Anyway, I constantly have to remind myself, God will lead me where he wants me and where I am supposed to be.
"Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you." -Deuteronomy 31:6
Lately, I've been reading the most INCREDIBLE book! (Stay with me, it all ties back together, I promise!) The Circle Maker: Praying Circles Around Your Biggest Dreams and Greatest Fears by Mark Batterson.
This book is the first one in a long time that has really challenged me. It has caused me to really stop and think and look at things a different way. God has used it in an incredible way to transform me so I hope that you'll allow me to share a little bit of my heart today.
Each time I break out this book, I have my pink highlighter in hand (yes, I'm that nerd!) I don't want to forget some of the amazing points in this book. It also allows me to highlight key points that I love and that I can share with others when we have some great conversations about what God is doing in out lives right now. The part that has stuck out to me the most so far is a part about our daily prayers.
Start Circling
What I'm about to share has the power to revolutionize the way you pray and the way you read the Bible. We often view prayer and Scripture reading as two distinct spiritual disciplines without much overlap, but what if they were meant to be hyperlinked? What if reading became a form of praying and praying became a form of reading?
One of the primary reasons we don't pray through is because we run out of things to say. Our lack of persistence is really a lack of conversation pieces. Like an awkward conversation, we don't know what to say. Or like a conversation on its last leg, we run out of things to talk about. That's when our prayers turn into a bunch of overused and misapplied clichés. So instead of praying hard about a big dream, we're left with small talk. Our prayers are meaningless as a conversation about the weather.
The solution? Pray through the Bible.
Prayer was never meant to be a monologue; it was meant to be a dialogue. Think of Scripture as God's part of the script; prayer is our part. Scripture is God's way of initiating a conversation; prayer is our response. The paradigm shift happens when you realize that the Bible wasn't meant to be read through; the Bible was meant to be prayed through. And if you pray through it, you'll never run out of things to talk about.
The Bible is a promise book and a prayer book. And while reading is reactive, prayer is proactive. Reading is the way you get through the Bible; prayer is the way you get the Bible through you. As you pray, the Holy Spirit will quicken certain promises to your spirit. It's very difficult to predict what and when and where and how, but over time, the promises of God will become your promises. Then you need to circle those promises, both figuratively and literally. I never read without a pen so that I can underline, asterisk, and circle. I literally circle the promises in my Bible. Then I do it figuratively by circling them in prayer.
One of my treasured possessions is my grandfather's Bible. I sometimes do devotions in his Bible because I want to see the verses he underlined. I love reading his notes in the margins. And I love seeing what promises he circled. The thing that I love most about his Bible is that it literally had to be taped together because it was falling apart. It wasn't just well read. It was well prayed. (Mark Batterson: The Circle Maker Pg. 96-97.)
The underlined portions are my own highlights in my book.
This was kind of mind-blowing to me! Wow! Makes perfect sense, right? I know when I continually pray over something specific, I always run out of things to say and it's literally a broken record night after night. So I've been trying to use this dialogue concept! I now feel like I am truly having a conversation with God and not boring him!
So last night, (here's the tie-in from earlier!) I was wondering with "my plans" again. (God's probably laughing at how silly I was being!! :) Anyway, I asked him in prayer last night, "Lord, I know that you say, " 'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.' So, am I just supposed to go about life and wait for your plans to come to fruition? Or do I need to be proactive and make my own plans and just pray about them as I go? Please clarify this for me so I may be obedient."
I didn't plan for his reply to come so soon, or in the form that it did. So there it was as I was scrolling through none other than FACEBOOK this morning. :) makes me giggle a little! I came across a post from Passion City church saying that Pastor Louie Giglio wrote a blog post explaining why their church is taking a Sabbath Break. I decided to read it. (Nothing like the Lord's timing, can I get an Amen?!) Anyway, I came to the second half of his post titled We Are Called Into God's "Already In Motion" Plans.
The first sentence in this section:
"Sabbath rest is remembering that God calls us into His plans, He doesn't call us to create the plans and make them happen."
There was my answer, my clarification. All it takes is asking and specifics.
"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you." -Matthew 7:7
The post goes into more specifics and shares the story of Abraham and how he tried to make God's promise happen on his own by getting Hagar pregnant. It's great, here's the link if you'd like to check out the whole post:
http://www.passioncitychurch.com/blog/
There you have it. Lets have an intimate relationship with Christ with real conversations and stop our one sided broken record pleas. If you made it all the way to the end of the post, high five and thank you for letting me share a little of my heart and what God's been doing with me lately!
Blessings,
~Cassi
So last night, (here's the tie-in from earlier!) I was wondering with "my plans" again. (God's probably laughing at how silly I was being!! :) Anyway, I asked him in prayer last night, "Lord, I know that you say, " 'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.' So, am I just supposed to go about life and wait for your plans to come to fruition? Or do I need to be proactive and make my own plans and just pray about them as I go? Please clarify this for me so I may be obedient."
I didn't plan for his reply to come so soon, or in the form that it did. So there it was as I was scrolling through none other than FACEBOOK this morning. :) makes me giggle a little! I came across a post from Passion City church saying that Pastor Louie Giglio wrote a blog post explaining why their church is taking a Sabbath Break. I decided to read it. (Nothing like the Lord's timing, can I get an Amen?!) Anyway, I came to the second half of his post titled We Are Called Into God's "Already In Motion" Plans.
The first sentence in this section:
"Sabbath rest is remembering that God calls us into His plans, He doesn't call us to create the plans and make them happen."
There was my answer, my clarification. All it takes is asking and specifics.
"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you." -Matthew 7:7
The post goes into more specifics and shares the story of Abraham and how he tried to make God's promise happen on his own by getting Hagar pregnant. It's great, here's the link if you'd like to check out the whole post:
http://www.passioncitychurch.com/blog/
There you have it. Lets have an intimate relationship with Christ with real conversations and stop our one sided broken record pleas. If you made it all the way to the end of the post, high five and thank you for letting me share a little of my heart and what God's been doing with me lately!
Blessings,
~Cassi
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