James 1 | Our Walk of Faith

I’ve written about prayer a lot and to me it is for good reason . . . that is how we connect and communicate with the God of the Universe . . . our creator.

My favorite model for prayer and the one which works best for me is Bill Hybells’ acronym “ACTS” as I have shared many times. Just to review “ACTS” stands for:

A – Adoration . . . telling God how much we love him and affirming that we believe that He is the one and only God of the universe.

C – Confession . . . confessing our sins to God and asking Him for His forgiveness.

T – Thanksgiving . . . Giving God thanks for everything in our lives . . . the good stuff and even the not so good . . . the challenges and trials and troubles.

S – Supplication . . . This is where we ask God to work in our lives . . . to change circumstances . . . to speak to us . . . to help us to hear His voice and to help us to change . . . just to name a few things.

I am great with all of this and as I said, since finding this model, it has radically changed my prayer life.

I currently have a sister in law who is critically ill. We have been spending lots of time in continuous prayer for her as well as having other people pray for her also. As I was praying yesterday the question came to my mind; What is it you are actually praying for? Well of course for my sister in law’s healing . . . recovery and in the event those don’t match with God’s will for her and He decides to take her home . . . for Kris and I to understand and have peace in all of that . . . just to cover all my bases.

But really, when we pray for someone to be healed or someone to change or for a circumstance to change . . . what are we really praying for?!

I met a guy during a break at a Christian Men’s conference and we were discussing prayer and his take was that by praying we can change God’s mind to do something other than what He was planning on. Really?!?! That seems pretty powerful. What do you think?

If we subscribe to the idea of predestination then is there a reason to pray at all other than to do the A, C and T and not the S . . . Affirm God, Confess to Him and Thank Him but never ask for anything because under predestination, God already has it dialed in . . . no changes?!

Another guy I spoke with about this concept told me “well you have to give predestination some lee way . . . it’s not like you think.” But he never could tell me if it wasn’t what I thought . . . what it was like.

What about the idea “ask it shall be given unto you”. I think in one of my previous postings I gave a ridiculous example of this: “Dear God I really need the money and if you answer my prayer I will give you some of it, so help me to be successful in robbing this bank and don’t let me kill more than two people.” Ridiculous though that example is, it does demonstrate that somewhere in the mix of praying, we need to be in line with God’s will for us.

Where I have ended up with this is that we pray to let our hearts’ desires known to God. Isn’t this one of the ways we nurture our relationships, to share our feelings and needs and wants with one another? If those desires are in keeping with His will for us then He will answer them . . . now get this . . . not necessarily the way that we would like for Him to. As I once heard Dr. Robert Schuller of the Crystal Cathedral say: “God will answer in one of three ways: No, Yes or Not yet.

I think the big thing with our relationship with God and our prayer life is to be open to God’s will for us, and be willing to accept that however He chooses to answer our prayers . . . it is for the best for us and all those involved . . . whether we know who is affected by our prayers or not.

Don’t forget the song of the great sage; Garth Brooks: “I thank God for unanswered Prayers” in speaking about a love who broke his heart and now he is so thankful that the relationship didn’t work out!

Make sense?

Prayer is a deep and complex issue and a HUGE part of our prayer life and relationship with God.

I invite you to sound off with your thoughts and ideas about prayer. Please comment on this blog with your input.

As always, thanks for reading and weighing in on this.

Many Blessings!
Pat

I left my boss’ office . . . or should I say former boss’ office deflated, dejected and emotionally in a tailspin. You see, my career in the first half of my life was in the homebuilding and land development industry. That industry is traditionally boom or bust . . . and when it is good . . . it is very, very good. And when it is bad . . . it’s awful.

This day, it was decided by the higher ups in my company to change the direction of the company and my position would no longer be necessary . . . I had been laid off!

I went home and after explaining to my wife why I was home so early, I set to work getting my job search underway. The first call I made was to the executive recruiter who had found this position for me; Jaquie. I have always had the utmost in respect for Jaquie as she was a strong Christian and a lady of very high integrity.

“Sounds like you’re having a James 1 day!” Jaquie said after hearing my story. Not being that familiar with James 1, I responded with something lame like “uh yeah, I hadn’t really thought of it that way.” After I hung up the phone, I looked up James 1 and read it with renewed interest here is what it said:

2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters,[a] whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. James 1: 2 – 4 NIV

At first I was frustrated with Jacquie; Wasn’t this like praying for patience?!?! I didn’t need perseverance or to be complete . . . I needed a job with income for my family!

But God worked on me and helped me to understand a lot about that verse. It is now one of my life verses. You see, I finally came to realize just how true this scripture is (like all scripture isn’t true!). I guess a better way to put that is that as I began to embrace the meaning of the scripture in my life . . . it really helped me to mature just a bit more into the man God created me to be.

You see, when we look at our challenges in life not as inconveniences to us or something that a judgmental God has chosen to punish us with we begin to realize who God is. I began to understand that He is always there, working behind the scenes to make us more like Christ . . . to make us more content in our own skin . . . with our own circumstances. When we understand that God didn’t cause this difficult time in our life but will use it for good . . . our good, then we are beginning to come more in alignment with who God wants us to be.

After all, as Christians, we all want to be mature and complete don’t we? And that takes perseverance . . . and perseverance requires the testing of our faith. Darn, don’t you hate it when that happens?! But that is just the way the God set the universe to spin . . . the sooner we embrace God’s economy and stop fighting it . . . the sooner we start to be mature and complete . . . and . . . content.

Oh, and about the job, I had a new one in a couple of days! Not that I found a new way to manipulate God . . . but when I focused on God and what He wanted me to do in my life rather than my selfish desires and wants . . . a blessing was a by-product!

OK . . . perhaps I will take perseverance and being complete. Thank you god for helping me to get this straight . . . again!

Thank you for reading!

Blessings,

PRAYER . . . AGAIN!!

JAMES 1 . . . I DON’T NEED PERSEVERANCE OR TO BE COMPLETE . . . I NEED A JOB!!

Pat

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