Expectations (and broken expectations) are a fact of life. However, when it comes to life with God, expectations can be deadly to the Christian journey.
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When it comes to a seemingly silent God and unanswered prayer, has someone ever told you that you need more faith? Have you ever told yourself that?
Chances are, they (and you) were wrong.
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When you pray, how do you imagine God's posture toward you? Is he busy and hardly paying attention? Is he leaning in and listening intently? Is he ignoring you unless you pester him again and again, like a toddler tugging on their parent's clothes? Jesus told a very strange parable about prayer to help answer these questions.
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Who knows where the small events in our lives will lead? There may be something small going on in your life right now, but that small thing could lead to monumental, God-ordained change. Are you willing to go there with Him to that unknown future?
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It was God's intention from the beginning of time to partner and co-create with his Creation. We read in Genesis 1 that humanity was given the task of stewarding the earth, and God gave them "every seed-bearing plant and all the fruit trees" for food. God provided the food, but humanity would need to gather the food for themselves. An angel wasn't going to drop off a food-basket at Adam and Eve's doorstep every morning.
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If you were ask followers of Jesus this question today, many would say, "In heaven." Ask the natural follow-up question of where heaven is, and you'll likely get a shrug of the shoulders or a finger pointing to the sky. This means, of course, when these same followers of Jesus begin to pray, they are directing their prayers to God who is "up there... somewhere" or "out there... somewhere."
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Have you ever come to an end of a chapter of life and hit a wall of waiting? It's a weird in-between place where you've finished reading the last page of your current chapter, but God has not flipped the page to the next one. Why does he make us wait?
Because God shapes us through waiting.
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I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through belief in the Threeness,
Through confession of the Oneness
of the Creator of creation…
When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray, he didn't reply, "Just pray as you feel led." He said, "Pray like this..." and then gave them the Lord's Prayer (Matthew 6). He gave them words and a format.
There are times I am tongue-tied in prayer, when I cannot articulate the thought in my mind or the groaning in my heart. When I feel like this, sometimes I pray in tongues, and sometimes I read the prayers of the saints.
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There are many ways a small change in heart and action on our part can be used to incarnate Isaiah 61 in our world. In other words, there are many ways to pray for and work for beauty, justice, and peace around us.
To what change might God be inviting you?
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When I prayed out loud in a room by myself for the first time, even though I was a follower of Jesus, it was a new thing and it felt weird.
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When inconvenience strikes, what's your first response? If we take a look at the prayers of the Psalmist, we are encouraged not to ignore our complaint, but to turn our complaint into a prayer. After all, Psalm 64:1 says, "Listen to me when I complain, God!"
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