Prayer IOU'S

Lately, I have been reading about great men of the faith and how they endured to the end. This has challenged me to start praying for myself and others the ability to endure in our walk with the Lord.

This need to endure is is summed up with these words "You have need of endurance" (Hebrews 10:36). We must endure, yet at the same time, the ability to endure is a gift from God. The great mystery of the Christian life is God's people working out what God is working in (Philippians 2:12-13).

The older I get in my walk with the Lord, the more I realize that endurance becomes a greater challenge. Although growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ keeps us from straying, our hearts are prone to wonder from the God we love so much. The hymn writer, Robert Robinson conveyed this truth well with these words:

O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I'm constrained to be!
Let they goodness like a fetter
Bind my wondering heart to thee:
Prone to wonder, Lord I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here's my heart, O, take and seal it;
Seal it for thy courts above

We need God to provide the endurance to stay the course. With that in mind, I have been challenged to pray for myself and others the prayer for endurance. I have chosen four verses for the substance of these prayers:

Psalm 119:36 "INCLINE my heart to your testimonies and not to dishonest gain."

We need God to incline our hearts to his word. The great danger for us in our walk with the Lord is that we become selfish and self-centered. The psalmist recognized the temptation of "dishonest gain" and sought the Lord for the ability to endure.

Psalm 119:18 "OPEN my eyes, that I may behold the wonderful things from your law."

The beauty and the wonder of God's word can only be revealed by God's Spirit. Therefore, we need God to open our eyes so that we can see and understand and obey his precious word.

Psalm 86:11 "UNITE my heart to fear your name."

Throughout the scriptures you will find people who served the Lord, but not wholeheartedly. They served the Lord with a divided heart. We need Go to give us an undivided heart that is focused on God's name and glory alone. We need God to "Hallow his Name" in our hearts.

Psalm 90:14 "SATISFY us in the morning with your lovingkindness, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days."

May our satisfaction be found only in the Lord. When we are most satisfied with God in our lives, then he will be most glorified in our worship. May we find our satisfaction in him and him alone.

Challenge

Notice the verbs in these verses, "incline," "open," "unite," and "satisfy." These verbs makeup the prayer IOU'S. Let these verses guide you in praying for your endurance as well as others.

Endure to the end.

A New Beginning: Resolutions

Nehemiah is God's story of a new beginning. It is also our story of a new beginning. Studying the first two chapters of this great book has inspired me to make some resolutions for 2010:

I will seek God's glory in everything I do.

I will ask God to break my heart with what breaks his.

I will find my satisfaction in the Lord alone. Therefore, I will pray more, fast more, read more, meditate more, study more, and love more for God's glory.

I will lead God's people to a deeper understanding of corporate prayer.

I will lead God's people to focus on his mission and purpose and inspire them to participate in that purpose individually and corporately.

I will spend more time prayerfully discerning the will of God before I lead a church into action.

I will patiently wait for God's timing and opportunities, and not try to take things into my own hands.

I will consistently trust the Lord to provide.

I will not be intimated by the enemy, but will determine to stand firm in the Lord.

I will not allow activity to become a substitute for spiritual vitality.

I will examine and investigate things before I initiate them.

I will lead the church in understanding God's mission and purpose for First Southern and how to properly plan in fulfilling them.

I will seek the Lord constantly because without his powerful presence I can do nothing.

I will be starting a new teaching series from the book of Nehemiah. I believe the Lord is going to speak to First Southern individually, but more importantly, corporately through this great book. We will learn how to do God's work, God's way, for God's glory. Hope you join me this Sunday!

Live Confident Lives

One person has said, "confidence is moving forward on a firm foundation." I agree! God's people, of all people, should be the most confident in the world. This past Sunday I shared three truths from Psalm 46 that help us to move forward in this coming year with great confidence.

First, we can live confident lives because of God's proven character. God has proven over and over again that he is our refuge and strength. He will not let us down now!

Second, God's powerful presence is always with his people. We can be confident that Jesus will be with us till the end of the age. He will never leave us, nor forsake us.

Third, we can be confident because of God's sovereign plan. God is bringing history to his triumphant end. When it is all said and done, Jesus will be exalted and God's kingdom consummated.