Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Audacious Praying + Audacious Faith


I have another confession. I've been struggling this morning trying to figure out how to kill two birds with one stone. You see, I'm involved with a group of ladies who are praying for their unsaved spouses, and it's my turn for the encouraging word. I've been scanning one of my most-recent-favorite books, trying to blend the two distinct concepts of a) encouraging singles desiring marriage and b) encouraging married women who are praying for their husbands to come to the Lord. To be honest, I probably could have whipped out the two blogs separately in much less time that I've spent trying to combine the two thoughts. But here goes:

If you haven't read "Sun Stand Still" by Steven Furtick yet, I recommend you order your copy soon. It's all about praying and believing in things that are impossible in your own strength, but stepping out in faith and allowing God to do the impossible through your faith and action.

I could spend all day typing quotes from this book. I absolutely love it! But for today, here's just a smidgen: "Are there subtle tweaks you can make in your everyday interactions and activities that will give God some room to move in a miraculous way? Make room and get ready."

This can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people. James 2:17 tells us that faith without action is dead. We're always encouraging singles to step out of their comfort zone to avail themselves to new opportunities. I guess the encouragement for both groups today is that your "action" doesn't have to be so audacious that it causes you to lose sleep, sell all of your possessions and join the Peace Corps. Maybe your action steps should be more subtle, such as:

1. What is your body language saying when your man or "a" man/woman walks into the room? Do you close down, ignore him or her, or put a little perk on?

2. Where do you go? What meals do you serve/eat? What type of clothes do you wear? What do you say? On a scale of 1 to 10, what is your overall attitude toward life? Are there subtle changes you can make in your everyday patterns to cause others to wonder what might be special about you?

Well, there's some food for thought. Again, order your copy of the book today. The premise is based on the 10th chapter of Joshua, where he had the audacity to ask God to make the sun stop in the sky - to freeze up time on behalf of his people - so that his army could defeat the Amorites before darkness fell.

Matthew 19:26 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

~ Linda
Cache' Connections

1 comment:

Karen said...

Thank you, Linda! Love you...Karen