Pray This Instead

We serve an omnipresent God.

Will we ever truly understand the term omnipresent? We might know what it means but do we truly attribute the power, wonder and awe that is behind the word?

Be reminded of how awe inspiring it is that we serve a God that is Omnipresent and we get to connect with Him personally at any moment in time.

christian quote: prayer

Words That Give Power

Humility and repentance always leads to life and grace.

Don’t underestimate the power of those words… humility, repentance, life and grace. Words that are not usually associated with power but words that unleash extreme power in the light of God’s story for us and eternity.

What Bothers God

In his book, Until Unity, Francis Chan discusses this topic of separation. Comparing what we grieve versus what the scriptures grieve. What separates us as a people and then as followers. This book is not a feel good book.  It's a call you out book.  It's a "challenge you to do better" book.  In fact, I've had to take reading it in strides as I've tried to reflect on his points and accept his challenges.  With that said though, I've really enjoyed this book and wanted to share this particular quote that has stuck with me and to share my thoughts that I worked through one day after sitting with this quote. 

"Often the things that bother us are not the things that bother God.  Meanwhile, He is disturbed by things in which we seem indifferent." - Francis Chan


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We often talk about the superiority or the downfalls of a particular faith group or denominations. Why one is better than the other.  Why Lutherans, Reformers, Catholics, Baptists do what they do.  In a sense we align and pride ourselves on how we worship vs. who we worship. The how is what grieves us.   Maybe our focus needs to shift and align with how the Lord grieves over our differences and why we can't just find unity in the one God, and the one Savior who died on that one cross that one night so many years ago coming back to life that one time to give us life for all eternity.  I imagine this is what bothers God, -  thousands of denominations of divisiveness versus one church finding unity in Christ.

I wonder if God is bothered about the amount of worship songs and hymns we sing on a given Sunday like we are? Or the fact that a church does or does not allow coffee in the worship center/sanctuary? Do you think He cares about the building we worship in? The style? Aesthetics?

I’ll just mention politics. And of course what bothers us in the political realm doesn’t come close to what bothers the Lord.

We are a divisive nation. A segregated church. There isn’t a lot of love oozing out of us to reach the unreached. Unity is not on the top of our list of worries. Why not? 

Jesus speaks so often about oneness in the New Testament. Oneness with Him and each other. And we find oneness with love and sacrifice. If we aren’t living with those two things in mind, we are losing the basics of the Christian faith. Jesus himself lived a life full of love and sacrifice and even ended his life living out those two words for us.

So take a look today at what bothers you in life. Then in the church. Are those things that would bother God? Is what grieves you, what grieves Him? Most likely not. It wasn’t for me. So let’s take a moment to reset, shift, and turn our eyes to the Lord and His word and look to Him for what our hearts should be aligned with.

Then pray the simple prayer in words but powerful in action. “Break my heart for what breaks yours Lord.”

Difference: Word of God vs God of the Word

“There is a world of difference between knowing the Word to God and knowing the God of the Word.”

I read that quote in my latest obsessions of Tessa Afshar books. She’s a biblical fiction author and I’m on a book binge I must confess. But for me, sometimes reading these books brings about faith, grace, mercy, and the Bible and all its teachings and wisdom to what I like to call “heart moments”. I can get stuck as this quote says simply wanting to know the Bible more. Rather than falling in love with the God of the Bible. I love diving into the Bible to understand it more. To connect Old and New Testaments. To find symbolic meanings. And that’s not wrong. But I can get stuck in the trap of knowledge vs heart. Information vs soul. And to make another confession, heart and souls comes a lot harder to me than mind and knowledge. So these Biblical Fictions help me in this process. Are they semi for entertainment…. Absolutely. Do they replace the Bible… absolutely not. But I share this to show there are many ways to connect with the Lord. You don’t have to just spend mornings propped in your special chair, hot coffee in hand, pretty blanket nicely laid out, Bible on lap with your pretty journal and special pen. In fact, this idea cringes some people. Example my husband. My morning routine would bore him to death and stir him crazy rather than connect with Jesus. He would rather be out in His creation alone, on hike, run, or bike, listening to the Word and gazing at His beauty.

So if you feel stuck or dry in your daily connection with the Lord, I encourage you to switch it up. Find a new pace. A new read. A new way to let God speak to your heart and soul. Then come back to the Word. Because you need both. The God of the Word and the Word of God.