned me; Give me understanding, that I may learn Your commandments.

The word “hand” is the key word of this whole stanza.  In fact, each verse of the stanza begins with the Hebrew letter yod.  It corresponds to our letters “y” and “j”, but yad is also the Hebrew word for “hand.” 

“Your hands have made me and fashioned me.”  Those are very personal words that are rich, not only with the creative power of God, but also in expressing God’s involvement in creating each one of us individually. 

We don’t usually think of mass-producing things with our hands.  That’s what machines are for.  Hands mould pottery.  Hands craft wood.  Hands knit and stitch and embroider.  Hands create things that involve our personal attention.  God doesn’t have literal hands—God is spirit—but God has lovingly crafted each of us the same way the potter’s hands mould a pot, the carpenter’s hands shape a block of wood, or the seamstress’ hands stitch together a lovely garment.  God is involved, He cares, He loves his handiwork.  He doesn’t just make it—any machine can do that.  No, he fashions it.  That’s an expression of intent and thoughtfulness. 

Personalize this psalm by praying, “Lord, I know you will never forget me since I am the work of your hands. I am the vessel you made—and made with purpose.  Fill me up and use me.  Teach me, give me understanding so that I may learn to obey your commandments.”

Listen, if we can be sure of God’s continued interest in us simply because of our physical creation, how much more can we be sure of his interest in us now that He has caused us to be born again by His Spirit through faith in His Son?  He sent His only Son—the ultimate price—to die that God might create us anew. 

Doesn’t that assure you that God cares about you?  If you are in Christ, you have been washed by the blood of Jesus and renewed by His indwelling Spirit.  Pray that He will continue to work in you each day, giving you understanding and giving you strength to follow God’s way.

In my next post I will tell two more reasons for confidence in prayer.

What gives you confidence to petition God in prayer?

Praying to the Good God in the Bad Times, Part 2

I don’t know what you are facing today—maybe the loss of a job, the loss of a loved one, or the loss of health yourself or from someone you love. Afflictions and trials hit all of us. No one is immune from trouble, it is part of life on this sinful world. Jesus said, “In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." For the child of God, afflictions can bring us closer to God. This often happens as we pray, as we talk with God during our trials. But how do we pray?
In my last post I saw from Psalm 119:65-67 two ways to pray to the good God in the bad times:

1. Lord, You are so good, though I’m so undeserving (v. 65).

2. Lord, give me wisdom to apply Your Word in this situation (v. 66-67)

Here are two more:

3. Lord, teach me in this trial how to glorify You (v. 68-69)

68  You are good, and do good; Teach me Your statutes.

69  The proud have forged a lie against me, But I will keep Your precepts with my whole heart.

Verse 68 says God is good and does good. His actions flow out of His attributes. This is a glory-driven, Godward, God-centered prayer. The focus of my prayer in my difficulty should not be first on me, and it must not be first on what others did to me (v. 69), the focus must be first on God’s goodness and God’s glory, that God would teach me (v. 68b) and help me to obey His principles (v. 69b).

God’s goodness is His very glorious nature; compassionate, loving, gracious. The very goodness of God and His dealings is seen in the very beginning of the Bible: As God creates the world and all its creatures, He repeatedly pronounces it good, and finally very good. It is God’s very nature to be good and do good, and it should be the very nature of someone saved by His good grace to pray thankfully, “Lord, teach me in this trial how to glorify You.”

David says in Psalm 50:15, “Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me.”

We cannot always know why God gives certain afflictions, nor do we have to know before we can know Him to be good. But one thing we can know is that ultimately one purpose in my affliction is that God would be glorified, that His goodness should be magnified for all to see.

