(Cool things I heard somebody pray, #3)
Went to Willow Creek’s Global Leadership Summit for the first time this week. Of course, “global” for me was the simulcast just down the street at Live Oak Community Church.
Just before the conference began, Doug Halcomb, the senior pastor at Live Oak, led us in a simple prayer:
“Help us to own our influence.”
Wow. God had my attention before Bill Hybels ever appeared on the screen.
Influence
Every one of us has, to some degree, the capacity to shape the character, development, or behavior of someone else. For some people that takes a lot of work. Others seem to affect the world around them with seemingly no effort at all. [click to continue…]
(Cool things I’ve heard somebody pray, #2… You can find #1 here.)
One of my favorite things to do when we had elders meetings was to spend time praying for each other. Sometimes we’d share where we were in life, then intentionally ask the men there to pray for someone else in the room, based on what that person had talked about.
Someone had shared a pretty heavy request, and my friend Michael was praying for him. And Michael said something to the Lord that stopped me in my tracks:
“There’s nothing too big for a God like you.”
This was more than an intellectual acknowledgement or a theological affirmation.
It. Was. Worship.
It was a faith declaration that suddenly made the prayer need seem not so ominous or obnoxious. And it reminded me of Who it was we were talking to in the first place. [click to continue…]
(Cool things I’ve heard somebody pray, #1…)
Joyce is an editor for New Hope publishing. I’m working with her on a book project, and last week we got together by phone to talk about it.
Joyce is also a prayer warrior. And before we did anything of a business nature, she wanted to pray. “You go first,” she said. So I committed our time and the project to the Lord, asked for His direction on our conversation, etc. – the kinds of predictable things anyone would ask the Lord’s blessing on.
Then Joyce prayed.
And I went back to school. [click to continue…]
(Cool things I heard somebody pray, #3)