About midnight Paul and Silas were praying to God.
About midnight Paul and Silas were singing to God.
About midnight the prisoners were listening to them.
About midnight, what am I doing?
Literally, most likely sleeping. Figuratively, good question.
What are my midnight prayers? Do they lead me to singing?
What are my midnight songs? Do they fix my mind on God?
What do people hear from me at midnight? Does it lead them to pray and sing to God?
Photo Credit: Unsplash/Jackson Hendry
“In all your ways know him, and he will make your paths straight.”
Proverbs 3:6 CSB
https://bible.com/bible/1713/pro.3.6.CSB
Often when praying for others, I ask God to make their paths straight. Other translations read that God will keep you on track or show you which way to go.
This blessing from God is preceded by knowing him in all our ways. Other ways to say that is to seek his will, to submit to him, and to listen to his voice.
How could this play out?
Praying this for others clears the way for the start of their path. Interestingly, it also challenges me to do the same for myself.
Here’s to straight paths!
I have them. You have them.
I am one. You are one.
That person…
That person(s) that you’re thinking about right now is your that person.
As a recovering judger and teller, I’ve labeled many people as that person. The more I own and understand that I’m also that person the fewer people I label. We have to resist labeling in our minds and hearts, and we need to be aware when we’re spreading our labeling to others by talking about that person. Not easy work.
How do we do this work? I’m doing it by asking myself three questions:
It’s hard relationship work. But that person needs it. And as someone else’s that person, I need it.
Five weeks ago I self diagnosed a need. I had a need for a day unlike any day I’ve experienced before. This need was driven by various things. Did I need rest? Yes and no. Did I need time with God? More yes than no. What did I most need was my question. I took this to my coach and what I came up with was this: I needed realignment.
I’ve never heard of a realignment day, but it resonated with me. Since it was self diagnosed, that meant I had to come up with the “treatment plan.” I went into the day with some structure, but very loosely held. I knew prayer and reading would play a major role, but how long and with what content I wanted to be fluid and hopefully spirit led. I’ll share some of how the day went and give you something to consider for your own realignment day.
Not everyone requires the same type of realignment, but I’m convinced we all need it occasionally.
(A final thought from No One Gets There Alone)
In giving helps for mental toughness, Dr. Bell says that consistency is the key.
Remember, we first create habits, then our habits create us.
Whatever we want to get better at, we must consistently do. Don’t mistake action for achievement. If we want to get better at swimming, then swim; if we want to get better at public speaking, speak. If we want to improve our sales, get a coach. Period.
Whenever I’ve led discussions about spiritual disciplines like prayer or taught on following the leading of the Holy Spirit, comments are always made about not feeling confident on how to do either of these. Let me suggest that Dr. Bell’s encouragement to swimmers and public speakers applies here. Create habits. Be consistent. Just Keep Doing It.
What could some habits be that would create you into a confident disciple?
Here’s a personal example from a different life arena. By nature, I’m not a morning person. I hated my teenage years when my mother would come in my room every morning turning on the lights and declaring it was breakfast time. But you might say, since I began running over ten years ago, I’ve been recreated by developing new habits. The discipline needed to properly train for races has slightly altered me. I now have little problem getting out the door to run by 6am several times a week. I can even meet people at 6am for a group run and actually enjoy it, occasionally. Let’s not push it.
Who do you want to be? Who is God prompting you to be? What are the habits of that kind of person? Work to establish the habits of that person and let the creating begin.
In my experience, if you ask God a curious “I want what you want” question, he is happy to reply. And he often surprises you with his answer. And I believe he enjoys whispering to your heart, “Bet you didn’t see that coming.”
When I opened the winter issue of Facts and Trends a few months ago, I read about an Arkansas church that has a unique approach to engaging their community through the arts. The Article (see pages 16-19) describes their intentionality of establishing an art gallery in their new building as an avenue to connect worship and community. After reading it, I had a “Hmmmm…” moment.
That moment was a connection between the answer to an earlier question (see It Started With a Question) and another question, “Where could this go?” The connection was the expansion of a one-time showing of work from Ballard students to an ongoing gallery that involved all facets of our community. No, I didn’t see that coming.
So I did two things. I called the church in Arkansas. Then I visited the Arts Center. Between those two things, we felt equipped and eager to follow what God seemed to be up to. Long story short, we now have a gallery that will continue to go after wanting what God wants. And pretty much all I can say is, “God did this.”
How might you incorporate curiosity into your prayer life?
What area of your life needs a “I want what you want” attitude adjustment?
When’s the last time you could only answer, “All I can say is, ‘God did this'”? What if you prayed for it to happen again?
How might you prepare to receive what you don’t see coming?
Scripture encourages us to include statements of thankfulness in our prayer lives (Philippians 4:6). In my prayer of thanks today, two things came to mind: forgiveness and loss. One sounds positive, the other negative. Why did those come to mind? What’s the basis for being thankful in good and bad, joy and sorrow, positive and negative? This is the first of two blogs sharing those thoughts.
Thinking on those two things led me to words that began with the prefix re-. Re– often begins words that indicate a return to a previous condition, often verbs that indicate restoration. Such words include replace, remake, realign, redeem, and reform.
When forgiveness occurs, several doors may open for a return to a previous condition.
These examples are certainly good, joyful, positive outcomes. Good, but not easy to achieve. Forgiveness takes hard work, just like getting anything back to its previous condition. If you’re wrestling with the hard work of forgiveness, think on the re-. Look forward to being thankful for re-.
When have you experienced the thankfulness of re- through forgiveness? How did you get there?
John Gregory 