Cold prayers

When I think honestly about my prayers, I think of all the warm, deep, and intense prayers I can give in the concerns which matter the most to me. When it comes to those things, my heart is open, and all of my center is engaged. Does that mean that God is my priority? Nope! It only means that what I am praying about matters to me.

When I make my passionate, deep, and intense prayers about things I really care about, I move right on to the next thing, and that thing does not matter as much. Suddenly, my prayer goes cold and routine. Has God changed? Of course not. Has he grown cold and routine? Clearly not!

It only means that all my passion and intensity was not because of God's presence and closeness to me. It had nothing to do with my faith or longing for Him and Him alone. It was only about my concerns, not for God.

On "Not the Jesus I believe in"

There is common reminder that Jesus was not the messiah they expected to see, but not much has changed in history. So many people have an idea of what they think a king, a god, a messiah should look like and do.

Even while Jesus hung on the cross in Matthew 27, people passed by "hurling abuse at HIm, wagging their heads and saying, 'You who are going to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save Yourself! If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross." So when Jesus is doing all those things in a different way than they think He should, they deny Him as king and true God.

IT is still the same today. They mock and ridicule Jesus for not being what they assume He should be. We do not get to define what Jesus should be or do. Yet, this is what believers and non-believers alike will consistently do. We need only accept Christ as He has presented himself to us in Scripture.

Affective Passion

The word passion means "to be affected by" [Tweet That] Think of the things you are passionate about.

You are passionate about those things you are most affected by, and that may be just about anything. When I think of the picture of my life and its passions, I want to create a picture of how ridiculous it is to be more passionate about anything other than Jesus Christ and his presence, his love, his grace, and his Spirit.

Does prayer affect me? When I pray, do I come from a place where my heart is affected and affectionate, or are they words without thoughts?

Does my time in God's word affect me? Do I read the things I read wanting to allow myself to actually be affected by what I read, or am I just reading words without thoughts?

Is my life affected by the love of God today? Not effected, but affected. The former I do not control, the latter I do. Do I allow my heart and life to be affected by the gospel? Am I truly passionate about my life with Christ? Does it affect me today? Do I allow his grace to affect my emotion, my choices, and my thirst for MORE?

These are the true questions of passion.

When Your Heart No Longer Burns Within

"One log by itself cannot burn for long, but when many logs are put together, even if they are poor logs, they can make quite a fire."

-Richard Foster

You Are Insignificant?

"Today is just a day fading into another, and that can't be what a life is for." - Counting Crows Life at times feels like just another day like the one before it fading into the one after it. We move at a crawl through each day without any sense of direction or reason.

When our days are limited, coming to the end of a day like that seems pointless and disappointing. At the end of today, will I be able to say it was significant?

Will today have been intentional in any way? Will today have made any difference at all? Will I have made any significant step toward a vision? A goal? A purpose?

Today does not have to be just a day fading into another!

Significance is not an issue of fame or even recognition. Significance is an issue of making a difference where you are.

If you are a person of faith, significance is making a difference where God has placed you now today at this moment. (Eph. 2:10)

The main thing that will make this day significant is intentionality.

Intentional about relationships around you now...today. Intentional about resting and taking it all in now...for a second. Intentional about creating something now...no matter how tiny...

Run with that idea...