Pastor Dad: Praying for Asa
I’ve only been a dad for about a year-and-a-half, but I must say one of my favorite things to do is to pray for Asa before he goes to bed every night. If you don’t pray for/with your kids every, I would highly recommend it. I thought I would take a moment and share with you what I pray for Asa every night before we put him in his crib.
Father,
I thank you so much for Asa and the blessing that he is in our lives.
I pray the you help him to fall asleep quickly and to sleep the whole night through so he can get the rest that he needs.
I pray that you keep him safe through the night and send your angels to protect him and keep him safe.
I pray against Satan, his demons, their works and effects, and in the name of Jesus I demand that any demons that are in the house or in this room leave immediately and go to pit for which they destined for all eternity. I pray this by power and authority of Jesus Christ.
I ask Father that you would send your Holy Spirit to enforce this. I pray that you would fill our house and hearts with your Holy Spirit. I ask that your Holy Spirit would work in Asa’s heart; regenerating it and drawing him to You. Make him a child of yours.
I pray the same thing for his future wife, and that the two of them would stay pure til the day they are married. I pray that they would become parents and grandparents and great-grandparents who raise their children to be lovers of Jesus.
I pray the same thing for me and Shannon. Fill us with your Holy Spirit and give us wisdom and strength to raise Asa to be a lover of Jesus.
We pray this all in the name of Your Son Jesus.
Amen
Shannon and I have developed this prayer over the past year-and-a-half. The words aren’t always the same, but the general concepts are. We’re constantly adding and changing it.
Do you pray for your kids every night? Do you have a regular prayer, or do you play it by ear?
A Random Thought on Generosity
I was sitting in my office and thought I would share this quick thought. A few months ago I had the opportunity to hang out with a close friend. At one time he was a pastor for a church and had a large library for preparing his sermons every week. He is now working a “regular” job and doesn’t see himself being a pastor ever again.
I remember coveting after my friend’s library. I remember going into his office and thinking to myself, “I want a library like this some day.” I remember just staring at his books and taking note of his collection. I even remember the distinct smell his office had from all the books and wanting my office to have that same smell.
When he heard that I was going through Re:Train, he wanted to help me with my expenses, but due to life circumstances he wasn’t able to. While I was visiting with him, he took me into his garage where he had his library stored. He humbly pointed out the boxes and told me to take whatever I wanted/needed. I left his house with more than 500 theology, commentary, history, cultural analysis, and linguistic books. The total cost has to be over $3000 easily.
While he couldn’t help me pay for my flights to Seattle or the cost of my laptop, what this friend did in my mind was priceless. From his gift, I’ve been able to do all the research for my papers. I’ve been able to loan/give books out to friends. My library has more than doubled. All these things are great, but the greatest gift this friend gave me was a lesson in generosity. I had to ask myself if I would be willing to do the same thing…and I don’t know if I could have.
This makes me ask you the question: What do you have that you don’t need (or do need) that you need to give to someone else to bless them? Do you have a treasure that you need to pass on to progress the kingdom for Jesus?
Spiritual Disciplines (Recap)
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been doing a series on tips for developing different spiritual disciplines. Here is a list of the posts:
Spiritual Discipline: Service – Four tips for becoming a servant.
We live in a world where those with the most authority do the least amount of work. Those with the power don’t serve others. They are the ones that are served. It is the American dream to gain enough power and wealth that you never have to work again.
Jesus showed us that in the kingdom of heaven it is quite the opposite. The all-powerful God became a human being and served us by dying on the cross. Jesus is the perfect example of leading by example. He constantly served those around himself. While his disciples were arguing about who is the greatest, Jesus healed countless people, fed thousands, and humbly washed the dirty feet of those that were fighting for ranking in the kingdom of heaven.
A true Christian isn’t noted by their pious self-righteousness but by their humble servanthood. It is through service that we walk in the same steps that Jesus did when he was here on earth. Through a kinetic learning experience of serving, we grow in our understanding of God’s heart for the lost and hurting people of this world. Here are some simple tips and steps for developing a discipline of service.
Tip #1: Aggressively look for places to serve. For those of you raised with a strong work ethic engrained in your brains, this won’t be much of an issue. The rest of us need to constantly seek places to serve. This is both in the church and out of the church. Seek ways to serve fellow Christians, but also seek to serve those in your community and at work. If you ever catch yourself saying, “I wish someone would…” You need to take it upon yourself to be that someone.
