A Most Effective Prayer

Even after all these years I can still hear them.…..all those big promotions for the great sermon series soon to be preached concerning prayer and how to use it in life.

        “Learn how to pray in six easy steps”

        “Praying to get anything and everything you need”

        “Getting answers from God”

        “… bla, bla, bla, ….”

        (I think you get the idea.)

It seemed, that during each of the series, the speaker would produce a “cannot fail” checklist for me to use in order to get all my prayers answered and receive just about anything that I could want. All I had to do was everything exactly as instructed on his scholarly studied and eloquently produced list. The steps for anyone to meticulously carry out while attempting to pray were invariably impressive.

Like so many other people that I knew, my next steps were to get involved with the list of things to do (and not do) in prayer, and then launch into the asking, and asking, and asking phase of praying.

……. Since those early days, I believe that I've learned a lot more about prayer and how it relates to God's plan for it in my life. Oh, sure, I still ask when I pray, but before I get to the asking part of my prayer, I am beginning to spend more time becoming aware of His will and aligning mine with His. Now, when I pray, I want answers to my prayers for His glory, and not so much for my own selfish desires. Like I said, I have learned quite a bit more about prayer over the years.

Praying, of course, is always the right thing to do because Jesus told us to do it. This is one of the reasons that I am convinced that I should pray, but there is also another reason. Prayer is what keeps us in communication with the Father.

........How greatly needful that is for all of us…….

Over the years, my fascination and experiences with prayer have grown. It is comforting to be able to talk with my Father about everything. However, out of all the prayers that I have ever prayed, there is one that seems to get answered more often and more quickly than many of the others that I have labored intently over.

The prayer that I use is specific and to the point, but the way that the answer is expected to come is not. My prayer generally gets to the heart of the problem, but it leaves the solution open to the One who ”knows how to give good gifts to His children”

       Matthew 7:11

        11  So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask Him.

That prayer is three simple words…..

“Lord, change me.”

I believe that God changing me fits into the category of “good gifts” from the Father.

So many times we have difficulty knowing what the “good gifts” really are, and we walk around in our clouds of doubt trying desperately to convince others that we have it “all together”.

In some circumstances, a trial is the “good gift” needed from the Father, and at other times, a period of waiting is the “good gift” that the Lord gives to us. In just the same way, sometimes a period of abundance is the “good gift” needed and given to us.

It is difficult for us to figure these things out sometimes because our Father’s thoughts are so advanced of ours……..

Isaiah 55:8

8  "My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts," says the LORD. "And My ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.

The “good gifts” that I receive all depend on what the Lord is attempting to accomplish inside of me!

Whenever I was under the greatest stress and aggravation because of others who did wrong or because of the situation that was driving me crazy, I used to think that I was not the one that needed changing…. It was those things and those people around me that did!

I was convinced that if everyone would just do things my way, everything would just be all right!

(I am sure that you have never had these thoughts.)

It is here I discovered a problem in my thinking while considering the “change me” idea of praying. I felt that if I was the one changed, then my mind would have to accept that maybe the other person’s wrongness, or the other situation’s hurtfulness, had some rightness to it, and I would be validating that wrongness as being okay.

Satan loves to play these mind games on me to divert me away from what God really wants to do in my life.

The truth is, when I really have been wronged, asking God to change me does not change the fact that these outside circumstances were really wrong, but it does give God the permission to do things in my heart, mind, and attitude that go way beyond my feeble attempts to cope with life.

This is God doing stuff inside me that we're talking about here!

When God does something supernatural in my heart, the result is something that I find always acceptable and very agreeable. The times that I have asked the Lord to “change me” have opened the door for Him to do some wonderful things within me. God gets to rearrange and change the decor of my heart and mind in a way that only He can do.

I don't know about you, but sometimes when I am angry, frustrated, hurt, confused, untrusting, and fearful, I want to pray, ”Lord, change this situation”, or ”change this person”, or, “change the whole world!”

(…. Sound familiar?)

However, when I pray “Lord, change me”, I seem to have a quicker response from God to that request. In fact, it is quite cool to sense the changes orchestrated by God within my heart.

        I begin to experience His peace--- even though the storm has not changed.

        I begin to experience His confidence and reassurance even when things are   unsettled and scary.

I love praying this prayer and am learning to pray it more often than in times past.

Watching what God is doing inside me is really becoming an awesome thing!

Every time God rearranges and fixes something inside of me, I always come out in a better way than I was because of His personal intervention in my heart and mind.

I’m not so sure about you, but I really do need God’s touch on the inside of me.

“Lord, change me.”

I suggest you consider praying this prayer occasionally and then trustingly expect the Lord to answer it. There is no doubt in my mind that you will like the results that God gives in answer to this request of Him.

Humbly submitted,

Dan

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Dry Spots

Three……. count ‘em…. one, two, three. I have three blogs currently sitting in notebooks here and there (not including this one that I'm writing now) and I am not sure what to do with them.

As I was laying out the rough draft of each, I would get this feeling of unsettledness…. you know…. I would not have the peace of God that the one I was currently working on was the “right one” to post on Deeproots. Just so you know, I really do try to follow the Lord’s direction as to what I write about and post each time. This is a ministry for me.

Recently my spiritual walk has seemed a little disconnected. What used to be very clear has become a little fuzzy right now. Even when I pray, it feels that my communication with the Lord is working out as a less than productive experience. In the same way, my Bible reading has not felt very engaging and enlightening lately.

….. sigh……

Been here before – now I am again…..

After a very stressful period of time in my life over the last two months (two and one half weeks of that being sick), I feel emotionally stressed, physically drained, and spiritually….. well….. dry.

