The Starting line for Prayer
The starting line for prayer is knowing God. Actually, Tyler Stanton phrases it differently: discovering the Father’s love. “The most important discovery you will ever make is the Father’s love, and it’s just that — a discovery.”
Do you know that God loves you and likes you?
Do you believe that God loves you and likes you?
Many of us assume that God exists, but we struggle to believe that the all-powerful and all-knowing God cares about us (especially when we fail Him so often).
The Bible is the story of how much God loves and likes you. From the beginning, every man, woman, and child has rebelled against God, and at every instance God has continued to seek relationship with those who have run off. This comes to a climax at the cross of Jesus, when our Savior willingly endures the punishment we deserve so that we can be accepted by God!
Reflect on this paragraph today:
“I’ve got good news and bad news. The good news is that you are loved — loved right now without qualification or restriction, loved unconditionally for who you are, loved in a way you can’t lose. The bad news is that you find it very hard to believe that and even harder to experience it. Your instinct is, and will forever be, to try to drum up your own lovableness, to become lovable in some way you can define and control, to try to become in your own eyes what you already are in God’s. The good news is called grace; the bad news is called sin.”
— Praying Like Monks, Living Like Fools by Tyler Stanton, p. 77.
Striving toward God
Over the last week, I have been reading the book Praying Like Monks, Living Like Fools and wanted to use the devotions this week to share some things I have learned from it. (I highly suggest you grab a copy of this book and read it on your own!)
Prayer has always been a spiritual discipline I struggle with. I am an impatient fixer, which makes prayer hard. I would rather get to work than wait for God. I quickly assume being productive is more fruitful than prayer.
In addition to that, I struggle to slow down and create space to pray. If I am honest, I spend most of my day ignoring God completely as I focus on the urgent and important things in life.
Prayer is hard for me (and I assume for many of you too). I bet if you were honest, you wish you prayed more, were better at prayer, and felt confident you were doing it right. I bet you battle the thoughts in your head that prayer is a waste of time, a skill you don’t have, or something that is not going to change anything anyway.
Let me offer some words from the book that have helped me in my journey of prayer over the last few weeks:
“By praying we learn to pray.” — Richard Foster
The only way to get better is to practice. Just like with golf, sewing, or reading, the best way to improve is to practice. Sure, reading books, watching YouTube videos, or talking about it may help some, but eventually you need to swing the club, thread the needle, or make time to read. Prayer is the same. We grow our muscle of prayer by praying!
“If you want a life of prayer, the way to get it is by praying.” - Thomas Merton
Did you agree that you wish you prayed more? Well, start praying more. I am confident that if you pray more today, you will think about prayer more tomorrow (and hopefully actually pray more too). A life of prayer is created by days of praying more!
“Pray as you can, and don’t try to pray as you can’t.” - Dom John Chapman
We all compare ourselves to others and assume we come up short. That is awesome if someone can pray for an hour straight. I am not sure I can. But I can pray for 5 minutes straight. Pray as you can, not as you can’t. Don’t set goals you will fail. Set goals you can achieve and adjust as you go.
Find the ways you can pray, then pray in those ways.
Find the places you can pray, then pray in those places.
Find the times you can pray, then pray at those times.
“Before your head hits the pillow tonight, spend 5 intentional minutes praying.”
Glory in the Ordinary
Glory in the Ordinary
Scripture: 2 Corinthians 4:7
“But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.”
Growing up, one of my favorite bands was Jars of Clay. Their song Worlds Apart remains one of my all-time favorites because of how honestly it portrays our brokenness.
“I am the only one to blame for this.”
“Soaring on the wings of selfish pride, I flew too high.”
“More and more I need You now, I owe You more each passing hour.”
I must admit that no matter how much I loved the band, I never really connected the phrase “jars of clay” to this verse until preparing this week’s sermon. Studying the passage gave me a fresh appreciation for the imagery.
Jars of clay were ordinary, common, inexpensive containers that everyone owned. There was nothing impressive about them except what they carried. The value of the jar was found in what was inside, not in the appearance of the outside.
