Long and boring

“Praying through is long and boring, but it is the price you pay for miracles.”- Mark Batterson

In Chapter 123 (“Long and Boring”) of The Circle Maker, Mark Batterson states that, in the Bible, few people prayed with more consistency or intensity than Daniel.  Daniel had the ability to pray urgently about things that weren’t urgent- an important dimension of thinking long.

Pastor Batterson notes that when you feel like you’ve been drawing prayer circles forever and are extremely frustrated by God’s deafening silence, the solution is to stop, drop, and pray.  The only viable option is to pray through.

Although we all need an occasional no-agenda day with nothing to do, Mark emphasizes that type of day won’t be one we celebrate at the end of our lives. We won’t even recall such days.  We’ll remember the days when we persevered or overcame.  Similarly, the ancient truths of the Bible should not be arrived at easily.  Mark explains:

“What we’ll remember are the days when we had everything to do, and with God’s help, we did it.  We’ll remember the things that came hard.  We’ll remember the miracles on the far side of ‘long and boring.’ ”

Mark offers the encouragement that if we pray through and think long, God will give us some exciting answers, although  we don’t know how or when God will answer our prayers.  If we persistently pray through, a miracle is waiting on the other side.

Today’s question: What Bible verses sustain your consistency and intensity in prayer?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “Scriptural prayer postures”

 

Long and boring

Arguments with God

“Here is what I learned about arguments with God: If you win the argument you actually lose, and if you lose the argument you actually win.”- Mark Batterson

Mark Batterson continues Chapter 5 of The Circle Maker by conceding that circling the promises of God often seems risky.  However, he adds, circling the promises of God isn’t nearly as risky as not circling God’s promises.  We forfeit the miracles God wants to perform when we don’t circle His promises.

When we live in obedience to God, we place ourselves in position to receive God’s blessing.  This happened to the Israelites when they were parked in the Desert of Paran, a region fifty miles inland from the Mediterranean Sea and fifty miles southwest of the Dead Sea.  Quail usually live by the water and don’t fly long distances.  But a supernatural wind blew them into the Israelites’ camp.

Quail covered an area ten times the size of Washington, DC, and were piled three feet deep!  All this happened because Moses took the risk and circled God’s promise.  Mark explains that when you circle God’s promise, you never know how He will provide:

“Your job is not to crunch numbers and make sure the will of God adds up.  After all, the will of God is not a zero-sum game.  When God enters the equation, His output always exceeds your input.  Your only job is to draw circles in the sand.  And if you do the geometry, God will multiply the miracles in your life.”

Today’s question: Describe a specific situation involving your arguments with God.  What was the outcome?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “Lessons about unanswered prayers”

 

Arguments with God

Praise through

“After you pray through, you need to praise through.”- Mark Batterson

Mark Batterson concludes Chapter 14 of The Circle Maker with the bold statement that we should praise God for disappointment because it drives us to our knees in prayer.  Responding to disappointment in a God-pleasing way can restore our prayer rhythm and resurrect our desires.

Such faith can seem like a denial or reality.  Pastor Batterson states the reason is the reality we are holding onto by praying through is more real than the reality we perceive with our senses.  However, Mark writes, when you have prayed through the next step is to praise through:

“True faith doesn’t just celebrate ex post facto, after the miracle has already happened; true faith celebrates before the miracle happens, as if the miracle has already happened, because you know that God is going to deliver on His promise.”

Mark explains that prayer is asking God to do something, future tense, while praise is believing God already has performed the miracle, past tense.  It is important to emphasize that this isn’t a “name it, claim it” scheme.  The sole purpose God does miracles is to spell His glory.

Although it is most difficult to praise God when He doesn’t answer the way we want, that’s when our praise is most pure and pleasing to God.

Today’s question: Describe a time when you made a deliberate choice to praise through a situation.  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “Dream big”

 

Praise through

Define your dream

“Define your dream.  Claim your promise.  Spell your miracle.”- Mark Batterson

As Mark Batterson continues Chapter 3 of The Circle Maker, he references Matthew’s account of “Jesus Heals Two Blind Men” (Matthew 20:29-34).   When two blind men sitting on the roadside outside of Jericho hailed Jesus, the disciples saw it as human interruption.  Jesus, however, viewed it as a divine appointment.

