“Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”
Philippians 4:5-6
This might be one of my favorite scriptures and parts of the commitment. It took me some time to realize that I can’t move forward in my commitment with God if I don’t pray about the things that are on my heart. There are two ways to pray. The first is to simply pray the desires and daily steps of your life to God. The second involves praying for others and intersessions that you feel are on your heart. The walk of prayer is so powerful and can lead to ultimate divine intervention and plans as it relates to the commitment. My biggest misconception was that my prayer had to be perfect. I always thought that God wouldn’t hear me if I din’t have adequate prayers. It took me having some frustrating moments of total surrender where I actually acted out my anger towards God, to realize that prayers are really a conversation of need that we can have with him. I always thought that prayer had to be so formal and I wonder if that might be why most people don’t pray or think that they don’t know how to pray.
“Learning about prayer can be challenging and frustrating. Learning how to pray is as simple as starting a conversation with God. Act as if you are having a talk with a friend. The more you practice the easier it will become and you will be able to pray the deep desires of your heart to God.” The Commitment – Chapter 3, page 34.
When was the last time that you had a conversation with God that involved questions about your life? Have you ever asked him what it is that he wants you to do? Who he wants you to be with? I have found that God loves a person who is open to hearing his voice and the only way to do that is to ask.
“Don’t be afraid to question God with the intention of understanding his plan for your life.” The Commitment – Chapter 3, page 35.
Don’t you wonder if God has something more and is just waiting for you to surrender and ask for his best for you?
There are a few things that I will claim to have learned through my commitment. The first is that God hears and answers prayers. The second is that even though it may take time to answer prayers God is always at work on our individual plans. And lastly, sometimes the answer might be “no” or it might be that there is something better for you. Often times when this happens, I have noticed that I have to let go of what I think I have to get from God what he truly means for my long term life plan.
“God is always working on your plan and there is never a moment when he stops. There will be moments when you feel like he has but just stand firm in your faith during those times. A silent God does not equal an absent God.” The Commitment – Chapter 3, page 36.
Find out more about The Commitment and God’s plan for you:
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This might be my favorite chapter in The Commitment and one that has a very important part in the journey.
“Be still and know that I am God.” Psalm 46:10
It’s funny how I used to dislike this scripture mostly because I couldn’t figure it out. I think that most of those who know me would consider me a “type A” personality. I am always planning, need all the details before I decide on something, and usually have to talk about things multiple times before I feel like I have all the information I need to make decisions. Given that I was knew in my relationship with God this was very hard because I wasn’t used to praying and waiting. I found that two things had to happen for God to be my decision maker. The first was that I had to surrender what I was thinking and what I wanted to do on daily. The second was that I had to trust him no matter how hard it was. Through this process I saw results when I continued to stay faithful to being still, and not going with the logical decision but relying on the decision of the holy spirit and what the plan was.
Chapter 2: Giving God all the decision making power is very difficult. As humans we are taught to take control of every area of our life. He wants you to be still and wait for answers as he is a God who is always at work. I have many examples of how I allowed God to make the decisions and times where I didn’t. When it comes to matters of the heart it is always ten times harder to give him control. No one can close a door that God intends for you. Some times his doors will open for you easily and other times it will seem like an obstacle course. The point is, if the decision of “yes” belongs to you no one can interfere with the particular situation at hand.
“Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.” Proverbs 19:21
While I was learning to allow God to guide my decisions I discovered a few more things. It is okay to have plans and certainly okay to believe that they will happen in a positive way. The key to those plans is to consult with God so that he can orchestrate the plans according to the individual plan he has for your life. I also learned that it got easier. It became much more clear to me how to surrender my thoughts and plans, and how to wait on him…….
As I reflect on the first chapter of the summer series I remind myself that surrendering doesn’t have an ending point. I think back to when I first entered into my own commitment and I thought “well, that was easy, now I just have to wait and see what God is going to do.” It took me a while to realize that every day is new and I would have to continue surrendering in order to stay in my own commitment. This seemed difficult early on. I got very discouraged because I have to admit that I thought it would be so easy. As I continued to progress in my faith I learned that God never said it would be easy.
What does easy really mean? I kept asking myself that question and what it really came down to was that I had to do the work. I had to take the steps to stay in my faith and keep the plan that God had for my life activated by putting him first everyday. God never gets to a point in our plan where we reach the finale. The plan is always at work and continuing to evolve as we evolve into better human beings who represent the kingdom here on earth. Once I trusted God more and grew in my faith it was much easier to surrender the big plans daily. As we lead into talking about the next steps we will discover in Chapter 2 how to continue on in this process.
“In the morning, Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly.”
Psalm 5:3
Yes mornings are busy, yes I have kids, and yes sometimes I forget too. Just like a good friendship it is quality not quantity. God enjoys hearing from us when we take a moment to get into the Holy Spirit. It doesn’t have to be long we just need to be present so that God will hear us and answer us…..