Paul calls us jars of clay in 2 Corinthians 4:7. God has placed His treasured message and His powerful Spirit inside of us. Our value is not found in our appearance, achievements, or abilities, but in what God has chosen to place within us.
Reflecting back on Worlds Apart, the song captures just how fragile we really are. We are tempted by pride, overwhelmed by shame, distracted by the offerings of the world, and easily cracked by pressure. Yet these fragile jars are exactly what God chooses to use.
God has placed His treasure in jars of clay—you and me. Why? So that the surpassing power would belong not to us, but to God.
You may feel unimpressive, inadequate, or unnoticed. Join the club. God is not calling us to be famous, perfect, or self-sufficient. He is calling us to carry His message in our feeble bodies—as we are, not as we should be.
God treasures you and places His power within you. You are not overlooked by Him. You are loved, sought, redeemed, and invited to carry the greatest treasure in the world.
The Cost of Non-Discipleship
The Cost of Non-Discipleship
Scripture: Luke 9:23–25 alongside 2 Corinthians 4:4
Think on this for a moment:
Following Jesus costs something—but so does refusing Him.
Everything has a price, and the price is your life. We can choose to spend our lives building our own kingdom, chasing pleasure, and trusting money or success to satisfy us. The sad reality is that deep down we know those things never truly satisfy, yet the temptation to trust them remains strong within us.
The cost of following Jesus can seem steep and less enticing. A life of denial instead of extravagance. A love for others rather than a life centered on self. A life of obedience instead of what appears to be freedom.
For a long time, we have acted as though the only costly choice is choosing to follow Jesus. But every path carries a cost. Rejecting Jesus has a cost too—a cost of anxiety instead of peace, isolation instead of purpose, slavery to sin instead of freedom in Christ, and eternal separation instead of eternal security.
Today, I urge you not to be short-sighted. Do not fall for the shiny distractions this world offers. Instead, seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness (Matthew 6:33).
“You are spending your life on something.
Money. Comfort. Achievement. Pleasure. Jesus.
One day, every investment will reveal its return.”
2 Corinthians 4:4 says:
“In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”
Open your eyes to what a life spent following Jesus truly offers—and what a life spent rejecting Him truly costs.
Spend your life on what lasts.
Not choosing is still a choice!
No Choice Is Still a Choice
Scripture: Matthew 8:19–22
“19 And a scribe came up and said to him, ‘Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.’ 20 And Jesus said to him, ‘Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.’ 21 Another of the disciples said to him, ‘Lord, let me first go and bury my father.’ 22 And Jesus said to him, ‘Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.’”
A popular gift among children and teenagers is a handwritten coupon book for their loved ones. The coupons may include things like cutting the grass, babysitting for free, or unloading the dishwasher. I firmly believe many of these coupons are given with no intention of ever having them cashed in.
Imagine the conversation:
“I would like my free babysitting tomorrow!”
“Well…tomorrow night doesn’t work. I already have plans. If only you had asked for today.”
“Oh, today works too! What time can you be here?”
“Yeah…today isn’t going to work either. If only you had asked yesterday…”
On and on the excuses would come.
This is the picture Jesus is bringing forth in Matthew 8. We say we want to follow Him, but we want to follow tomorrow…or later down the road. Today we have plans. Today we need to take care of a few things. We want to follow Jesus—just not right now.
We learned on Sunday that no choice is still a choice. Delaying a decision is making a decision.
We are all tempted by this. We are all prone to kick the can down the road so we do not have to deal with an issue in the moment.
This procrastination creates problems with wrinkled laundry, moldy dishes, and unfinished responsibilities, but I am less concerned about those things.
How does delayed obedience affect your spiritual life?
What areas of your life are you postponing surrender in?
What do you know needs to be done, but you keep putting off until tomorrow?
Not to scare you, but to remind you of the truth: James 4 teaches us that our life is but a mist. We are not guaranteed tomorrow, though the future occupies so much of our thinking.
Delayed obedience is still disobedience.
What is God asking you to surrender today? A relationship? A habit? Your pride? Your time?
Stop pushing obedience into a future that is never promised. Follow Jesus today.