4. Lord, help me to delight in You and Your Word no matter what (v. 70-72)

70  Their heart is as fat as grease, But I delight in Your law.

Do I find delight in God and His word or the world and its fat? Fat may taste good, but it’s bad for our health. Spiritual fat is a flabby fatty layer of spiritual cellulite due to spiritual inactivity and lack of exercise of the heart towards God. Often, prosperous sinners, because they live in luxury where every desire is gratified, have lost all feeling for God. Whatever God needs to do to wean us off loving this world is good. So affliction in this case is a blessing:

71 It is good for me that I was afflicted, That I may learn Your statutes.

Martin Luther confessed, “I never knew the meaning of God’s word, until I came into affliction. I have always found it one of the best schoolmasters.” Affliction is not good in itself and does not usually seem good to us when we are enduring it, but it has a good purpose when God sends it, as he frequently does in the case of his cherished children.

Some of God’s purposes in afflictions:

To show Himself good through His dealings (v. 65).

To give us discernment and knowledge (v. 66).

To restore us from straying (v. 67).

To teach us how good God is (68)

To bring about wholehearted obedience in us (v. 69).

To cause delight in God and His Word (v. 70).

To cause us to learn His Word and ways (v. 71).

To make us see the priceless nature of God’s Word (v. 72).

Verse 72 says, “The law of Your mouth is better to me Than thousands of coins of gold and silver.” This verse reminds me of one of my favorite hymns and the story behind it. In 1933 our nation was trying to recover from the Great Depression. Business curves were still heading downward and there was rumor of a salary cut at the New York insurance office where a twenty-two-year-old man was employed as a clerk. With his deep melodious voice, he was offered a radio contract with NBC and immediately saw opportunities for fame and possible riches in his regular appearance on the radio program.

He had been pondering the matter for several days when he sat down to the piano early one Sunday morning to rehearse a hymn he was to sing in church that morning. As he played and sang his eyes fell on a piece of paper. It was a poem by Mrs. Rhea Miller that had been placed there by his mom. As his eyes raced over the words, the lines struck his heart. His fingers unconsciously left the tune he was rehearsing and began to set this poem to music in a melody which is today known to millions. George Beverly Shea, instead of singing on the radio, devoted his life to Christian ministry travelling with Billy Graham. Maybe you’ve heard the song that was on the piano that day:

 I’d rather have Jesus than silver or gold;

I’d rather be His than have riches untold;

I’d rather have Jesus than houses or lands,

I’d rather be led by His nail pierced hand.

Than to be a king of a vast domain

Or be held in sin’s dread sway,

I’d rather have Jesus than anything

This world affords today.

Has this Psalm given you something to pray in your affliction?

A Prayer to Witness Without Fear

This week I met some of the parents whose kids are in marching band with my son at the local high school. As I was talking with one man I sensed the urging of the Holy Spirit to share with him about my relationship with Jesus Christ. At the same instance I also felt a great fear well up in the pit of my stomach. I knew God wanted me to say something, but at the same time I felt like I couldn’t do it.

Has that ever happened to you? Many Christians are afraid to tell others about their faith in Jesus. For most of us, even those who have a lot of experience at it, just the thought of witnessing or telling the good news to someone gives us at least butterflies in our gut or at most paralyzes us into keeping quiet.

How can we cultivate an unwavering faith to speak unashamedly for God and of His word?

I learned some lessons in this area from Psalm 119:41-49. This section of Psalm 119, like some of the others, is not just a song but also a prayer. This prayer makes two requests of God (vs. 41,43) and six promises to God (42, 44-48).

41  Let Your mercies come also to me, O LORD; Your salvation according to Your word.
42  So shall I have an answer for him who reproaches me, For I trust in Your word.
43  And take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth, For I have hoped in Your ordinances.
44  So shall I keep Your law continually, Forever and ever.
45  And I will walk at liberty, For I seek Your precepts.
46  I will speak of Your testimonies also before kings, And will not be ashamed.
47  And I will delight myself in Your commandments, Which I love.
48  My hands also I will lift up to Your commandments, Which I love, And I will meditate on Your statutes.

We need great grace to speak God’s Word with great boldness and power, so this prayer begins by praying for grace-enablement. He expresses his confidence in verse 42, “So shall I have an answer for him who reproaches me,” and his prayer for boldness in verse 43, “And take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth.” 