The key to Jesus’ encounter with the two blind men is the pointed question Jesus asked them: “What do you want me to do for you?”  Mark states Jesus was forcing the men to define precisely what they wanted from Him- to verbalize their desire.  That is where drawing prayer circles begins.  You have to know what to circle.

What, Pastor Batterson wonders, if Jesus were to ask you that exact question: What do you want me to do for you?  Could you define your dream?  Mark describes the crux of the problem: “So while God is for us, most of us have no idea what we want God to do for us.”

The answer to Jesus’ question changes over time.  Different seasons of life require different miracles.  Rather than simply reading the Bible, Mark emphasizes that we need to start circling the promises.  Rather than compiling a wish list, compose a list of God-glorifying life goals.

Today’s question: What concrete steps do you need to take to define your dream?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “Nuanced prayers”

Define your dream

Bold prayers

“Bold prayers honor God, and God honors bold prayers.”- Mark Batterson

Mark Batterson, lead pastor of National Community Church in Washington, D. C., wrote The Circle Maker: Praying Circles Around Your Biggest Dreams and Greatest Fears in 2011.  Max draws and shares powerful insights from the true legend of Honi the circle maker.  Honi, a first-century BC Jewish sage, stood inside the circle he had drawn and boldly, yet humbly, prayed for God to end a year-long drought.  Rain fell and a generation was saved.

God, Pastor Batterson underscores, still is looking for circle makers.  Bold prayers require divine intervention.  Mark writes that the bigger the circle we draw the better, because God gets the glory:

“The great moments in life are the miraculous moments when human impotence and divine omnipotence intersect- and they intersect when we draw a circle around the impossible situations in our lives and invite God to intervene.”

Mark emphasizes it is absolutely imperative to come to terms with this simple but life-changing truth: “God is for you.”  Failure to believe this truth results in timid prayer.  Believing this truth means you will pray audacious prayers.  Either way, Mark states, “who you become is determined by how you pray.”  Pastor Batterson also clearly defines what drawing prayer circles is and is not:

“Drawing prayer circles isn’t some sort of magic trick to get what you want from God.  God is not a genie in a bottle, and your wish is not His command.  His command better be your wish.  If it’s not, you won’t be drawing prayer circles, you’ll end up walking in circles. . . . getting what you want isn’t the goal; the goal is glorifying God by drawing circles around the promises, miracles, and dreams He wants for you.”

Today’s question; Do you pray timid or bold prayers?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “Identifying your Jericho”

Bold prayers

The smallest step

“With God the smallest step of faith can activate the mightiest of miracles.”- Max Lucado

“By this [crossing] you shall know that the living God is among you.”- Joshua 3:10

Max Lucado opens Chapter 5 (Unpack Your Bags”) of Glory Days with the story of country singer Jimmy Wayne.  According to Jimmy, at the age of thirteen his often-imprisoned mother and her troublemaker boyfriend dumped Jimmy in a bus station parking lot and drove off.  Homeless, Jimmy eventually found work mowing grass for an older couple and soon was invited to live in their home.  Still, it took a long time for Jimmy to unpack his bag and accept his new home.

After our ministry downsizing or vocation loss we feel turned out- and may wonder if God will do the same as our former employer.  Pastor Lucado states God answered this question at the cross.  We are God’s children.  Max continues:

“Promised Land people believe this.  They trust God’s hold on them more than their hold on God.  They place their trust in the finished work of Christ.”

The followers of Joshua looked not to Calvary but to the Jordan River.  The miraculous crossing was convincing evidence of God’s presence.  Even so, when the priests got to the Jordan, they didn’t plunge right in.  They dipped their feet.  The smallest step activated the mightiest of miracles.

Pastor Lucado asks if we’re deeply convinced that we’ve been dramatically delivered.  While life has many questions, God’s ability to save shouldn’t be one of them.  Like Jimmy Wayne, our best days will begin when we unpack our bags.

