A Survey to Which You Can Honestly Respond!

 Serving others.   

How do you feel about this?

Really, I am curious. 

Comment below as to what your immediate thought is about “SERVING OTHERS”. 

• Christ commanded it – but that does not mean we have to like it.
• Christ DID it – but, truth be told, we do not always REALLY want to model what Christ modeled.
•  Christ lived it out because it was a large part of his purpose for his arrival on the planet. (Philippians 2:6-7)

Regardless of all of that.  How do you feel about serving other people?  Seriously.

There are several approaches to this question so consider where you stand and who are you serving…

1. If you ARE NOT a Christ Follower and you have a chance to serve people that are non-church goers – How do you feel about serving them?
2. If you ARE NOT a Christ Follower and you a chance to serve people that are church goers and call themselves Christ followers – How do you feel about serving them?
3. If you ARE a Christ follower and you a chance to serve people that are non-church goers – How do you feel about serving them?
4. If you ARE a Christ follower and you a chance to serve people that are church goers and call themselves fellow Christ followers – How do you feel about serving them?

Answer the two questions above that are true of you and relate to people whom you could be serving.

I want to remind myself and my readers of what the Word of God says about “Serving Others”  but I am interested in your responses first!

I know how I feel about it and I know how I have felt about it.  

I want to hear from you.

Does God Answer Prayer (Part 3)

I feel the need to answer two common reasons why people don't pray:  

• I feel like prayer is not for me
• I don't have time to pray - I am so busy

For those who feel like prayer is not for them - I simply have to say that Jesus Christ spent a great deal of time in prayer (you can see this as you read through the gospels - especially Mark and John) and Jesus was God in the flesh!  

He felt compelled to pray to stay in a close relationship with His Heavenly Father.   So as imitators of Jesus - this should be a large part of our lives and should help us to stay in tune with our Heavenly Father!  

Additionally, the Word of God teaches us that our prayer is a fragrant and pleasant aroma to God.  He enjoys them as he would enjoy a pleasant smelling candle!

In answer to the idea that you are too busy to pray - I want to propose that maybe you just see no value in it therefore you choose not to do it.  

I find a principle to be so true in my life and in the lives of those I spend much time around.  This is the principle:

You find time, in fact, you MAKE time, for what is important to you!

When something seems to be of value to me or seems to be important. I make time to see it happen. My wife is important to me - therefore, I make time to spend time with her.  I put many things of lesser value aside to be with my bride!  I say "NO" to many things in order for Cari and I to be together and enjoy activities together!

I thoroughly enjoy hunting and being outdoors.  When the right seasons come around. I adjust my schedules as much as possible to spend time in the woods enjoying the beauty of the creation of God while hunting for food!

I completely love that I actually get paid to spend time leading the Osceola Grace family.  I know that ministry has its struggles but it has so many more rewards as we grow together and see others come to faith in Jesus and choose to follow Him with their lives! 

Therefore - I want to make time in my schedule for people.  To pour into them and to encourage them and to do life together with them!

We have time for what is important to us.

Sometimes when my son, Clint, hears someone say something that he thinks may not be completely true or an exaggeration he says, 

"I am callin' Shenanigans!"  

That means that he is saying that he does not believe you and there is more to the story or you are just not being honest.  It is sort of like saying - "Prove it!"  Because if he calls "Shenanigans" on you he then expects you to do what you say.

So, if you say that you are not praying because you are too busy then I want to call "Shenanigans" on you.  

I would like you to prove to me that you are too busy - that you do not have any time in your schedule to spend some time praying.  Because if we look at your schedule and find that there are not extra minutes in the day for you to pray - I will help you say "NO" to a few things so that you can say "YES" to a personal conversation with the God of the Universe - Your Heavenly Father - who wants to hear from you. In fact, He longs to hear from you!

Don't waste time doing all of the busy work - get to your knees and pray to God!

Does God Answer Prayer (Part 2)

"I don't know how to pray"

I have heard some people describe their reason for not praying in that sentence.  Some, in a group setting, will also say, "I do not know how to pray out loud."

I believe that there are a couple of solutions to this:

• Read some prayers of the Bible and use them as a template for learning how to pray.
• The first time you are praying out loud in a group or alone - read a prayer from the Bible and then re-frame or rephrase it to communicate your personal thoughts to God.
•  Write out your thoughts:
• like how you are feeling toward God, (psalm 31)
• a praise to Him, (Ps. 19, Ps.145-150)
• a request of Him, (Ps 54, 130, 143)
• a thankful statement to Him, (Ps 107, 136)
• a confession to Him, (Ps 51) 
• a fear that you want to admit to Him, (Ps 13)
• a characteristic of Him that you know to be true (Ps 111) 
• something that you read in His Word you want to affirm to Him (Ps 108)
• THEN read those to Him aloud.  

No one said that this is easy but what I have found is that when I talk to God, (and yes, I talk out loud to Him a lot) I find that it is like talking to someone that I really trust who will hear what I say and what I MEAN to say.  I try to speak with respect toward Him as I pray to Him.  I want to honor Him with my words and my heart as I pray.

What about if I am angry at Him for something that happened that I do not understand or agree with?

I have shouted at God in my frustration before - I have been mad about some things that have happened that I thought were unfair.   I have felt like He could have fixed it or at least controlled it and yet the outcome was not according to my expectations.   So I told Him.  Honestly, it did not make me feel any better. But  I was able to vocalize what was really on my heart and after I said it aloud to Him, I began to let it go. 

I truly believe that we must speak out loud to God  - it helps me to hear what I am saying.  It helps me to understand my heart a little more.  It sometimes sounds really silly or outrageous once I have said it out loud and then I realize that my mind has been holding me captive on some crazy, wrong thinking. 

What I love about praying out loud to God (in a group or alone) is that I get to articulate what is in my heart and then I get to let God sort out the right from the wrong. 

Try it.  

Today.

Right now.

Take a minute and tell God something out loud that you have wanted to say for a long time.  

How does it sound?

Probably not as crazy as you once thought! Right?

Next week - Part 3 "Does God Answer Prayer?" 

I want to share with you some examples of Bible prayers - you can read them and pray them back to God!