What got the psalmist to this point of confidence and boldness? Can it also enable us to have that confidence and boldness?

One thing that will help me witness without fear is when I:

Appreciate God’s Mercy in Saving Me. (vs. 41-43).

The Psalmist’s experience in v.41 & 42 parallels our own salvation:

1. Salvation Is From the Lord’s mercy. .41, ”Let Your mercies come also to me, O LORD;”

“Mercies” in v. 41 (NKJV) is the rich Hebrew word hesed. In the ESV it is translated “steadfast love” or in other translations “unfailing love” (NIV) or “lovingkindness” (NASB) or “faithful love” (HCSB) or “loyal love” (NET). This is the Lord’s faithful, covenant love and mercy.

Our salvation is also a result of God’s mercy on us:

Eph. 2:4-5,  “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved).”

Titus 3:5, “not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit.”

2. Salvation Is By God’s Word .41, “Your salvation according to Your word.”

His experience was that God delievered him according to His word. We can depend on God to keep His word. Our salvation comes through hearing and believing God’s word:

Romans 10:17, “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”

1 Peter 1:23, “having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever.”

3. Salvation Is Through Faith (Trust). 42, “For I trust in Your word.”

The psalmist trusted God and His word. Another word for trust is faith. We are saved through faith.

Ephesians 2:8, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.”

If we understand what God has mercifully done for us in salvation through Jesus Christ it emboldens us to speak without fear of men. One reason is that we reverence or fear God all the more. Paul says, “Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men;” (2 Cor. 5:11).

 Another reason is that we know the love of God all the more. A few verses later Paul says, “For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again,” (2 Cor. 5:14,15).

Because we know what a great peril God has saved us from because of His love for us, we seek to persuade men to believe in Jesus.

The more we appreciate God’s mercy in saving us, the more we will want to tell others about it.

Finishing Well

I was watching the NASCAR race last Sunday at New Hampshire (No, unfortunately I wasn’t at the race. I watched it from my living room). Tony Stewart was leading the race with one lap to go when his car ran out of gas. Rather than win the race he finished 24^th. The guy who won the race, Clint Bowyer, later had problems of his own. Even though he won the race on Sunday, the car failed a post race inspection so on Wednesday, the team was docked 150 points and fined $150,000. The crew chief was suspended for 6 races. Instead of being launched forward toward the championship the team is now in last place, 185 points behind the leader.

Both these teams raced hard. Neither finished well. In Psalm 119 the psalmist prays in verse 33, “Teach me, O LORD, the way of Your statutes, And I shall keep it to the end.” His prayer and desire is that he would keep God’s statutes to the end; all the way; that he would end well.

You know, the Christian life is not a sprint, it’s a marathon. Having been a Christian now for 28 years, coming to the Lord as a college sophomore, I have now lived longer as a believer than as an unbeliever. Sometimes I have done well as a Christian, but not always. But the older I get, the more I think about how I am finishing. I want to end well.

One of the hardest and most difficult challenges in life is to stay consistent. It seems like all of life is designed to force us onto a rollercoaster. On that roller coaster, we are always challenged with decisions and struggles which are perfectly and intentionally focused on “derailing” us. How many people do we know who have failed to finish well?

Psalm 119 has much help for us. This is a psalm all about God’s Word, with each verse referring to the Bible by one of many synonyms or titles (commandments, statutes, precepts, ways, ordinances, law, etc.). This is a psalm of loving and longing God and His word.

How did this writer have such a delight and longing for Scripture? How did he maintain this over a lifetime of trouble and pain? How did he finish well? How can we?

The person that would end well prays:

1. Teach Me (vs. 33-34).

Teach me, O LORD, the way of Your statutes, And I shall keep it to the end.

This prayer is the theme of the entire psalm. God Himself must be our teacher and His Word must be our textbook.

Kneel down in your private room and with sincere humility and earnestness pray to God, through His dear Son, graciously to grant you His Holy Spirit to enlighten and guide you and give you understanding.