Today’s question (study guide):  What do you need to embrace about God’s character in order to unpack your bags?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “Don’t forget to remember”

The smallest step

Remember the resurrection

“Lord . . . if you had been here, my brother would not have died.  But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”- John 11:21-22

Mark Batterson states in Chapter 23 of The Grave Robber that many Christians only remember Christ’s resurrection at Easter.  The other 364 days they live as if Jesus still is nailed to the cross.

If we feel as if our dream is dead and buried, we have forgotten about the resurrection.  Yet God has us right where He wants us.  Pastor Batterson notes that the litmus test of a dream is its death and resurrection:

“If it’s not from God, it’ll stay dead.  If it is, it will rise again.  But you need to pray through until you get a breakthrough.”

Mark emphasizes that while most miracles take longer than we want to wait for them, the longer we wait the greater our appreciation of those miracles: “Miracles happen when we’re good and ready, and not a moment sooner.”

Martha’s statement in John 11:21-22, Mark observes, reveals two types of faith:

1.  Preventative faith– believes God can prevent adverse things from happening.

2.  Resurrection faith– believes God actually can undo what’s been done.  It puts commas, rather than periods, at the end of disappointments.

Jesus’ raising Lazarus from the dead demonstrates that when God takes something away from us, it doesn’t always mean permanently.  God often takes things away with the specific purpose of giving them back.  When He does, we see the miracle for the blessing it is.

Today’s question: What Bible verse enable you to remember the resurrection every day?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “Six words”

 

 

Remember the resurrection

The ultimate goal

“There is no pit too deep that God’s grace isn’t deeper still.”- Corrie Ten Boom

“Experience is not what happens to you; it is what you do with what happens to you.”- Aldous Huxley

As Mark Batterson concludes Chapter 20 of The Grave Robber, he emphasizes that the ultimate goal of any request for a miracle is not the miracle itself, but God’s glory.  Because the will of God is the glory of God, no adversity can keep us from doing God’s will.  We can glorify God under any and all circumstances.

Pastor Batterson reminds us that it’s a false assumption to equate God’s will with an insurance plan.  God’s will is a dangerous plan- it isn’t safe.  Yet, if God gets the glory, His will has been accomplished.  Thinking only in temporal terms, God’s will doesn’t add up.  Mark states that we must add eternity into the equation.  A miracle is a miracle either side of eternity.

‘Why’ questions are unanswerable.  As Mark explains, we can’t let them interfere with our relationship with God:

” . . . you can’t let the questions you cannot answer keep you from trusting what you know to be true.  God is good, all the time.  All the time, God is good.”

For every experience we have, there are many different explanations.  While we can’t control those experiences, through the power of the Holy Spirit we can control our explanations.

Today’s question: How has God been glorified following your vocation loss?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “Irreversible moments”

The ultimate goal

The window of opportunity

“I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”- Psalm 139:14

“Science without religion is lame, and conversely, religion without science is blind.”- Albert Einstein

As Mark Batterson concludes Chapter 19 of The Grave Robber, he states that the undergraduate course having the greatest influence on his theology was a class on immunology he took at the University of Chicago.   While Mark isn’t sure the instructor even believed in God, he considered every class a brilliant exegesis of Psalm 139:14.  It also spurred Mark’s deeply held conviction that every ology is a branch of theology.

Obviously, Mark notes, science is a totally inadequate substitute for Scripture.  But science does make a wonderful complement to the Bible.  In fact, Pastor Batterson adds, the healing of a man born blind doesn’t make sense without a  little neurology.

Of all the types of Jesus’ healing miracles, enabling the blind to see entails the greatest degree of difficulty because the human eye is so complex.  Even more significant is the fact that Jesus doesn’t heal a blind man, He heals a man born blind.  This man had no synaptic connections in his brain between the optic nerve and the visual cortex.

Ophthalmologists would consider the man born blind’s condition irreversible.  His window of opportunity had long since closed.  However, Mark emphasizes that this is when God performs some of his greatest miracles!

Today’s question: How often have you felt that you’ve missed the window of opportunity?  Please share.