Tip #2: Seek a change of heart. 1 Corinthians 13 says that if we do anything without love, it is pointless. If you have a heart that is begrudging towards service, seek God to change your heart. Jesus wasn’t reluctant in his service. It was his joy to serve. Seek God to give you a heart that takes deep joy in serving those around you.
Tip #3: Use your stuff to serve others. Everything that we have in our lives is a gift from God. Therefore we should see our stuff as a gift from God not just for us but also for those around us. Serve those around you by sharing your stuff with them. Open your house to share meals with friends and family and host events. Use the yard tools you have to care for and maintain more than just your yard. Give people rides in your car. If you have two of something, give one away. Develop yourself to see the stuff you have as being used more than just for you but for those around you.
Tip #4: Serve first and ask questions later. Just like generosity, our tendency is to ask the question “Why?” Why should I serve those around me? How is this going to develop my relationship with Jesus? The reality of it is that these questions can’t truly be answered on paper. You can read countless Bible verses. You could hear stories from people’s lives. You could hear hundreds of hours of sermons about Jesus humbling himself as a servant. But you won’t get it. You won’t get it until you mow your elderly neighbor’s yard without them asking or paying you. You won’t get it until you pick up trash in your neighborhood without anybody asking you. You won’t get it until you serve in your church’s nursery. If you decide that you aren’t going to serve until you fully understand why, you’ll never serve. The reality is you need to serve first and then ask questions, because by serving you’ll find the answers.
Spiritual Discipline: Confession – Five tips for developing a habit of confession and repentance.
Martin Luther began his 95 Theses with the primary thought of, “the whole life of believers should be repentance.”[i] Repentance of our sins doesn’t end when we become a Christian. It continues until we are received into heaven.
Unfortunately most Christians slowly begin to forget that it is Jesus’ righteousness that puts us in relationship with God. Over time they begin to trust in their own righteousness. This leads to either despair or pride, neither of which Jesus wanted for his disciples.
Therefore, it is a necessity to continuously seek God to expose our sins to us through the power of the Holy Spirit, repent of those sins, and confess them to loving brothers and sisters in Christ. Through repentance and confession we are able to experience true community and love. We are able to see each other as we truly are and love each other despite our sins because of the blood of Jesus. Here are some simple tips and steps for developing a habit of repentance and confession.
Tip #1 – Keep a short list of sins. One of the worst things you can do is to hide your sin. Sin holds you captive and steals the joy that is yours in Christ. It separates you from those around you. Don’t build up a list of sins before you confess and repent. The instant that God reveals a sin in your life to you, immediately confess and repent of your sin.
Tip #2 – Find a righteous person. When James says that “the prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working,”[ii] he isn’t saying that there are people who are actually righteous on their own merit. He is talking about those who trust in the righteousness of Jesus. This is the type of person that you need to find to confess your sins to. You need to find a person that will help you see your sin in light of Jesus. Many times when ours sins are made real to us, we tend to focus on ourselves. A righteous person helps you see that there is forgiveness found in Jesus.
Tip #3 – Keep a journal. As Jesus reveals the sins in your life to you, keep track of them in your journal. Make note of your sin, how it made you feel, the consequences of it, and the work of Jesus in your life to remove it. Later you can look back on your journal to see how God has been working in your life.
Tip #4 – Don’t get discouraged. You might think that as you grow as a Christian, you will begin to feel like less of a sinner. The reality is quite the opposite. When you look at the writings of Paul the Apostle, you see a progression in his understanding of his sinfulness. Early in his writings, Paul simply called himself a sinner. Then he called himself a chief sinner. Towards the end of his life here on earth, he called himself the greatest of all sinners. This isn’t because he began to sin more. Instead, it is because as you walk with Jesus, your understanding of the glory of Jesus deepens. As your understanding of his glory deepens, your understanding of your sinfulness grows in light of his glory.
The beauty is that you are a work in progress. The Holy Spirit is continuously working on conforming you into the image of Jesus. This is a project that won’t finish in your lifetime. Therefore, trust in Jesus and his work in your life.
