Prayer Week 13: Don't Lose the Game

It is so easy to get distracted. Our busy world can be so demanding. There are so many things pulling us in all directions. Not all of them are bad either. Some are quite good and necessary, like family, church and jobs. However, when they get in the way of time with God, problems arise. We should do those things, but they shouldn’t be our top priority. We need help refocusing throughout the day.

 

Psalm 119:176 New American Standard Bible 1995

I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek Your servant,
For I do not forget Your commandments.

Isaiah 53:6 New American Standard Bible 1995

All of us like sheep have gone astray,
Each of us has turned to his own way;
But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all
To fall on Him.

Matthew 18:12 New American Standard Bible 1995

What do you think? If any man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go and search for the one that is straying?

 

It is so easy to get so busy that we miss out on time with God. We think that important, necessary things that have to be done today should come first. However, we cannot do them right if we are not drawing our strength and wisdom from God. And we can’t draw from God if we aren’t spending time with Him. Instead of that shift giving us more time, it leaves us running on fumes. Time with God, in the Bible and in prayer, needs to be our first priority, and not just setting aside 5 minutes and then going about our day. We should be thinking about God and talking with Him throughout the day.

 

When I was in college, there was a popular “game” where the whole object was to not think about the game. Any time a person remembered the game they were to say out loud that they just lost the game (which subsequently often made others lose the game as well.) The only way to win was to either never be reminded of the game, or to always be thinking about the game so that it was never forgotten.

 

As you go about your day and week, try to continually think about and talk to God. Keep that constant awareness of His presence. The only reason God ever feels distant is because we aren’t paying attention. He is always there, and He will help bring us back if we are willing. Decide on a phrase that will help remind you to refocus on God. It should be something short and simple like “only You” or “walk with Me.” Every time you hear that phrase, let it remind you to talk to God, to be aware of Him. Make it your goal this week to never “lose the game” of communion with God.

 Prayer points taken from Praying Through Adversity by Jennifer Kennedy Dean.

Advent: The Coming of Adonai

Many separate Christmas and the rest of the Bible unconsciously. They think of Jesus being a baby in a manger and forget that He grew to a man and died on the cross. They also forget that the God of Christmas is also the God who gave the Law to Moses and defeated the Egyptian army. He is a God of love and grace, but also of power and justice.

 

God is God and I am Not

Deep down we all want to be God. We want to be in control and do what we please. That is why satan was banished from heaven, by trying to become God, and that is the sin he used to trap Adam and Eve, by getting them to believe that disobedience would make them like God. Whether we are willing to admit it or not, though, none of us are. There is only one God, and He does not share.

 

Love God with Your Body

We have now covered how to love God with all our heart, soul and mind. The last command completes the realm of our being: with all our might or strength. This does not reference “putting our backs into it” so much as representing the physical nature of our being. We are basically made up of four areas; emotions, spirituality, mentality and physicality. We are called to love God with all of our physical being, but how?

Love With All Your Mind

What is in the mind? What does it control and apply to? Really our minds control everything, physically and mentally. In a way it is the basis of our being. What we think affects how we feel which affects how we act. It is the root. So how do we love God with all of our minds?

Love With All Your Soul

What is a soul? What does it encompass and how do we use it? How do we love God with our souls?

We are commanded to love God with our hearts, souls, minds and strength. I said earlier that this represented the emotional, spiritual, mental and physical aspects of our lives; i.e. every part of our being. This does not mean that when we see the word “heart” or “soul” elsewhere in the Bible that they are synonymous with our emotions or spirituality, only that in this context I believe they represent them as part of our entire being. How do we love God spiritually, or with our spirituality?

Love the Lord Your God

How do we love God? According to Jesus, loving God is the most important commandment, but it seems a vague idea that most of us never contemplate. What does it mean to love God and how do we do that? He isn’t a physical person here, like a child or friend, who we can do things for or even hug.

What is Your Tower of Babel?

