Get your feet wet

“We say to God, ‘Why don’t you part this river?  And God says to us, ‘Why don’t you get your feet wet?’ “- Mark Batterson

Mark Batterson concludes Chapter 10 of The Circle Maker by expanding on this statement: “God is great, not just because nothing is too big for Him; God is great because nothing is to small for Him.”  If we would learn to obey God’s promptings, especially regarding small things, we’d find ourselves in the middle of miracles far more often.

Pastor Batterson adds that we need to be looking and listening for miracles.  Talking is the easy part of prayer.  Listening to the still small voice of the Holy Spirit is much harder.  When the Israelites were standing on the bank of the Jordan River- the Promised Land on the other side- God gave this command to the priests (Joshua 3:8): “Tell the priests who carry the ark of the covenant: ‘When you reach the edge of the Jordan’s waters, go stand in the river.’ ”

Mark admits he’d much rather have God part the river so then he would step into the miracle.  If God goes first, you don’t have to get your feet wet.  You need to take a step of faith, perhaps in an area where you feel most self-assured.  Mark offers this prompting:

“Now let me ask you a question.  Where do you feel like you need God least?  Where are you most proficient, most sufficient?  Maybe that is precisely where God wants you to trust Him to do something beyond your ability. . . . And it is God’s strange and mysterious ways that renew our awe, our trust, and our dependence.”

Today’s question: Following your ministry downsizing or vocation loss, where do you need to get your feet wet?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “The litmus test of trust”

Get your feet wet

Holy complications

” . . . complications are evidence of God’s blessing.  And if it’s from God, then it’s a holy complication.”- Mark Batterson

As Mark Batterson continues Chapter 10 of The Circle Maker, he writes that one reason people get frustrated spiritually is they feel doing the will of God should get easier.  However, Pastor Batterson emphasizes, the will of God doesn’t get easier, it gets harder.  The harder God’s will gets, the harder you have to pray.

Mark states God will keep putting you in situations that stretch your faith.  As you faith continues to stretch, so do your dreams.  God’s blessings will complicate your life in positive ways and in ways God wants your life complicated.

Mark says here is a prayer that can change your life, yet it takes tremendous courage to pray that prayer like you mean it.  You also must count the cost.  The prayer is: Lord, complicate my life.

Mark writes that we need to pray as if God’s main objective is His glory, not our personal comfort.  We also must consider the implications or ramifications of our prayers.  Praying hard is hard because you have to pray like it depends on God and work like it depends on you.  And that is precisely where we get stuck spiritually.  Mark explains:

“We will pray right up to the point of discomfort, but no further.  We’re will to pray right up to the point of inconvenience, but no further.  Praying hard is uncomfortable and inconvenient, but that’s when you know you’re getting close to a miracle!”

Today’s question: What holy complications have you experienced in your life?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “Get your feet wet”

Holy complications

He makes provision

“When God gives a vision, He makes provision.”- Mark Batterson

Mark Batterson begins Chapter 10 (“The Cattle on a Thousand Hills”) of The Circle Maker by acknowledging that the time lapse between our prayer requests and God’s answers often is longer than we would like.  Mark believes God must love the game of Chicken because He has the habit of waiting until the absolute last moment to answer our request to see if we’ll chicken out or pray (emphasis author’s).

As Pastor Batterson reads Scripture, he has come to the conclusion that God loves to show up in unexpected ways at unexpected times.  And God’s provision seems to be just enough just in time.  That was the case when God provided miraculous manna for the Israelites during their wilderness wandering.  God’s daily provision of manna was a reminder of the Israelites’ daily dependence on God.

Mark notes we’d all be more comfortable with a weekly, monthly, or yearly supply of God’s provision.  But we would lose our spiritual hunger if He provided too much too soon.  We’d stop trusting our Provider and begin trusting our provision.  While we crave self-sufficiency, Mark cautions that self-sufficiency does not equate with spiritual maturity:

“One of our fundamental misunderstandings of spiritual maturity is thinking that it should result in self-sufficiency.  It’s the exact opposite.  The goal isn’t dependence; the goal is codependence on God.  Our desire for self-sufficiency is . . . a desire to get to a place where we don’t need God, don’t need faith, and don’t need to pray.  We want God to provide more so we need Him less.”

Today’s question: When did God make provision for you just enough just in time?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “Holy complications”

 

He makes provision

The greatest moments in life

“The greatest moments in life are the moments when God intervenes on our behalf and blesses us way beyond what we expect or deserve.”- Mark Batterson

As Mark Batterson concludes Chapter 9 of The Circle Maker, he reminds us there is nothing God loves more than keeping His promises.  Praying hard is standing on God’s promises.  Pastor Batterson emphasizes that “when we stand on His word, God stands by His word.  His word is His bond.”

Mark observes that we experience problems when we doubt ourselves, which in turn leads to doubting God.  We don’t ask God to extend His hand to us because we don’t know or don’t trust His heart.  Pastor Batterson states God wants to bless us far more than we want to be blessed.  Mark describes the heart of our heavenly Father:

“He can hardly wait to keep His promises.  He can hardly wait to perform His word.  He can hardly wait to answer our prayers.  And when we simply take Him at His word, He can hardly contain His joy.”

Pastor Batterson cites his favorite verse in the twenty-third psalm (Psalm 23:6)- “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.”  He notes that follow isn’t a strong enough translation.  The word follow is a hunting term in Hebrew.  The psalmist is saying that God is hunting us down to bless us.