Coming Monday: the new Short Meditation- “Mama’s heart”

Tomorrow’s blog: “Anti-miracles”

The window of opportunity

Good eye, bad eye

“Your eye is the lamp of your body.  When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light; but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness.”- Luke 11:34

In Chapter 19 (“Never Say Never”) of The Grave Robber, Mark Batterson begins his discussion of Jesus’ sixth miracle in the gospel of John, healing the man born blind.  Pastor Batterson notes that while the man born blind had numerous words in his vocabulary, he had zero images to match those words.  This was the only world that man had ever known.

When the man born blind saw images for the first time, Mark states that he must have been overwhelmed with visual overload.  Yet, the author observes, the man born blind saw those images for what they were- miracles.  All too often, however, we fail to see the world as it is.  We see the world as we are.

In baseball parlance “good eye” means the discipline not to swing at pitches out of the strike zone.  Biblically speaking, it means to look at things from a God’s-eye view.  Mark states that Jewish rabbis distinguished between a good eye and a bad eye– each distinction pertaining to one’s attitude toward others.  A person with a bad eye turned a blind eye to the poor.  A person with a good eye, in contrast, demonstrated the ability to be sensitive to and seize every opportunity to be a blessing toward others.

Today’s question: During your desert, transition time, how would you assess your vision?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “The window of opportunity”

Good eye, bad eye

The Grave Robber

The Grave Robber (Baker Books, 2014)

Mark Batterson’s most recent book is titled The Grave Robber: How Jesus Can Make Your Impossible Possible.  The book is based on seven miracles of Jesus reported in the gospel of John.  Each miracle represents a different dimension of Jesus’ power.  The prerequisite for a miracle is a problem, which then provides the perfect opportunity for God to reveal His glory.  The miracles in the gospel of John don’t just reveal what Jesus did, but what He wants to do in your life.  One of the truest tests of spiritual maturity is seeing miracles in the monotonous.  Pastor Batterson states that we would crack the joy code if we’d recognize the moment-by-moment miracles that surround us.

Whatever situation we’re in, God has us exactly where He wants us, even if that situation is not where we’d choose to be.  Mark notes that there are no accidents, only divine appointments.  Miracles and divine appointments happen at God Speed.  They never are early or late, but always right on time.  Only one assumption is true: God is able.  We need to keep taking steps of faith, what Eugene Peterson refers to as “obedience in the right direction.”  Rather than doing things differently, we need to see things differently- for God can take a little and make a lot.

God wants to stretch our faith so that someday our biggest dreams will seem incredibly small.  Paradoxically, the more we give, the more we enjoy what we keep.  While God’s blessings amplify joy, miracles fortify our faith.  Miracles are found on the other side of fear.  At some point in our life journey, we need to take a radical step of faith.  That moment will define every moment that follows.  No mater what we might think, when Jesus gets involved it’s never too little, never too late.

The ultimate goal of any miracle is not the miracle itself, but the glory of God.  Jesus is calling us out of our tomb, to resurrect what has died.  As Pastor Batterson concludes:

“He will give you your smile back.

He will give you your laugh back.

He will give you your life back.

Do you believe this?

If you do, He will make the impossible possible.”

 

 

The Grave Robber

Believe it to see it

“When they had rowed three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were frightened.”- John 6:19

“What the eye sees is determined by what the brain has learned.”- Richard Restak

In Chapter 16 (“The Water Walker”) of The Grave Robber, Mark Batterson observes that the Sea of Galilee is the setting for many of Jesus’ miracles.  The fifth miracle, Jesus walking on water, may be the most astonishing.  Pastor Batterson calculates that Jesus’ walk covered at least three and a half mile, lasting at least seventy minutes at an average walking pace of three miles per hour.

When the disciples saw Jesus walking toward them, they were frightened.  They couldn’t make sense of the situation.  They had no prior memory to associate with what they were seeing.  As Mark notes, our natural tendency is to explain away what we cannot explain because we have no cognitive category for it.  While we think we have to see it to believe it, Mark stresses that the opposite has even more truth: you have to believe it to see it.

Mark concludes that spiritual and intellectual pursuits are not mutually exclusive endeavors.  He states:

“Great love is born of great knowledge.  And the more you know, the more you know about how much you don’t know.  True knowledge doesn’t puff up with pride.  It humbles us until we hit our knees in worship.  It also beckons us to get out of the boat.”