Tip #5 – Focus on Jesus. The ultimate purpose of repentance and confession isn’t to focus on your sin but to focus on Jesus. True repentance and confession turns you back to finding your identity in Jesus. It’s only when we find our identity in Jesus that we have truly repented of our sins. Anything less is simply pointing out your flaws with no ultimate power to have change in your life.
[i] Martin Luther, Martin Luther’s 95 Theses, 2008, http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/274.
[ii] James 5:16 (ESV)
Spiritual Discipline: Generosity – Five tips for becoming more generous.
After understanding that everything we do is worship, you will begin to see that one of the biggest idols in your life is stuff. More than likely, you are a worshipper of stuff. Your car, house, computer, iPod, phone, television, paycheck, books, yard, clothes, furniture, bike, music instrument, and movie collection all hold a higher place in your life than God. You spend more time focusing on them than Him.
At heart, we are very selfish and greedy. This is in direct contrast to God the Father who gave us His Son and the Son who gave up His life for us. If we want to grow closer in our understanding of God, we need to become generous people. We need to have the mindset that God is more important than stuff.
Here is the amazing thing. You can use your stuff to worship God. Your stuff is really God’s stuff and He can do with it whatever He wants. When you invest your stuff in the kingdom of God, you start to put God before your stuff. By being generous with your stuff, you are aligning your heart with the heart of God. Here are some simple tips and steps for developing a discipline of being generous with God’s stuff.
Tip #1: Make it a priority. You’re not going to be generous until you make it a priority. For example, when I was in college, I had a moment of enlightenment. I was a poor college student, and I went out to eat with a group guys. At the end of the meal, an older gentleman in the group paid for the meal. I remember telling him how I wish I could do the same thing. He responded with the kindest of words: “If you aren’t generous when you have nothing, then you won’t be generous when you have everything.” You have to make being generous a priority in your life. There are too many other shiny things that will take center stage if you don’t. Make it a daily, weekly, monthly, yearly task to look for ways to be more generous in your life.
Tip #2: Have a budget. You won’t know what to give until you know what you have. This works for both your money and your time. For your money, you should have a budget for every month. This takes away the excuse of saying, “I just don’t have any money to give.” You don’t have money to be generous with because you don’t plan. Most people will tell you that when you first started budgeting, it was like you get a raise. When you start budgeting, you are finally able to plan. You are able to make your money work for you instead of the opposite. You also need to budget your time. Some of us don’t serve others because we never have any extra time. Here is a tip…there is no such thing as “extra” time. There are 24 hours in a day and that is all you have. Just like your paycheck only has a set amount of money, your life only has a set amount of time. You have to budget your time wisely so you’re able to serve those around you.
Tip #3: Give first. This has two implications. You can take the idea of biblical “first fruits.” This was the commandment given by God that you should give the first of everything that you receive (animals, harvest, children, etc.) to God. The top line of your budget should have a line for a certain percentage of your money that you want to give away. When you get paid you should automatically take that percentage of money out of your check to give away. If you’re a member of a church, it should go to your church. No questions. No ifs, ands, or buts. Just do it. Then budget the rest to live off of. If you don’t do this, you’ll just make excuses and never be generous with the money you have. This will teach you to be generous. The other implication is if you have the option to serve someone or to do something else with the “free” time in your life, serve. Give of yourself first. Generosity now has the priority. So skip watching TV and go do a generous act.
Tip #4: Have a separate checking account. This is a little trick that my wife and I learned when we weren’t part of a local church for a while. We didn’t have a place that we could write a check to for a weekly tithe. So we opened up another checking account and we transferred a percentage of our paychecks into the account every time we got paid. Then we knew we could use this account to be generous whenever the opportunity presented itself without having to worry about whether we were using money that was needed to pay the bills. When we became members of a church, we started giving our tithe to them. We still transfer the money into the account so we don’t get it mixed up with the rest of the money we have, but we enjoyed having the freedom of the extra checking account so much that we transfer an additional amount of money into it every month so we can be generous when the Holy Spirit presents us with opportunities.
