As the curtain descends on another year and we pause to reflect on the true meaning of Christmas, my prayer is that we can discover in new and meaningful ways how the coming of Jesus all those years ago can speak to you and I still today…
I pray the experience of Anna, the prayer warrior widow in the Temple, will remind you that regardless of your outward circumstances, you are never, ever alone.
I pray that the calculations and seeking of those astrologers from the East will alert you to miracles and possibilities that may be available to you beyond what you ever may think or expect.
It’s a common question – What is God’s will for my life?
Here’s a starting point to explore that… What is God’s will for EVERY life? Re-reading what Jesus had to say in Matthew 6 about prayer, here’s what I see…
He wants to reward me. For my giving, my praying, and my fasting. But He will only reward me when I do what I do for the right reason.
He wants my quiet time. My solo time. That time when no one is looking. He wants me to talk to Him then. When no one else would notice but Him.
Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the second time, while he was still confined in the court of the guard, saying, “Thus says the Lord who made the earth, the Lord who formed it to establish it, the Lord is His name, ‘Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’ (Jeremiah 33:1-3).
God doesn’t stop being God just because I stop feeling strong.
He doesn’t stop being creative when I run out of ideas.
As the joy of expectancy greets the heart’s nostalgia for days and lives gone by this Christmas, I pray that you would experience a fresh encounter with a God powerful enough to whisper His truth in a still, small voice.
I pray that He would manifest His presence in ways that bring new clarity of vision and enflamed imagination for the exploits you and I can do.
I pray that the joy of your salvation would fill you to overflowing as you are conformed daily into the image of Christ and learn to patiently wait on Him. [click to continue…]
Interesting question came across my radar last week. Ashton was in a room full of worship leaders for a nationwide series of summer camps. For 8 weeks they will be leading the same songs, doing the same things, week after week. Her question:
What advice would you give to us on how to remain renewed and refreshed every week? How do we not get into a cycle? Even when it is week 4 for us and we have sung the same songs every week… how do we fight that?
It’s a valid question, and the Fuge worship leaders aren’t the only ones who face it. The truth is, everybody in spiritual leadership has the task of “handling the holy things” week in and week out. Ashton’s “holy things” may be music and microphones. Yours may be a Bible or a lesson plan. Someone else’s may be the routine schedule of meetings you attend or lead. Regardless, Christians gathered in the name of Christ for any reason have an occasion to invite and expect His presence.
Until we don’t.
Until we drift into a routine or rut – what Ashton calls a “cycle.”
Now it’s time for this. Next – that. Then back to this. Then the other. Before long, not only can we get bored with the whole thing, we telegraph that boredom to the very people we’re supposed to be leading. As a result, the “gospel” no longer feels like “good news” and we lose our sense of wonder and gratitude.
(If that sound a lot like your Sunday morning experience, I’m sorry. But I’m here to tell you it doesn’t have to remain that way.)
My response to Ashton was one of those things that startled me with how fast it came. (That’s usually a sign that I didn’t originate the answer.) The key to avoiding the rut: Play, Stay, Away, and Pray.[click to continue…]
As your heart gathers around memories of Christmases past and delights of Christmas present, as the busyness and stillness collide in something called “holiday,” I pray that like all those involved in the first Christmas, this would be a day of wonder for you.
I pray you would embrace joyfully the beauty of mystery – knowing that the mysterious is a cousin to the miraculous – and you are gloriously free from being able to explain everything in 140 characters or having to control any and every outcome. [click to continue…]
It was the revival that almost never was. It took place in New York City, back in the late 1800s. By then the Salvation Army, under the leadership of William Booth in England, was becoming a global force. Two young officers had been dispatched to the U.S. to establish a work in New York, and nothing was working. Frustrated and tired, facing nothing but hostility and opposition, they sent a telegram to “the General,” requesting that he close the mission.
Prayed and prayed and prayed for it – night and day and night and day.
“Please, God, let me see them again.”
God had other plans.
Again, he asked – night and day and night and day, he asked.
“Please God, let me see them again.”
God had other plans.
I should point out that as well as anybody can know the motives of the heart, his intentions were honorable. He didn’t want any of their money. He wasn’t fishing for a stroke to his ego. He wasn’t needy or, best I can tell, all that lonely. But he was anxious, if not desperate, for more face time with these people.
Why?
Because on their last encounter, there were some missing pieces that were left hanging. And these people were in a vulnerable spot. They just needed more time together, and he knew if only he could get back there, his concerns could be resolved. It would be a win-win for everybody. Couldn’t the Lord see that?
