Friday, September 28, 2007

Tent-Pegs of Prayer

Ministry can be a crazy experience at times. Some days or seasons, you feel a strong message of love, grace, mercy ... other times, the focus is on truth and righteousness. Worship might become a focus, or doctrinal issues might rise to the surface. If you're like me, some of these focuses come easier to you than others, and you might find it hard to maintain a balance and note find yourself in the shifting sands of circumstances.

Out of a desire to maintain a balanced perspective personally and in ministry, I sound the Lord for guidance. He taught me 4 basic areas that have become the "tentpegs" of my prayer time. I share them here, for His glory and hopefully your benefit.

Almost every morning I pray that I will be:

1) Doctrinally sound. Wrong doctrine causes so many problems - it even causes us to act wrongly because we believe incorrectly. Worst of all, though, wrong doctrine teaches us wrong things about God, and we glorify Him when we understand who He really is.

2) Passionately worshipful. Jesus said true worshippers worship "in spirit and in truth". What that means is that while doctrine is vital, it isn't complete without a spirit of worship behind it - the Holy Spirit. Passionate worship isn't necessarily exuberant - it may be very quiet. It may involve singing or dancing, throwing yourself into a project, sitting before the Lord reluctant to leave. But it involves our WHOLE hearts - passionately seeking to throw the praise back to Him.

3) Genuinely loving. Paul teaches we are to love "without hypocrisy". Whatever it takes - intense prayer, intercession by others, radical actions - we are to make sure we love, and love genuinely. Loving God and others is the greatest and second commandments, and we must prioritize them in our lives.

4) Carefully obedient. Obedience rarely, if ever, is accidental. We have to discern how to walk out the commands of Scripture, and set about to intentionally follow through.

May God bless you as you seek Him today. For the only true balance we'll ever find is in the moments with Him!

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