Tip #5: Give first and ask questions later. Now this might sound like you’re to give money to anyone on the street who asks you for it, but this is different. What this means is that we have the tendency to ask the question “Why?” Why should I be generous with my time and money? The reality of it is that you can’t understand the answer to that question until you start being generous. You could read scripture. You could hear stories from other people’s lives. You could see a vision of heaven coming to earth. But you won’t get it. You won’t get it until you take a homeless guy across the street to Arby’s for lunch. You won’t get it until you mow your elderly neighbor’s yard without them asking or paying you. You won’t get it until you help your wife’s single-mother-coworker pay her rent. You won’t get it until you pay for lunch for you and your friends, knowing that you might not be able to eat dinner. If you decide that you aren’t going to be generous until you understand why, you’ll never be generous. The reality is you need to give first and then ask questions, because by giving you’ll find a lot of the answers.
Spiritual Discipline: Prayer – Six tips for talking to God.
As it’s already been stated, Bible reading and prayer are the two most basic spiritual disciplines of Christian faith. Prayer in the simplest way is talking to God. It is sharing with your loving Father your heart, thoughts, emotions, requests, needs, cares, anxieties, worries, praises, thanksgivings, hopes, and desires. The list could go on for days. God speaks to you through His Word and you speak to Him through prayer. Here are some simple tips and steps for developing a discipline of prayer.
Tip #1: Set up “triggers” in your life. We talked about triggers last week. Take things that you do everyday and make them triggers for you to pray. Here are some ideas to help you get started: taking a shower, using the bathroom, getting in your car, making coffee, getting in bed, getting ready to read your Bible, finishing reading your Bible, driving to work, driving home, finishing lunch, eating eggs, sailing on a boat, scratching your nose, and buying a tambourine. You get the idea. Take things that you do everyday and use them as a trigger to pray.
Tip #2: Have a plan. If you don’t have a plan, you can easily become a random prayer. Whatever comes to your head at the time is what you will pray for. You will constantly be praying for the same things over and over. This isn’t necessarily bad, but there are a lot more things/people in your life that could be praying for. So have a standard place where you keep track of all the things that you want to pray about. Then review this list at least once a day. This way nothing gets left behind.
Tip #3: Talk to God. This might sound dumb to some, but for others this will be an epiphany. I don’t know if you noticed this or not, but some people like to use what could be called “prayer talk.” This is where a person suddenly embodies the spirit of a TV evangelist and sees how many times they can say the words God, Father God, Lord, or Jesus (whichever is the persons favorite) in a prayer. It comes as a surprise to most that you can actually just talk to God. You don’t have to use His name as the punctuation to every sentence. You don’t have to speak in old English. You can just talk to Him. Just like you talk to your friends about your troubles and your successes, you can talk to Him. You can tell Him your struggles and failures. You can tell Him jokes. You can even be angry and cry out to Him (read a few Psalms and you’ll get the idea). Prayer is you simply talking to God. No flair. No technicalities. No special formulas. Just talking.
Tip #4: Write it down. When you develop a habit of constantly praying, it becomes easy to forget what you’ve prayed about. Therefore, you can lose track of whether or not God has answered your prayers. This is so you can look back and see how God has answered your prayers over time. Keep it simple though. Don’t set a limit. That means no minimum or maximum. It puts an unnecessary burden on you. Some days you will write pages worth of prayer to God. Other days it will be the simple phrase, “God help me.” The idea is to simply write it out.
Tip #5: Keep it simple. During the time of Jesus, Jews would have standard prayers for everything that they would do. You would have a standard prayer for plowing a field, eating a meal, drinking wine…even going to the bathroom.[i] The key was that most of these prayers were only a sentence long. The reality is that our prayers don’t have to be five minutes long for God to hear us. Sometimes the simplest prayers are the best prayers. If you can only think of a few things to say to God, then say them. God isn’t keeping a tally of how much you pray. He just wants to hear from you.
Tip #6: Keep it sweet. Remember whom you are talking to. While God is the King of the Universe, He is also the Lover of your soul. One of the reasons that David was a man after God’s own heart was because he was passionate and honest with God. He was open and honest as you can only be with a closest friend. The worst prayer isn’t a long prayer or a prayer said in Old English but a prayer that has no heart. If you aren’t praying out of a love for God, then are you really praying? The reality is that this is the core of all prayer…to seek the face of God….to seek after His heart. Prayer is one of the most intimate times we have with God. Treat it that way.
[i] Marvin R. Wilson, Our Father Abraham: Jewish Roots of the Christian Faith
(Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1989).
