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Organizing Your Prayer

Devos

This post was originally written and posted on The Plaza for Exchange Church. Add it to your bookmarks and check in now and again!

One of the things I have learned about myself over the years is that if there is something important for me to do, I need to create a structure to do it or else it won’t get done, or it will get done poorly and/or rarely.

Prayer is one of those areas. I have always, always struggled with deliberately spending time in prayer. I know that’s probably not cool for a pastor to share but it’s true. I would bet that more pastors would admit that if they felt more safe around their church and peers. But that’s another discussion.

I wanted to share the structure I created for myself just this week for praying, just in case there is anyone else out there who is looking for or needing something similar. I have four parts, or lists:

  1. Start the day prayer – a stand-alone prayer to start every day.
  2. Weekly Prayer List – this has a daily component and then each day of the week which has its own prayer focus.
  3. Special Prayer Requests -special requests for the sick, marriages, and other short-term situations go.
  4. End of the day prayer – a stand-alone prayer to end every day.

Start and End of Day Prayers
I have attached a PDF that contains the text of the Start and End of Day prayers. This might be weird for you, but try praying them out loud. There is something about praying out loud that, at least for me, makes the prayer seem more real.

Weekly Prayer List
At the top of this list is a section called Daily. In the daily section I have my family memebrs listed out individually. I also have other things like my day job, things from my calendar for that day, whatever else I might do on a daily basis.

After this is each day of the week. For each day of the week I have listed, for the msot part, an element of our church life and structure. My particular list looks like this:

  • Sunday – the church body, praying for the gathering that day.
  • Monday – the church elders listed by name
  • Tuesday – Men’s Discipleship, its leaders and participants
  • Wednesday – Women’s Discipleship, its leaders and participants.
  • Thursday – Children’s and Youth Discipleship, the leaders and participants
  • Friday – Social/Global issues like our government (according to 1 Tim. 2), Israel, missionaries, persecuted church, being a student of God’s plan and local/global events, things like that.
  • Saturday – Worship Ministry, our worship leader, the band. I pray for the pastor (which is me) for a encouraging and convicting Bible study, and for the people coming to church the next day.

Special Prayer Requests
This list is to help keep track of things that just come up. Someone in the hospital, the sick, a mission/service team that was just sent out, marriage issues that have come to my attention, anything that I don’t want to slip through the cracks but doesn’t go on my Weekly list.

This is the plan as it stands today. I’m going to try to be disciplined about it but also not beat myself up if I miss part of all of a day. I’d be interested to hear from others who already do something like this or are going to try this with me.

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Bikini Bottom Meets Forest Grove

Featured, Parenting, Writing

This month a drive-up coffee place featuring women in bikini’s (or less) arrived in Forest Grove. A group of concerned citizens wants the business to “close or move.” The church was contacted to be a part of a City Council meeting/hearing thingy to complain about the business. It is near a residential neighborhood and near a park (and the church for that matter). As I read the email I had to ask myself what should be the church’s reaction to something like this. Do we protest with signs? Do we look down on them as sinful sinners?

As I thought about as response I began to think about the girls (not like that). I thought about them from the perspective of a parent because I’m guessing that some of them aren’t much older than my own kids. My thoughts were, “That is someone’s little girl. That’s a father’s or mother’s princess. That’s one of God’s creations. She is more valuable to the Lord than this and she should be more valuable to others than two shots and some eye candy.” My thought was, “We should be praying for these girls to come to know who they are to the Lord and their value to Him.”

I get that many people don’t have an ideal childhood. Many children aren’t filled by their parents with positive messages, or expressions of value. Quite the opposite. Many kids are abused mentally, physically, sexually. Sometimes these factor in to people going into jobs like this. In other cases it’s much more simple; money. There is money in this. This leads to more money for more services provided in, shall we say, bolder venues. This first step of pouring coffee while in your nickers might not be worth it on its own, but what it can lead to can be considered worth it. In either scenario it is a question of value.

And then there are the men and women who go to these stands to get their fix (take that as you will). You are also facing a question of your own value as well as the value you place on these girls. $3.50 plus tips. Is that it? Is that your price to show some skin? Is that your price to see some skin? Don’t you all know that to God Himself you are worth His own Son? Don’t you know that the kind of life He has for you is one of genuine love and respect, and that the kind of husband or wife He has for you will (or should) love you the way Jesus loves you, mind, body, and soul?

So, skinny latte girl, not-so-thirsty coffee drinker, where is the value in your life? What are you worth? God really does love you. “But God demonstrates His own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8  You might not be able to hear that right now. It might sound stupid. It might sound impossible. But it’s true. God looked at you and me and concluded that we are with His own Son’s life. What’s more, it’s a free gift to us.

That is value.

James-Dean

Rebellious teens, rebellious theologians

Devos, Parenting, Writing

Something happens when we go from high school age to college age, regardless of if we actually go to college or not. We begin to learn things apart from that which our parents taught us. It might not be new information, but it becomes our information. It’s as though we start to figure things out and these things somehow become more real. Mark Twain is quoted as saying,

When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.

This becomes even more exaggerated when we learn things we had never heard before. It’s as if no one had attained such knowledge before! It might be in college, it might something from our work environment, or even from something on TV. When we learn it we want to tell others about it or even ask them, “Why has no one ever told me this before?”

I’ve noticed that the same thing happens on a theological level. People who are raised in one theological tradition move away from home for one reason or another, connect with a church or group of a very different tradition, and do what can be seen as a flip-flop much to the dismay of those back home. Some raised in a more Reformed tradition come to learn about Bible prophecy and wonder where this has been all their lives. People from a more charismatic tradition come to lear about doctrine in a Reformed environment and wonder where this has been all their lives. People from a more seeker-friendly tradition come to a church with Bible teaching and the Holy Spirit’s and wonder, well, you know.

To the young rebellious theologian I say this; slow down, take it easy. This is nothing new, it’s only new to you. Take it in stride. Most importantly, be teachable. Be a student, a learner. Take it all in, don’t thrown it all away.

To the pastors of church I say this; seek a Biblically balanced practicality in your church. Balance ins’t compromise. Teach your  hopefully Holy Spirit founded conviction, but also inform about other views if for nothing else than the sake of education. Teach doctrine that is soaked in the love and power of the Holy Spirit.

Transition is a time for learning and for teaching. In either case it’s a time for testing. Use the time and the testing to make sure you are on solid footing, make any corrections needed, stand firm on what remains, and enjoy what is new. Well, new to you.

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Christians Aren’t Dangerous, But They Should Be

Devos, Featured, Writing, , , , ,

The recent bombing at the Boston Marathon and reported religious connection of the suspects has some critics comparing fundamentalist Muslims who kill in the name of Allah with fundamentalist Christians like who do stupid things in the name of Jesus, like bomb abortion clinics or protest military funerals. As I was pondering those comparisons the thought occurred  to me, “Christians aren’t supposed to be dangerous. Oh, wait. Yes they are.” Continue reading →