Many know the Tower of Babel was an attempt by the ancients to construct a tower up to heaven. It was an attempt to be equal with God. As a result, God confused their language and the population was dispersed through out the known world (as they were supposed to do from the beginning but didn’t.) They are often criticized and ridiculed for their arrogance and stupidity, yet the same thing happens on a fairly regular basis. Our goal from the beginning of history has been equality with God (see Eve and the Serpent), attempting to negate Him. Most of our attempts are significantly less obvious, but there is one which stands out above the rest and yet is hidden in plain sight.

The Greatest Love

In some ways, we tend to focus too much on God’s love, believing it to override other characters such as justice and holiness. Yet, even in that, we don’t really understand what His love is or how it truly operates. It is far deeper and greater than we could imagine on our own. The hymn The Love of God by Frederick Lehman delves into some of the true meaning of God’s love.

Do You Sing a Lie?

As Christians, we will acknowledge that to lie is wrong, and we would balk at the idea that we are living a lie. That is hypocrisy. Of course, we avoid the “bad” sins, and even most of the not-so-bad ones. Yet do our words match our lives? Specifically, do we live as if we agree with what we sing on Sunday morning?

Faithful Like God

Faithfulness has lost popularity in our culture. People move from team to team, band to band, fad to fad, job to job and relationship to relationship without missing a beat. We are told to stay true to ourselves rather than staying true to others or to our word. Some even look down on the idea of remaining with something or someone when things take a turn for the worst. Are we expected to be faithful? Isn’t that an archaic ideal that is no longer applicable? Is God really faithful to us?

Longsuffering Like God

Longsuffering is not a word we hear anymore, but it is pretty self explanatory. In the King James, it is used in place of patience when listing the fruit of the Spirit, but it is more than mere patience. It is often translated as “slow to anger” or “great patience” in other translations. It carries with it a note of extended time, and it is plain to see times in the Bible when God had longsuffering with people, but when has He had longsuffering with you? Have you had longsuffering with others?

Good Like God

Goodness is usually equated with God, yet many question God’s goodness, thinking it is more a trait of humanity rather than deity and assuming that all people are naturally good. “How could a good God allow___?” Is goodness really a characteristic of God? If people are inherently good, why do we need to work on it? Won’t it come naturally?

Like God

It is the overwhelming desire of humanity to be like God, to the extent that we try to be God in many ways. The period of Enlightenment is a great example of, not only humanity’s desire to be like God, but our belief that we can and will be like Him. The Tower of Babel is another example of humanity’s attempts at equality with God, but is it truly possible let alone permissible?

What Kind of Sacrifices Do You Make?

painting courtesy of zatletic/bigstock.com

Offering sacrifices is something we tend to relate to the Old Testament where God commanded the Israelites to offer certain sacrifices for certain situations and feasts. In that sense, it is something which ended when Jesus died on the cross, paying the ultimate sacrifice and permanently ending the need to offer sacrifices for sin. If that is the case, wouldn’t offering sacrifices now be unnecessary and even idolatry?

God Or The World: Which Will You Choose?

At the end of the book of Joshua, the Israelites have moved into the Promised Land after great conquest. Joshua is very old and close to death, and he poses to the people this question, “Whom will you serve? The Lord God or the false gods of the surrounding nations?” It is given with a staunch warning, that if they turn from God to the things of the world, He would use the things they turned to to destroy them. Does this question and warning apply to us since we rarely encounter other “gods”?

Elements Of Building

People talk about building a life, a family or even a business. These things are all important, and building them correctly is vital. So how do we do that? What does it take to build a life worth living? What does it take to build a healthy family? What does it take to build a prosperous business?

Are You Smarter Than God?

Are we better than God? Are we smarter than God? Do we know better than God? Few would say that out right, but many of us, even Christians, live like we believe it in some way.

The (Sin?) Of Independence

Independence is a major theme, right now especially. Political independence, religious independence, even individual independence (when a child becomes an adult) are all important and very celebrated in our culture, but can independence be bad? Is there a time when we should be dependent?

Stand Your Ground

So now, we have our armor, we are ready for battle, what do we do? As I covered earlier, half of the battle is prayer, but what else? When we are in battle what do we do? Is there any one specific action we are commanded to do in battle?

Stand