Focus Of Prayer

I heard something on Turning Point this morning that I haven't really thought about in much detail before. Maybe a fleeting thought in the back of my head, but that's it. The idea relates to the focus of prayer.

Right now something else just popped into my head that I heard before that sums up a lot of prayers:

Thanks, thanks, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, in Jesus' name, Amen.

Wrong focus.

But that's definitely how I used to pray a lot before I came to Christ. Heck, I'm sure its how I pray a lot know without even thinking about it. Still its the wrong focus!

God's not a worldly-junk-dispenser. Praying for that Ferarri, that mansion, or winning the lottery probably isn't going to go anywhere. Now I'm not going to pretend to know the complete will of God, but I'm just betting its not for a hundred million people to win the lottery. James backs this up when he says "When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures." (James 4:3)

Proper focus, rather, is to ask things according to his will, whether or not we know what that will is. "...if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us." (1 John 5:14). Jesus set the proper example of this when he was praying to his father before he was to be crucified and said "...yet not my will, but yours be done." (Luke 22:42)

So rather than pray to get what we want, let's instead pray that God's will is done.

DJ also made a point of being fervent in prayer like all the prophets and many great men of the faith over the history of the church. Do we feel strongly and so moved when we pray to God that we drop down, cry out, tear our clothes, dump dust on our heads, and so on? Now of course we shouldn't do this kind of stuff just to do it and look fervent, but do we have the feelings that drove those kinds of actions inside, or are we a little more detached?

I know where I stand and there's a lot of room for improvement. I pray you fair better! :-)

Give Good Stuff

I went shopping yesterday to get some food for one of our projects at church. Nothing much, just a bag full. But as I was making decisions about what to get, something popped into my head from the Simpsons that affected it. Marge was asking the Lord to do something and promised that if he did it, the next time there was a canned food drive, she would give the poor something they actually liked, instead of the old crap that she didn't want any more.

How could I in good conscious go cheap and buy things that I wouldn't normally buy to donate? That wouldn't do. The best way to approach it, I think anyway, is to say "what would I get for me?" -- and then get something better to give away!

I pointed the same concept out to my daughter today. We had her birthday party and she got a lot of presents. I asked her to pick out some of the presents to donate to kids that didn't have any toys. She picked out a couple of things, and when I asked her about some of them, she picked out a couple of more. These were things that she didn't particularly like as much -- but then again, she's 5, so giving away ANY toys is awesome! Go kiddo!

It made my heart smile when I asked her why she was giving away the toys. She said "to be the answer" which is the theme of the projects we are doing at church the next weekend to help the community. Then she followed it up with "just like giving food to feed hungry people is being the answer." My little one rocks. :-)

Advice From John Wesley

Do all the good you can
By all the means you can
In all the ways you can
In all the places you can
At all the times you can
To all the people you can
As long as you ever can

Anyway

I didn't write this either, but I like it also!

People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered.

Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives.

Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies.

Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you.

Be honest and sincere anyway.

What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight.

Create anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous.

Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, will often be forgotten.

Do good anyway.

Give the best you have, and it will never be enough.

Give your best anyway.

In the final analysis, it is between you and God.

It was never between you and them anyway.

The Pit

I didn't write this, but I think its great!

A man fell into a pit and couldn't get himself out.

A subjective person walked by and said, "It's logical that someone would fall down there."

A Pharisee said, "Only bad people fall into pits."

A mathematician calculated *how* he fell into the pit.

A news reporter wanted the exclusive story on the pit.

A taxman asked if he was paying taxes on the pit.

A self-pitying person said, "You haven't seen anything until you've seen *my* pit.

A fire-and-brimstone preacher said, "You deserve your pit."

A Christian Scientist observed, "The pit is just in your mind."

A psychologist noted, "Your mother and father are to blame for your being in that pit."

A self-esteem therapist said, "Believe in yourself and you can get out of that pit."

An optimist said, "Things could be worse."

A pessimist claimed, "Things will get worse."

Jesus, seeing the man, took him by the hand and lifted him OUT of the pit.