2. Make Me Able. (Psalm 119:35-37)

True faith and prayer mobilizes action. We trust and obey. It’s not enough to be readers of the Word, or as James says, hearers of the Word only, we must be doers of the Word. Praying is essential and recognizes God’s sovereignty, but our responsibility is equally balanced in this passage.

This prayer is for obeying or heeding God’s Word with the whole person. I say “the whole person” because verses 34-37 unfold that way:

MIND - 34 Give me understanding
FEET - 35 Make me walk in the path
HEART - 36 Incline my heart to Your testimonies
EYES - 37 Turn away my eyes from looking at vanity

3. Revive My Life (Psalm 119:37b-40)

“Behold, I long for Your precepts; Revive me in Your righteousness,” (Ps. 119:40).

v. 33-34 RENEW MY MIND
v. 35 REDIRECT MY STEPS
v. 36 REINVIGORATE MY HEART
v. 37 REFOCUS MY EYES
rest of text REVIVE MY LIFE

Revived hearts do not see Bible reading as a bore or something they have to do. It’s a gracious gift they long for and get to read. Look at his longing in verse 29 “graciously grant me thy law”

Is this how we think of God’s law, as a gracious gift given by our Loving Father?

“Teach me Your ways, make me able to follow them, revive my life so that my great longing is for You, Oh Lord.” This is the prayer of the one who would finish well.

Are you running the race to finish well?

Revival: Dependence on God in Prayer

Psalm 119:25-32

“An awakening is ready to burst on the dismal scene when Christians have a deep, profound Spirit of prayer for an awakening.” - Lewis Drummond.

Last week I began to write about personal revival from Psalm 119:25-32. Many Christians would love to see a true revival in our nation and world. I would too. But revival begins with the individual. Personal spiritual revival must precede any corporate revival. As we saw in Psalm 119:25, the real prayer we need to pray is, “Revive me!” 

What does revival according to God’s Word look like? Four things are included in a personal spiritual revival. The first was Declaration of Sin and Our Need for God, (Psalm 119:25-26). The second was Devotion to God’s Word (119:26-27).

Today we see the third indication of personal revival:

3. Dependence on God in Prayer (119:28-29)

“My soul melts from heaviness; Strengthen me according to Your word.”

Temptations to despair and spiritual depression are not often talked about in Christian circles, but they have been the struggles of some great Christians in church history, and even the author of this great psalm. What is the cure? Stop listening to the despair in our hearts and start listening instead to the truth of God’s word. It’s when we go to God in prayer that we find strength.

The one antidote for a weak and collapsing soul is hope in a strengthening God, which is what the 2nd half of verse 28 models. Jesus said “Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” This is the type of comforting strength the writer of Psalm 119 wanted and received.

When we are powerless, when our heart is melted, God’s power will strengthen all who humbly call out to Him. God’s strength is made perfect in our weakness. We can endure all things through Christ who strengthens us. Christians may get discouraged and even depressed and downcast at times, but we do not despair completely if God is within us.

Prayer along with God’s word is the key. I don’t just pray “strengthen me” and leave God’s Word closed – this verse prays “strengthen me according to Your Word.” It’s a prayer with open an Bible that God blesses. We take God’s precious promises and enduring truths to Him in prayer.

Jonathan Edwards was greatly used by God in the greatest revival in North America, the Great Awakening in the 1700s. He experienced revival firsthand and saw as clear as anyone the connection with revival and prayer. He wrote: “When God has something very great for His church, it is His will that there should precede it the extraordinary prayers of His people.”

“Remove from me the way of lying, And grant me Your law graciously.” (Psalm 119:29).

True prayer, real conversation and communion with God, makes the revived want to be free from all that is false. He prays for God to remove the way of lying or the “false way”. He wants to be free from anything false, whether false statements or even false motives, false religion, a false heart himself (hypocrisy), false notions of his own spiritual condition before God, false assessments of himself or others, false teaching –any falsification, delusion, deception, manipulation of the truth.

Have you prayed that kind of prayer lately?

(In the next post I will discuss the third indicator of personal revival: Dedication to Holiness).