Spiritual Discipline: Bible Reading/Journaling – Four Tips for Bible Reading and Journaling
The two most basic disciplines of the Christian faith are scripture reading and prayer. In fact, it is hard to separate the two. God communicates to His people through His Word, and we communicate with Him through prayer. This week we are going to focus on reading our Bibles and journaling, and next week we’ll look at prayer.
Reading our Bibles and journaling our thoughts are helpful tools to cultivate our relationship with Jesus. Through scripture we are able to learn more about Jesus, have Him speak to our hearts, and be prepared to do His work. Here are some simple tips and steps for developing a habit of spending time in God’s Word.
Tip #1: Have “triggers.” Probably one of the hardest things to do is to get in the habit of opening your Bible. Leo Babauta of WritetoDone.com talks about putting triggers in your life to help you develop habits.
What’s a trigger? It’s the event that sets off your habit. For example, when I used to smoke, I had a number of triggers: I would smoke upon waking, when stressed, after a meeting, etc. When I wanted to change that habit, I had to change each trigger so that I had a new habit to replace smoking. Upon waking, for example, I would exercise instead. To create a new habit, you need to strongly associate your habit with a trigger. For example, let’s say you want to write in the morning — you might awake, use the bathroom, make your coffee, and then start writing. So making coffee is the trigger for writing, and using the bathroom is the trigger for making coffee, and waking is the trigger for using the bathroom. And as you wake every day, you have no problem. Choose a trigger that you know you’ll do every day, and then do your writing right after it, without exception.[i]
Triggers can be a very powerful tool for any spiritual discipline that you are trying to start.
Tip #2: Have all the right resources. It is suggested that when you sit down to spend time in the Bible, you should have the following items:
A Bible – Make sure it is a version that you can understand (different versions of the Bible are written at different reading levels). This guide uses the English Standard Version, but you might find another version easier to understand. Just go to your local bookstore and test a few out. See how easy they are to read and if you can understand the words that are being used.
A Journal – This is where you are going to write down your thoughts. You can find several different styles at your bookstore. Don’t be afraid to switch journals if one isn’t working for you. Use the first few pages to keep an index of what you are learning each day. This way you can look back and see what you have been learning.
A Reading Plan – This guide provides you with passages to read every day while you’re going through the lessons. When you’re done going through this guide, read whatever you want. Just have a plan. There are several different Bible reading plans online that will take you through the Bible in a year, or you could make it as simple as reading two chapters a day. Whatever you do, use a plan, or you’ll spend half your time trying to figure out what to read.
A Planner - It’s going to happen. You are going to be in the middle of having a wonderful time with God. Journaling your heart out…and you are going to remember that you’re out of milk. This is where your planner comes in handy. You can write down, “get milk” and go right back to your journaling. If you don’t have a planner, just use a scratch piece of paper. Otherwise, your time with God will be hijacked by random thoughts of things you need to do for the day.
Tip #3: Use S.O.A.P. This is an acronym for a Bible reading and journaling structure from Wayne Cordeiro.[ii] It stands for the following:
Scripture: Start off with the Bible. Read the verses that are on your plan for the day.
Observation: As you read, write down any observations that you have from the text. Use the questions, “Who is God?,” and “How do I enjoy Him?,” to focus your observations even better.
Application: Based on what you have read…what should you do? Try to make this practical and realistic. Set a goal for the day based upon your reading. Write it down and hold yourself accountable to it.
Prayer: Last but not least, spend some time in prayer to God. Confess and repent of any sins that were brought to light while you were reading. Spend time thanking God. Also spend some time in silence listening to God. Make note of these in your journal.
Tip #4: Keep it simple. The goal of your time with God is to try to grow closer to Him. It’s not to check off your list. Don’t add extra burdens to this focus, such as: “I have to make at least 15 observations.” “I have to write at least 5 pages in my journal.” “I have to pray for at least 45 minutes.” The goal is to spend time with God and to grow closer to Him. Do what it takes to do just that…the rest is just distractions, burdens, and religion.
[i] Leo Babauta, “10 Steps to Create the Habit of Writing,” www.writetodone.com, January 9, 2008, http://writetodone.com/2008/01/09/10-steps-to-create-the-habit-of-writing/.
[ii] Wayne Cordeiro, “Plenary Session 1” (presented at the Exponential Conference (National New Church Conference), Orlando, Florida, April 25, 2007).
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