Prayers

When I was at Passion, God gave me the idea to start a small group ministry at work. I'm a supervisor at Liberty's Computer Lab, and for a long time I had felt that I was not able to use this job for the advancement of the Gospel. So I came back and decided to start some small groups. I discussed this with some fellow supervisors, and the four of us made a plan to move forward. I am thankful for this dream that God birthed in me, and for the men I share it with. We answered this call and God used us to start two "Life Groups" with our student workers.

The group that I was leading decided to go through Philippians. We have been going through chapter one all semester, and this past week, we got to verses 27-30. The first part of verse 27 is one of the verses that grabbed my attention at Passion: "Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ." This verse is part of what inspired me to pursue this small group ministry.

As I looked at these four verses, I kept seeing things that reminded me of our need for others. Anyone who has known me for very long knows how strongly I feel about our need for other people in our lives. I saw words in this passage such as: "I will know that you stand firm in the one Spirit, striving together as one for the faith of the gospel" (verse 27). Paul also talks about our suffering for Christ, and in verse 30 says: "since you are going through the same struggle you saw I had, and now hear that I still have." Paul seems to be saying here "I know what you're going through. I know the hard times you've had... I've been there."

As I was praying over these four verses in preparation for Sunday's Life Group meeting, I could not get away from the fact that we needed to pray for each other. I kept thinking about James 5:16... "Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed." I know we all seek that healing, and I knew we all needed it.

So we prayed. One person would share, and then the rest of us would pray for that person. The second part of James 5:16 says "The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective." We who are saved by the blood of Jesus are made righteous in Him. Therefore our prayers are powerful and effective. Knowing this, why do we not pray more? Why do we do we not pray together? Sunday's Life Group meeting retaught me this important lesson and I hope to pray with other believers more often.

Control Continued

First off, I don't like to use the internet to complain. Some people do it and that's fine, but it's usually not me. For that reason, I've been struggling over writing this blog post. I don't like to whine because, even in the midst of hardships, I consider myself one of the most blessed people on the planet. As I was talking with God about it, I remembered 2 Corinthians 12:9, "But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me." The purpose of this post is not to whine or complain, but to show my own weaknesses so that Christ may be glorified through them.

After writing Tuesdays post, I encountered a situation where I found myself doubting God's ability to handle it. I spent much of yesterday afternoon and evening in a frustrated and angry mood. And why? Because I didn't have control. I wanted control. I NEEDED control. I didn't have it, and it drove me crazy. Before, the situation was manageable. I could handle it. But not anymore.

Let's be honest here... what I truly needed was for God to take control away from me. And I'm glad He did. It showed me that He's still working on me.

This is an area where I need a lot of growth. Praying that God will keep helping me work through it!

Control

We're control freaks, aren't we? We would really like to be in complete control of our situations, even when we've seen that fail over and over again.

My continual prayer is that I would give up control. Every day I wake up and I think about the decisions I will make and how they will affect me and those around me. There are some things that are up to me: Will I give today to God and devote myself to carrying His name? Will I treat people with love? These things are internal. They are based on my actions and how I respond to my emotions. But there are so many things outside of myself that I have absolutely no control over, and it is these that I seem to always fight for. Why? Don't I know that God, who spoke a word and created the universe, is in control of all of it?

I am praying today that God would soften my heart to relinquish control of things I have no control over, and that I would follow Him wherever He leads.

Part of the Plan

The Illusionist, which came out in 2006, is a story about a magician who uses his abilities to try to win back a girl he loves. That's the really short version... that's definitely not all there is to it, but I don't want to give away much of the story for those of you who haven't seen it. It's a really good movie and I definitely recommend it. It came out at the same time as another magician movie that had some bigger names in it, so it kind of got overshadowed. If you missed it at the time, it's not too late. But anyway!

In the movie, a lot of bad things happen. The main character, played by Edward Norton, appears to go through many trials. From an outside perspective, things do not really go his way.

However, toward the end of the movie, we learn that everything went according to his plan. Though things seemed bad on the surface, something much deeper was going on. Something that no one could have foreseen. Everything that happened was part of his plan all along.

I believe our lives can be like that. God knows the end result and uses circumstances that seem to us to be negative. We complain that God has forsaken us. We beg Him to help things go our way. We tell Him what we want with our lives and hope that He makes it happen. But we don't know the end. We don't know what He's doing to shape us into the people we were meant to be.

While it may appear to us like things are bad, we may later find that everything He was doing was done to create who we are now. And that's more important than anything we've been through.

Of course, not everything turns out for our good. But that's why we need to learn to live life for God and not for ourselves. We can always count on Him to glorify Himself through us if we allow Him to. It's not an easy thing to give up control, but it is much more fulfilling. When we stop praying selfish prayers and start praying "God, help me do whatever it is that would glorify You the most", He can begin a work in us that is far beyond what we could imagine for ourselves.