From Down and Out to Up and Running!

Psalm 119:25-32

All of us are painfully aware of the economic downturn in our country. Major banking institutions have failed. Millions of people are without jobs. Families are hurting. The government seems powerless to change it. The recession is fast turning into a depression.

But I believe that the bigger problem in our world today is not financial, but spiritual. Many in our world, and maybe even some of us, are suffering from a spiritual recession; maybe even a spiritual depression. But there is good news today– not from the world, but from the Word of God, where true encouragement is found for personal revival for your soul when you are in a spiritual recession.

Psalm 119 has places where its writer soars high in praise to God and love for the law of the Lord. But its writer also experienced the depths and heartaches we experience, and verse 25 begins with one of those down times. In eight verses the psalmist goes from “down and out in the dust” (v 25) to “up and running” (v 32). It is a prayer for revival, renewal, and restrengthening.

What a prayer for revival looks like:

The prayer: Downcast in the Dust, Revive me. (119:25). “My soul clings to the dust;” Dust was the language of humiliation or defeat in Bible times. Even in our day, we say “another one bites the dust” to refer to defeat. The psalmist certainly seems to feel defeated, emotionally and physically drained, as he says in v. 28, “My soul melts from heaviness.” Nothing is lower than dust. In the Bible, when people would intentionally put dust and ashes on themselves, it was a sign of devastation, mourning or repentance.

In biblical language, dust was also often associated with death, lack of life. Maybe the psalmist feels like he is on the brink of death. Or he may be talking about the spiritual deadness he feels, his diminished spiritual life. In the same way Adam was formed from the dust and was dependent on God’s breath of life—we are equally dependent spiritually. Apart from God’s reviving word we have no hope for spiritual vitality.

Many Christians are calling for prayer for revival for our nation. And certainly we should pray for our nation and our leaders, but let’s start where the psalmist started. Let’s pray for our own souls. “Revive me” is more than just “preserve my life” (NIV). It is “give me life” (ESV), or “quicken me” (KJV). He is as helpless to give himself life as Adam was, his total being is lying prostrate in the dust, but he cries to God for life.

The Bible is clear that revival is something man can pray for but it it’s equally clear that man cannot produce, predict or plan revival – it is a sovereign work of God’s grace. Man trying to plan a revival is kind of like man trying to plan an earthquake. We can’t control it, predict or manipulate it. God does it. That’s why we must pray for it.

A revival isn’t having a big tent meeting, filling a stadium of people for some crusade, having Christian entertainers perform, or having emotional music and long altar calls. Those things may be fine and my have their place, but revival is not the right word for that.

He prays, “Revive me according to Your Word” …

Spiritual revival is the re-awakening of God’s people joyfully to spiritual things, as well as the awakening of many for the first time to God’s saving grace in the process, after a time of spiritual dryness, dullness, deadness, even discipline. And it comes through prayer and God’s word.

Do you need revival?

What would revival look like in your life?
(In the next few posts we will gain more insight to a REVIVAL PRAYER from this Psalm).

God Answers Our Prayers

Vacation Bible School started yesterday at our church. We had been praying and planning for weeks. We had put in hours of preparation, decorating the building, studying the lessons, learning the music, inviting families, praying that God would bring the children.

Our small church does not have a lot of children that come every week. Some Sundays we only have a handful of kids in Sunday School (yes, that really is about 5 children). We love kids and their families but we just have very few right now. So we prayed and planned. We prayed and prepared. We prayed and invited. And we prayed.

Would God answer our prayers? I know that God is able. God “is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think,” and He is able to do it “according to the power that works in us.” (Ephesians 3:20). But would He? Did I really believe that? Monday morning I took my doubts and my anxieties to the Lord. I asked Him to “help me in my unbelief.” And the Lord answered. He strengthened my little faith. I prayed, “Lord, whatever you do, however many kids you send, we will thank you. We will honor you. We will surrender our lives to let you love through us. We will trust you.”