Today’s question: When you consider revisioning and revitalizing your calling, what do you need to believe in order to see it?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “Embrace the mystery”

Believe it to see it

Try the other side!

As Mark Batterson concludes Chapter 15 of The Grave Robber, he comments on an eighth miracle, the miraculous catch of fish (John 21:1-14) , tucked away at the end of John’s gospel.  This miracle followed Jesus’ resurrection.

The disciples had been fishing all night without luck.  Then Jesus told them to try the other side of the boat.  Pastor Batterson notes that first-century fishing boats were seven and a half feet wide.  What possible difference could ninety inches make?  One hundred fifty-three fish!  Mark describes the object lesson: “You may only be seven and a half feet from a miracle, but you have to try the other side!”

Mark wonders if miracles involving fish could be the one sphere where the disciples might have been tempted to assert superiority.  After all, fishing was their domain, their strong suit.  Similarly, our areas of perceived strength or expertise often are where it’s hardest for us to trust God.  We tend to rely on our God-given talents instead of the God who gave them to us.

Despite their fishing knowledge, the disciples obeyed Jesus because He told them what they needed to do.  And the quantified the miracle- they counted the fish.  Applying this to us, Mark adds:

“We need to count miracles the way we count blessings.  The latter amplifies joy while the former fortifies faith.”

Today’s question: In what area(s) of your life do you find it most difficult to try the other side?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “Believe it to see it”

Try the other side!

God is able

“God won’t answer 10o percent of the prayers you don’t pray.”- Mark Batterson

As Mark Batterson concludes Chapter 10 of The Grave Robber, he observes that even though miraculous healing is the exception rather than the rule, if we assume God’s answer will be no, we don’t give Him a chance to say yes.

Pastor Batterson says we would be incredulous if a major league baseball player refused to step into the batter’s box because he didn’t get a hit every time up.  Yet, Mark emphasizes, that is how many of us approach prayer- “we let a few strikeouts keep us from swinging for the fences.”

To experience the miraculous, the author notes that we must come to terms with the fact that the particulars- who, what, when, where, and how- aren’t up to us.  We can’t answer our own prayers.  Furthermore, most miracles in the Bible seem to happen to people who make the fewest assumptions.  They don’t know what God can’t do.  Mark explains:

“God is able.  That’s my only assumption.  And any other assumption is a false assumption.  He is a God who can make the impossible possible. . . . God doesn’t always answer my prayers how I want or when I want, but I live with an unshakable conviction that God is able.”

We can’t keep doing the same thing if we want God to do a new thing.  We need only one assumption: God is able.

Today’s question: What false assumptions have you made following your vocation loss?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “Point-blank questions”

 

God is able

Sweat equity

“Grace is not opposed to effort, it is opposed to earning.  Earning is an attitude.  Effort is an action.”- Dallas Willard

Mark Batterson points out in Chapter 9 (“The Seventh Hour”) of The Grave Robber that the distance the royal official traveled between Capernaum and Cana is a twenty-mile uphill climb at a five percent incline.  Some miracles, like healing the official’s son, require sweat equity.  While our effort can’t make miracles happen, our lack of effort can keep them from happening.  Miracles cannot be earned, but effort may be the catalyst.

As Mark has written in All In, most of us only are willing to follow Jesus to the point of inconvenience- no further.  Following Jesus becomes problematic when it necessitates a detour in our plans.  Mark states: “If you want to experience a miracle, sometimes you have to go way out of your way.”  God just may want to see how serious we are- if we’re willing to walk to Cana.

Pastor Batterson emphasizes that the common denominator among miraculous answers to prayer is perseverance.  People don’t just pray like it depended on God, they also work as if it depended on them.  Some miracles happen in stages.  We need to pray again and again and again.  Mark encourages us not to let fear become a factor:

“Sometimes we let fear keep us from praying for a miracle because we feel like we will have failed if God doesn’t answer the way we want.  That isn’t failure because the answer isn’t up to us.  The only way we can fail is failing to ask.”

