Have you every looked at where you spend most of your time? Time passes so quickly. I was looking at my last post on this blog thinking, “Wow, it’s already been two weeks!” Seems like I just posted yesterday.
This made me think of prioritizing the things that are important and letting the other things go. Have you looked recently on where you spend most of your time? Is it the on the things that really mean something to you, or is it on those non-essentials. I need to reevaluate my priorities from time to time and make sure that I am giving my time to the right things. When is the last time you reflected on your time and priorities?
I remember one time in high school I was going to lunch with a friend of mine and we pulled up to the drive-thru at McDonald’s to order. I asked her what she wanted, she told me “Get me a BigMac with NO MEAT.” If I remember right I started laughing thinking it was a joke. It wasn’t. I was a little embarrassed when she explained to me she didn’t really like a lot of meat and was doing the veggie thing. Ok I thought, so I ordered the BigMac for her with no meat.
This to me made no sense. It was the meat that made the BigMac. With just bun and lettuce what do you have? To me it certainly wasn’t a BigMac. Not that there is anything wrong with being a vegatarian that’s a personal choice, but the idea is sometimes this reminds me of life as a Christian. We want it to look like a BigMac have some of the flavor of a BigMac but when it really comes down to it, we really don’t have what was intended. It may resemble something like what Jesus meant but it just seems to be lacking some very important things.
To me church is the bun and lettuce. It’s important to the overall package but it’s not what this thing called faith is about. If that’s all you have is church, you are missing something vital. Following Jesus is a 24/7 type of deal that goes way beyond Sunday mornings.
Make sure you get the meat with the BigMac. That’s how it was meant to be.
As I was reading in Romans this morning, I was meditating on 1:22. Which says : “Professing to be wise, they became fools.” As I thought about this how they exchanged the glory of God for an image in the form of man. They knew God but did not honor Him as God (read the verse in context of chapter 1). They claimed wisdom, but because of this attitude they became fools. How is that so?
Look at Proverbs. 1:7 “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge” (fear meaning reverence) and Proverbs 2:1-7:
My son, if you will receive my sayings, and treasure my commandments within you, make your ear attentive to wisdom, incline your heart to understanding, for if you cry for discernment, life your voice for understanding; if you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures; then you will discern the fear of the Lord, and discover the knowledge of God. The the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. He stores up wisdom for the upright…
From God’s perspective there is NO wisdom that does not begin with God. Interesting thought isn’t it. If the knowledge of God and wisdom from Him isn’t the primary pursuit of Wisdom, we are fools. “Professing to be wise, they became fools.” Puts this passage in a whole new understanding doesn’t it? What do you seek? Do you seek wisdom and the knowledge of God, or do you go after the form and ideas of man first?
Here are some ideas for prayer. I use these ideas on a laminated handout that people can tuck inside their Bibles as a reference for some ideas of prayer. If we look at the “Lord’s Prayer” in Matthew it gives a breakdown of things to prayer for and about.
NASB Matthew 6:9 “Pray, then, in this way:
‘Our Father who is in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name. (Praise)
10 ‘Your kingdom come.
Your will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven. (Surrender)
11 ‘Give us this day our daily bread. (Needs)
12 ‘And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. (Forgiveness)
13 ‘And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil.~Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.~]’ (Protection)
Keep these ideas in mind as you pray:
Praise
Surrender
Needs
Forgiveness
Protection
Again don’t over complicate things, God will understand you where you are at. Be real, be honest. You really can’t say anything wrong. It’s just about talking with God.
Prayer. You can’t be a Christian and not talk about it or think about it. What is prayer to you and why do you pray? The bible says not to worry about anything but pray, asking God, and God will take care of your worry. (Phil 4:6) It doesn’t necessarily mean that God will answer the way you want but that God will grant you peace in the situation.
That’s the tough part. Sometimes we really don’t want peace about the situation, we want the solution, and want it done right now…our way! How do you pray? Is your attitude only to find the solution or do you seek peace? Life is filled with lots of junk and hard times. Prayer doesn’t guarantee that the hard times are going to go away, it just helps us to cope with the hard times and get an understanding of God’s position in all of this.
We have to believe that God is preparing the path ahead of us, leading us and guiding us in life. God will take care of the solution, seek God’s peace in all circumstances even when it seems to be a hard path.
Don’t over complicate prayer either. It’s just talking with God. Tomorrow I will give some more ideas to help you understand prayer. Peace.