Bible School starts at 9:00am. We got to the church building at 8:00. We made sure we had at least 30 registration forms and name tags. We did some final preparations. And we waited on the Lord. The kids began to arrive: two; then three more; another little boy; a couple girls; and they kept coming in. Final tally, twenty-five children enrolled first day! Praise the Lord!

After the morning was over, after we sang all the songs, taught all the lessons, played all the games, ate all the snacks, and sent all the kids back home – I was alone in the sanctuary of the church building. I stood there amazed again at the wonderful, faithful God we serve. I thanked Him. I worshiped Him. I prayed for more of His glory.

We had a great day at VBS. I know that God will do even greater things during the rest of the week. I am trusting Him, believing Him, and loving Him.

Do you have a story about how God answered prayer?

Outrageous Off Base Life Quotes to Build Your Word Power

My favorite magazine has always been Reader’s Digest. If you read it as often as I do you will recognize RD’s monthly column titles in the title to this post. I usually read RD cover-to-cover each month, that is, when I can get it away from my wife and our grown daughters. Even my 15 year old son picks it up and thumbs through to read all the humor articles.

I like testing my word power, reading the funnies, and learning strange facts about America. I like reading the inspirational stories of real people. I like that anybody can send in a joke or true funny story and get $100.

But I have been turned off by some of the changes in RD over the last few years. There are more ads than there used to be. There are less stories of regular, real life people and more about celebrities. There are more lists and how-to’s rather than excerpts from good books. There are more colors and text boxes and different fonts that simply distract me or make it hard for my aging eyes to read (please don’t say I need to go to the large print version).

Sometimes I will pick up a vintage edition of RD that I have stored in a secret place so my wife won’t throw them away (yes, I am a pack rat). It is refreshing to me to see more print and less hype; more content and less fluff; more reading and less skimming. I guess I am just old-fashioned. And sometimes I like myself that way.

Sometimes I like my discipleship with Jesus that way too. It is good to get away from the computerized Bible study software, the online devotionals, and other modern tools of the trade. It is good to just get alone with God and my Bible; to turn off the Christian radio; to bring along an old hymnal; to read quietly and listen for God speaking to me.

Jesus did that.  After an exhausting day of ministry with crowds of people, with sights and sounds, with demands on His time and energy—Jesus got away. “Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed.”  (Mark 1:35 NKJV)

Sometimes I need to stop all the sounds and listen for the Savior; stop all the hype and find the hope.  God really wants me to spend time with Him alone, quiet, undistracted. When I do, I am more able to make sense out of the noisy, advertisement filled pages of life.

What helps you to slow down and focus on God?

On the Job Praying

For 17 years I worked part-time at UPS in addition to being pastor of a small church in Kansas. I would get up at 3:00am and be to work by 4:00am. The work was physically and mentally challenging. The schedule was tight every morning. Within a span of three and a half to four hours our team had to unload, scan, label, sort, and sequentially load about 40,000 packages. Tempers often flared under exhaustion and the time constraints.

It was not always easy to maintain a joyful spirit and a winsome Christian attitude during those stressful hours. There were days when I blew it.

But there were also days when the Lord shone through me in spite of my failings. Many of those days had this in common: I started them by praying and continued them in praying. Here are some “best practices” for on-the-job praying.

1. Get up early enough to have a quiet time with God. Read your Bible and spend some time alone with Him in prayer.
2. Listen to inspirational music or Christian radio on the way to work. It might even help with your attitude toward those other drivers.
3. Prayer walk your work place. Get to work a little earlier than most, walk by each person’s work space. Pray specifically for that person and the needs you know he or she has. (By the way this might require you to get to know your co-workers.)
4. Show compassion. Ask God to make you sensitive to others’ needs as you interact with them.
5. Do a prayer review. At the end of the work day pray over what happened that day. Ask forgiveness for when you blew it. Rejoice in the Lord for when you were faithful.

You might just find that God will make those days at work some of the most productive for the Kingdom of God. Other posts that might help your prayer are:

The Altar, Worship Is Not Just for Sundays, Sword Training

Can you think of other prayer practices for work?

What has worked for you?