What if your struggle that seems to be crushing you right now will become the source of the greatest miracle of your life? This story should encourage you.
4 Causes for a boring prayer meeting and how to cure them
One of the reasons that people don’t go to a prayer meeting is that they think that it is going to be boring. Even if Christians “should” go to the prayer meeting even if it is boring there are ways to change it so boring is not the first thing that comes to mind when people hear the words, “prayer meeting.”
Reason 1: Lack of expectation that God will meet with us.
From a Bible perspective when we gather for prayer we can be assured that God is, “there in the midst of us.” But often it is the leader’s job to play the role of Elisha with his servant when he prayed, “Open his eyes.” When people expect to meet with God their attitude will be very different. As George Muller used to say, “God has dealt with me according to my expectation.”
Cure: There are ways to increase people’s expectation of meeting with God. Here are three examples of that. Songs of worship can raise our awareness that we are meeting with God and not going through religious activities. Drawing our attention to Bible passages of God’s power with His people can have the same effect. Finally, along a similar line, stories of powerful prayer meetings from history can increase expectation in the room.
Reason 2: Lack of anticipation of the importance of the meeting.
Many people in our day and age place a high value on time. Things are equated with boring if they are considered a waste of time. I think that is part of the reason that people, especially men, often skip the prayer meeting for other activities. Overcoming this perception can increase the attendance of the prayer meeting.
Cure: One of the ways to help people to see the importance of the prayer meeting is to line up the agenda of the prayer meeting with important items. When the early disciples met for prayer in Acts chapter 4 about the persecution they were facing no one probably questioned the importance of the meeting. And the room was shaken. Maybe make the agenda for your prayer service the Big Hairy Audacious Goals that God has put on your heart for the church. Maybe put signs around the room with pictures of lost people in need of God.
Reason 3: Leaders governed by obligation instead of desperation in calling the meeting.
I was a senior pastor for about nine years before starting this ministry back in 2005. There always seemed like there was more to do than I had time to do it. It is easy with that type of environment to feel like a prayer service is just another item on the list of things to do. If this is how the leader feels it will quickly be felt by everyone else and drain the energy in the room.
Cure: There are two steps to overcoming this challenge. Both are important. First, the leader needs to reconnect with their “why.” This may be as simple as changing the agenda of the prayer meeting like we talked about in the last reason. The second part is to set up the time and structure of the prayer meeting as the leader so that you want to come. Don’t feel obligated to have a morning prayer service if you are a night owl. Maybe to start with a 30 minute prayer service before Sunday morning is better than adding another night to your agenda when you are feeling overwhelmed.
Reason 4: No balance of spontaneity and predictability.
There is nothing wrong with routine in your prayer service. Structure can provide security to people who are new to a prayer meeting. Knowing what is happening next can even help the veterans of the prayer service feel comfortable to focus on prayer. But structure can also create boredom if we are not careful.
Cure: Hopefully you will see that the first three reasons are foundational to fixing this challenge as well. Let me encourage you as leader to create a simple broad stroke plan with predictable parts, but don’t be afraid to change to follow the moment. Let the components be like your playbook that gives you the comfort to call an audible with confidence.
[tweetthis]Any prayer service can change history. Let’s commit to engaging in this important event! [/tweetthis]May your prayer service be with expectation as you meet with God and do the work of prayer that changes the world.
4 Things To Help You Pray When You Are In Distress
Sometimes in life things do not go as planned. We are trying to serve God and life seems to be going backwards instead of forward. Maybe the wheels seem to be coming off of a close relationship. Maybe we face a sudden health or financial crisis. It may be that we feel like God is calling us to do something and right now it just looks like we are banging our head against the wall.
There is a story in the Bible that might give you some encouragement. We read the story of a person like King David and we forget the journey that he went on to get there. He is anointed as king; so in other words it was God’s plan for him to be king. He kills Goliath and becomes a great warrior. He is friends with the king’s son and marries the king’s daughter.
But then life seems to turn to shambles. The king is trying to kill him. How would you feel if the military of your country was trying to capture you? He is on the run and must leave his close friend and wife behind. Then he gets the idea to go to the Philistines and hide there. Ultimately this would be a good plan, but the first time he goes to the king the only way to get out of there alive is to pretend to be crazy. I think that qualifies as a bad day.
Yet there is encouragement for us in this story. At the time that this is happening David writes Psalm 34 which gives us a backdrop for how to deal with these times in our life. It is even cool because each verse starts with a different letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Now there is way more in this chapter than we can cover here but let me give you 4 things to help you with your prayer life during these times.
Turn your attention to who God is no matter what is happening.
It is easy during times of distress to lose perspective. David begins this psalm with praise to God. Throughout the psalm we are reminded that even in the difficult times of our life God is still in control of the universe. He is still on the throne and worthy of our worship. This will help us adjust our view of our current struggles.
Check your heart for any issues you need to deal with in this moment.
David is not for a moment suggesting that people should blame themselves when they are in distress. Rather he is encouraging people to keep their heart soft and pure in a situation that can easily turn a person bitter. We want to align ourselves with a holy and awesome God in these situations.
Bring your needs to God without reservation.
I love the language this psalm used to describe our prayer to God. “The righteous cry out,” “Seek the Lord” “the poor man cried” is all language of not holding back. When you are in distress that is not the time for religious posturing and pious pretense. David encourages an all out bringing of your brokenness to God. I have talked elsewhere about emotion and prayer.