In some areas of my life, I'm not very comfortable at the moment. The part of my life that troubles me the most right now is in the spiritual area. Dry times in my spiritual walk usually are very annoying to me. When I get like this, I never think it a good or comfortable place to be. But the other day, the Lord caused me to stop and remember how that He is constantly working in my life in all sorts of ways. Maybe this was one of them……

There is a Bible verse that says that:

Philippians 1:6 NLT

6  And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue His work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.

(There's a lot of comfort that comes from the Scripture in the difficult times of our lives. This is one that I go to a lot.)

It began to dawn on me that this verse was giving indication that the spiritual state that I am now in could be Christ working in me! If so, then where I am now is a great place to be!

Okay, it does not feel great, but what has that got to do with it?

The Christian life does not run by feeling; rather, it runs by faith.

----Seriously-----

Consider what the apostle James writes:

James 1:2-3 NIV

2  Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds,

3  because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.

Pure joy – these are not the words that I usually think of when I am in a dry spot in my life. (I could think of a lot of words to describe it—but not these….)

Look also at how another translation says it:

James 1:2-3 NLT

2  Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy.

3  For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.

In this verse, the words great joy  speak more of the pending great results that God has intended from the trial, rather than just the trial itself. Trials by themselves are just that….. trials; troublesome and frustrating.  If we begin to see the trials as vehicles being used of God to take us to new areas in our lives, then those trials can take on a different look and meaning.

These kinds of thoughts direct me to look beyond the “here and now” of the trials that are going on in my life. There must be more going on than just me being miserable….

God is working within all of us for eternal results.  The trials that He uses (like my dry spot), are just the temporary tools put in place to accomplish His plan for us. He will use His tools as often as He needs them to grow us and bring us to new levels of maturity in Him.

We all have these dry periods in our lives. Usually, during them, we feel spiritually disconnected and ineffective; as if God has suddenly and momentarily forgotten us. Every mature Christian has experienced times like these and usually dreads them when they come.

God has been teaching me something special about when I am experiencing a spiritually dry time in my life; I am beginning to understand that God is working to take me far beyond where I am now-- to a place where I need to be and, more importantly, where He wants me to be.

For me, the dry spots are never comfortable and are always challenging; however, the trial I'm going through currently has produced something special within me.

I will share it with you.

Yesterday, I found myself grumbling and doubting things that I believe the Lord has led me to do. After a while of this (longer than I would like to admit), I had an attack of sanity and re-examined several scriptures that I know. In addition, I revisited in my mind the times when God placed in my heart His directions and leadership concerning the ministry He has for me. It was then that I purposely chose to tell the Lord that I would believe His directions and leadership in my life no matter how things feel right now. In this statement, I was actively making a decision to live by faith--- regardless of what I could see or how I was presently feeling.

Whoa……….

Suddenly it dawned on me, isn't that the way we are supposed to act as believers anyway?

Because of this dry spot in my Christian life, I was given an opportunity to exercise and grow in my faith concerning God's work in my life. I kind‘a think that this might have been part of God's plan for the dry spot actively showing up in my life right now.

God knows the ways that I need to grow. If I believe that God really is working all things together for my good (Romans 8:28), then it would appear that the dry spots have some necessity for my growth in the Lord also--- and that they are good.

Why would I think any differently?

I'll tell you why, because Satan loves to play mind tricks on us during the dry spots.

There is nothing more pleasant for us than to sense the presence of God as we sing, pray, or speak for Him. Also, to feel His confidence and peace is so empowering as we make plans and decisions in our lives. But the times that we don't feel Him at all can be greater growing opportunities for our spiritual lives than when we do know His presence actively.

These are the times that stretch our faith and help us to examine our motives and goals. We can rediscover anew what we believe and why we believe it.

Understand this; the times of spiritual dryness that we experience are uncomfortable expressions of love from The Father who loves us more deeply than we fully understand.

(Go back, read that again, and think about it awhile.)

God loves us too much to just leave us the way that we are now. I, for one, am glad of this because I really don't want to stay the way that I am now either…. how about you?

Maturity, strength, peace, and faith, come from our positive reactions to the spiritual dry spots that we experience within our lives.

Consider what the scriptures say:

James 1:3-4 NLT

3  For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.

4  So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.

Do you see where God wants to take us? My faith needs to be tested so that my endurance will grow….so that I can continue on toward maturity.

On the other hand, fear, doubt, mistrust, confusion, depression, anxiety, and anger come from responding negatively to the spiritually dry spots. When God does not speak to us and His direction is unclear, some people just give up and walk away. Others begin to rationalize God and form ideas that are untrue. Like, “God must not really care for me-- at least not right now”….or … “I guess God must be mad at me, and maybe He just does not really care.”

These are dangerous responses because they distort God's intent for his children and His deep love for them. Thoughts like these damage our relationship with the Lord, and bring us into Satan’s traps. He wants us to question God, not trust Him.

Are you in a dry spot right now?

We all get them at some time or other.

When we do have one, things in our lives feel listless and out of touch spiritually; the Lord seems far away and uninterested in us at the moment.

I know that the dry spot is uncomfortable, but there is great opportunity lurking in the dark corners of it! God is very actively growing your life--- ask Him for wisdom during the dry spot, then use that opportunity to grow and strengthen your faith. It is the right thing to do!

James 1:5 NLT

5  If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and He will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking.

The dry spot might be long, or it may be short-- but rest assured that it is from the Father's loving hand. Someday when you look back upon your life, the dry spots may actually define the periods during which you grew the most in your relationship with Christ. How interesting that would be….

Right now, I have been at a dry spot of what to write on this blog, but I'm moving forward as I see the Lord leading me.

I offer this to you so that God may use it to encourage you when you experience the spiritually dry spots in your life too.

Humbly submitted,

Dan

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