Today’s question: What has helped you persevere in prayer?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “God’s opinion”

Sweat equity

God Speed

In Chapter 8 (“God Speed”) of The Grave Robber, Mark Batterson states that Jesus’ second miracle- healing the royal official’s son- “redefined reality by defying the four dimensions of space and time.  It was a long-distance miracle in real time.”

Back in 1964, James Stewart Bell published a groundbreaking paper that disproved the principle of local causes.  This meant that everything in the universe is interconnected, regardless of distance.  The relationship between particles is mediated by the Fifth Force Himself.  Pastor Batterson observes that one reasons we have difficulty believing God for miracles is we think of Him as being subject to the very laws of nature He created and instituted.

“Instantaneous nonlocality” is a technical term describing “an invisible link between particles that defies the four dimensions of time and space.  Albert Einstein referred to it as “spooky action at a distance.”  Mark adds that Einstein’s reference isn’t a bad definition of prayer.  Prayer defies space-time limitations and has  no expiration date.  Prayer operates at God Speed, as do miracles.  Mark explains:

“Miracles rarely happen on our timeline.  And you can’t give God a deadline.  But you can trust His timing.  He’s never early.  He’s never late.  He’s right on time, every time.”

Today’s question: How does the principle of God Speed affect your thinking regarding miracles and prayer?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “Sweat equity”

 

God Speed

Nowhere by accident

The royal official said, “Sir, come down before my child dies.”

“Go,” Jesus replied, “your son will live.”- John 4:49-50

As Mark Batterson continues Chapter 7 of The Grave Robber, he cites the carefully crafted benediction of then Senate Chaplain Dr. Richard Halverson.  Dr. Halverson believed his most important pastoral function was pronouncing this benediction, week in and week out:

“You go nowhere by accident.

Wherever you go, God is sending you.

Wherever you are, God has put you there; He has a purpose in you being there.

Christ, who indwells you, has something He wants to do through you where you are.

Believe this and go in His grace and love and power.”

At the conclusion of Dr. Halverson’s funeral in 1995, he reminded his congregation for one last time, giving the benediction himself that he had prerecorded.

Although we may not be where we want to be, Pastor Batterson reminds us that God can use us right there- even if we’re on an uneventful trip to the grocery store.  Wherever we are headed, God is setting up divine appointments along the way.  These appointments are harder to recognize closer to home because we are operating on autopilot.  Mark adds:

“Don’t be in such a hurry to get where you’re going that you miss the miracles along the way or the miracles that may be out of your way!”

Today’s question: How does Dr. Halverson’s benediction impact your desert, land between journey?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “Supernatural synchronicities”

Nowhere by accident

Prerequisite for a miracle

Mark Batterson is the lead pastor of National Community Church in Washington, D. C.  His latest book, The Grave Robber: How Jesus Can Make Your Impossible Possible, spotlights seven miracles of Jesus recorded in the Gospel of John.  Each miracle unveils a different dimension of Jesus’ power.  Seven miracles are seven signs, each pointing straight to Jesus.

Pastor Batterson stresses that this book is more than a course in miracles.  The focus is on Jesus, the only One who can perform them.  At the outset, the author offers a word of caution:

“Don’t seek miracles.  Follow Jesus.  And if you follow Jesus long enough and far enough, you’ll eventually find yourself in the middle of some miracles.”

Everyone, Pastor Batterson observes, wants a miracle.  But there’s a catch- the prerequisite for a miracle is a problem.  Yet, problems present the perfect opportunity for God to reveal His glory.  God can make our impossible possible!

Mark  relates the story (Chapter 2) of world-class violinist Joshua Bell and his three-hundred-year-old Stradivarius worth $3.5 million.  Playing incognito outside one of the busiest stops on the Washington Metro line and filmed by a hidden camera, only seven out of over one thousand people who passed by stopped to listen.  Similarly, Mark states that miracles are happening around us every day, but we will miss them if we don’t know how to look for them.

Today’s question: What is your response to Pastor Batterson’s word of caution concerning seeking miracles?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: the latest addition to the Annotated Bibliography, “Waiting on God”

 

Prerequisite for a miracle