[tweetthis]In distress that is not the time for religious posturing and pious pretense. Pour out your heart.[/tweetthis]
Trust God to answer your prayer.
One of my favorite parts of this psalm is that God is trustworthy and involved with His people. Such great promises are for those who pour out their heart to God. “He delivered me from all of my fears.” “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” And on and on it goes. When we focus on Him, keep our heart clean and bring our need to God we can trust Him to involve Himself in our situation. Will you go to Him today?
Preparing Your Prayer Life For 2017
The New Year is one of my favorite times of the year. I love it because people give themselves permission to look up from the daily grind and reflect on where they are and where they are trying to go. I try to build into my year times when God can speak to me big picture, but the week before and after New Years Day is a natural time for that.
I could write a lot about capturing the adventure of following Jesus. Actually my book that I am working on for 2017 will be perfect to challenge you to engage in the life that God has for you. But for now let me try and set you up for success in your prayer life in 2017. My top 5 most read new posts of 2016 will set the stage that you need. Here they are (not in order of most read):
5 Steps To Get Your Prayer Life Off The Ground: Maybe you are feeling overwhelmed by where to start with a prayer life. This post gives you 5 steps to get started.
11 Leaders Give Advice To Have Your Best Prayer Life Ever: The Apostle Paul says we can grow with models. This post gives you prayer advice from people like Mac Powell from Third Day or Dave Butts who is head of America’s National Prayer Committee
A great way to take a prayer life to the next level is to get involved in some sort of group prayer gathering. Whether you are leading a church in prayer or just starting a small group for prayer 6 Ingredients Of A Powerful Prayer Service and 4 Prayer Services Most People Won’t Go To are sure to give you some ideas for the new year.
10 Books That I Loved On Prayer: If you want to dig a little deeper in your prayer life in 2017 maybe read a book on prayer this year. Of course I wrote a book on the subject but this list is a great collection that could change your life.
Don’t let these suggestions overwhelm you. Pick one thing or one book and get started. To paraphrase my dentist: Doing something poorly is better than doing nothing perfect. Let us be a people that get to know Jesus more this year because simple decisions that we make.
[tweetthis]Let us be a people that get to know Jesus more this year because simple decisions that we make.[/tweetthis]
Imagine living like a prince or princess, here are 5 things that would change
My daughter has restarted watching this show called Sofia the First. It tells of the adventures of a village girl after her mother marries the king. I love the line from the theme song, “I am finding out what being royal is all about.” It captures the feeling that every Christian experiences now that they are a child of the King.
It reminds me of my time from 2nd to 5th grade when my family moved from the United States to Sri Lanka. It was a strange experience to be from one place but to be living in another place. They call these people, third culture kids or TCKs. One of the best explanations of this kind of life came as a missionary described it in their newsletter (names left off for security purposes):
“A TCK is a child who grows up in a third and unique culture. They are heavily influenced by the culture of their parents (passport countries), and they spend a large portion of their lives being influenced by a second culture (host countries). They do not wholly fit into either. Instead, they mix these cultural norms together into a unique and personal blend to create their own third, distinctly unique culture. So, they live in these two worlds and form ideas of who they are and what is normal and it becomes part of their perspective, their culture. Their culture is a blended one. They are Third Culture Kids.”
This is the challenge that all of us face as we live as with passports for another world, or as Paul says, “Our citizenship is in heaven.” (Phil 3:20). But how do we live in this in between time? Here are five things that I think we do differently living as prince and princesses in this world.
I take advantage of access to the King
Although we don’t live in heaven now we still can do what the author of Hebrews describes, “Come boldly to the throne of grace to find grace and mercy to help us in our time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16) From my time of living overseas, sometimes you just pick up the phone and call home. We experienced then the challenge of bad phone connections, but our Father the King is just a prayer away.
[tweetthis]Our Father the King is just a prayer away.[/tweetthis]
I live as a representative of the King wherever I go and with what I say
I remember as a kid the father of a neighbor boy trying to talk to me about United States politics. I don’t remember what I said, but I was in that moment a representative of the United States to him. We must remember that every word, text, social media post is as a representative of the King of the Universe. As Proverbs says the power of life and death are in the tongue. (Proverbs 18:21)
Capitalize on my unique position to bring people to the palace
There is an episode in Sofia the First where she brings some of her friends from the village to the castle for a sleepover. It is filled with drama because the village girls are not used to the palace and Sofia’s new sister wants them to behave like princesses. We all as people originally from the village are in a unique position to help introduce people around us to a life they too can enjoy. We just need to remember where we came from and live out grace everywhere we go.
Understand that I will live with tension and homesickness
One of the things that I experience as a TCK is that it is often hard to feel at home. When I was living in Sri Lanka there are things that I would miss deeply back in the United States. And just last week I was talking about craving a fruit from Sri Lanka that I can’t get here in the USA. The same is true for us as Christians. There are moments when we will feel out of place. As the founding pastor of my home church said shortly before his death, “I am homesick for a place I have never been.”
We party like a princess
I had to throw this one in as a place to end. A few weeks ago I took my daughter to her first concert: Jamie Grace. The new song was: Party Like a Princess. The point of the song was that if our identity is as a child of the King we can celebrate even if we don’t have certain external things (the songs example is a boyfriend). Don’t forget to rejoice that “he paid it all” so that you could be a prince or princess.
