CCOG Newsletter

On Sunday, one of the kiddos was showing off what they made in children's church. It was a cute little lamb with googly eyes. So I asked what their lesson had been about. "We learned about God being our shepherd because we are like sheep. Sheep are dumb, and we are kinda dumb sometimes, so we need God to lad us." Amen to that! Please, do not be offended at that statement. Maybe you never do or say anything dumb, but I know that I do! There are times that I do not follow the leading of His voice. There are times that I wander away from the direction that God has made clear to me. There are times that I am anxious and worried, even though He is walking right beside me.

Recently, I heard someone say that they went to a Bible study in which Psalm 23 was the subject. He said that for 6 weeks, the only thing that the teacher read was, "The Lord is my Shepherd." Think about that phrase. What does it mean to you? What promises are wrapped up in just that simple phrase? Take some time this week to meditate on that one sentence.

Prayer can be showy. You've probably been in prayer gatherings where someone prays a long prayer using flowery language. Prayer is not entertainment; it's a time of fellowship with God.

I know you can pray anywhere but there is something about having a place where we pray regularly. As I grew in my new-found zeal for prayer I began to find myself really looking forward to my prayer times sensing I was really meeting with the Father. The room in which I prayed became synonymous with those times and I would go to the room expectant that I was going to meet with God. The result was that I approached my personal prayer times with faith.

Praying for a long time, using many words or repetition doesn’t mean we are more likely to get God’s attention. I really don’t know why we feel that God will hear us more clearly like that. This Scripture makes it clear that it’s not about words, length or repetition, because God knows anyway. It’s about quality—the right heart attitude, concentrating on what we’re doing, trying to live a life that doesn’t contradict our prayer life—not quantity.

Let me explain 3D praying to you. The three Ds stand for Desire, Discipline and Delight. First, and you cannot bypass this starting point, there needs to be Desire. Desire to be a person of prayer. Without that desire, nothing will ever change. You can’t force the desire, but you can ask God to plant that in you by his Spirit.

Second, it requires Discipline. Actually, you could double the D and make it daily discipline. This is the hard part, as you’ve probably already discovered. But I want to assure you that as you face the discipline it gets a lot easier; you’ll find the third D eases it considerably.

The third D is Delight. Yes, truly prayer has become a delight for me: spending time with the Father, opening up my life with its ups and downs, hearing what he has to say to me. What’s not to like! That means that I can look forward to praying; making my way towards the place where I usually pray I’m actually expectant that I’ll meet God during that time. What a change! It’s delightful.