Mark writes that he prays for the favor of God more than anything else.  He defines God’s favor as “what God does for you that you cannot do for yourself.”  When God blesses us beyond what we expect or deserve, it’s a humble reminder of His sovereignty.

Today’s question: Describe the greatest moments in your life and how they help you to stand on God’s promises.  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “He makes provision”

 

The greatest moments in life

The by-products of answered prayer

Mark Batterson begins Chapter 9 (“The Favor of Him Who Dwells in the Burning Bush”) of The Circle Maker with a discussion of the by-products of answered prayer.  Ebenezer’s Coffeehouse, a community outreach ministry of National Community Church, is the result of eight years of praying hard and circling.  God miraculously made it possible for NCC to purchase a former crack house and transform its prime location.

The rooftop of the coffeehouse is Mark’s favorite place to pray because he feels like he’s praying on top of a miracle.  Mark writes:

“. . . the faith to pray hard . . . is one of the by-products of answered prayer.  It gives us the faith to believe God for bigger and better miracles.”

With each answered prayer, we draw bigger prayer circles.  With each act of faithfulness, our faith increases.  With each promise kept, our persistence quotient grows.

The process of persistently praying hard stretches your faith.  When you have to pray for a long time, there is no temptation to take a miracle for granted.  As Mark commonsensically notes, if it doesn’t take a miracle, it isn’t a miracle.

Pastor Batterson cites Matthew 18:18- Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven.”  The word bind means “to place a contract on something.”  Mark notes that is precisely what happens when we pray.  If you are praying in accordance with the will of God, when you pray for something in the earthly realm God will bind it in the heavenly realm.  God loves to keep His promises.  He is actively waiting and watching for us to take Him at His word.

“The Lord is watching over His word.”- Jeremiah 1:12 (ESV)

Today’s questions (from Mark): Do you have a favorite place to pray?  A place where your mind is more focused?  A place where you have more faith?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “The greatest moments in life”

The by-products of answered prayer

Get the Bible through you

“Reading is the way you get through the Bible; prayer is the way you get the Bible through you.”- Mark Batterson

Mark Batterson completes Chapter 8 of The Circle Maker by referencing an old preacher’s sermon titled God’s Grammar:  “Never put a comma where God puts a period, and never put a period where God puts a comma.”  Praying through- not putting a period where God puts a comma- allows God to finish the sentence and make a statement.

Pastor Batterson asks us to consider the statement of faith Martha made to Jesus after Lazarus’ death (John 11:21-22): “Lord . . . if you had been there, my brother would not have died.  But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”  Mark notes that Martha’s statement exhibits two degrees of faith:

1.  Preventative faith– where we ask God to prevent things from happening

2.  Resurrection faith– believes that God can undo what already has been done

There is no easy answer for how to get from preventative faith to resurrection faith.  Hard times teach us to pray hard.  During periods of ellipsis, even then you believe even now.

However, often we don’t pray through because we run out of things to say.  The solution, Mark states, is to pray through the Bible.  Mark asks us to think of Scripture as God’s part of the script and prayer as our part.  Mark emphasizes how to get the Bible through you:

“The Bible wasn’t meant to be read through; the Bible was meant to be prayed through.”

Today’s question: Would you describe your current level of faith as preventative faith or resurrection faith?  Please share.

Tomorrow’s blog: “The by- products of answered prayer”

 

Get the Bible through you

If God had a refrigerator

Bill and Elinor Henning on their wedding day- February 5, 1949

“If God had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it.  If he had a wallet, your photo would be in it. . . . Whenever you want to talk, he’ll listen.  He can live anywhere in the universe, and he chose your heart.”- Max Lucado

“For you are my rock and my fortress; and for your name’s sake you lead me and guide me; . . . Into your hand I commit my spirit; you have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God.”- Psalm 31:3 and 5

On February 5, 1949, the temperature in Chicago, Illinois, reached a chilly twenty-eight degrees.  Three inches of snow covered the ground.  For my parents, Bill and Elinor Henning, the snow and cold were incidental to the marital vows of love and faithfulness they pledged to each other in the presence of God, family, and friends.

Throughout more than fifty-five years of marriage and four years as a widower, Dad kept one constant remembrance of his beloved Elinor in his wallet- a wedding photograph of his beautiful bride.  Perhaps it kept in the forefront his  responsibilities to the family God had entrusted to Dad’s earthly care as well as his faithfulness to gladly carry out those duties.

Dad deliberately chose to spend his off-work hours with Mom and me because he viewed us through the eyes of a loving husband and father.  John Ortberg writes in God is Closer Than You Think that God wants to be with us each and every day:

“I am a child on God’s screen saver.  And so are you.  The tiniest details of our lives never grow old to him.  God himself is filled with wonder at our faltering steps and stammering words- not because we do them better than anyone else, but because he views them through the eyes of a loving Father.”

The central and most frequent promise of the Bible is “I will be with you.”   The Lord’s arm is not too short (Numbers 11:23).  When Jesus is in your heart, you are freed from living a life of troubled anxiety.  Theophan the Recluse, an ancient sage, described the heart as the Lord’s reception room.  May we have the childlike confidence and faith of this five-year-old girl:

“I know Jesus lives in my heart, because when I put my hand on my chest I can feel him walking around in there.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If God had a refrigerator