What was your New Years Resolution this year??
At Sprint, they asked employees what their NYR were. Here are some of them: "This year I resolve to finish school, lose weight, and spend more time with my family and friends."
" I resolve to keep my house cleaner and more organized."
"To have clarity of mind and sound judgement in all decision making."
"To stay in better shape, and stop being such a nice guy." -Hopefully that last one was just mistyped.
I don't make NYR. I try to be better today than I was yesterday. Each day I live my life. But what do NYR acrually do? Well, maybe they get you focused. I will focus on my weight-exercise-family-friends-house-chores. Everything I didn't do last year as well as I wanted, I can "recommit" myself to doing this new year. When I started working at Dell so many years ago, I was skinny (so was Brandy). 6 years later when I changed jobs I was 60 lbs heavier. That's 10 lbs a year I gained by working at a desk job. During the 6 months I worked at Schwan's I lost a little over 10 lbs and gained some muscle. Now that I work at Sprint behind a desk, I'm going to have to commit myself to being more active. That could easily be a resolution, and I'll tell you why in just a little bit.
Why do so many people not fulfill their resolutions? Do you think the person at the top will keep her house cleaner? Do you think that other one will be in better shape? The best question to ask is what do their (and mine and yours) resolutions mean? What does a "cleaner house" than last year look like and what does "better shape" look like? I think that's why many people break their resolutions. Their is no substance to the resolutions; no definite goal (or end game) that can be quantified. Resolutions are so many times general, non-commital....pretty much useless. They make you feel good in the beginning, but nothing happens after the first few days or weeks. Sounds like "carbon offsets" that are popular right now. I'll keep driving my SUV and living in my 5000 sq ft house, etc, etc but to make everything all better I will buy some carbon-offets to make the world a better place.
I think prayer can be like resolutions for many people. If I say a prayer like Miss America gives a speach, I'll have done my duty and can go on to the next thing on my list.
OK.....if our prayers are quantity and not quality, what should they be like? We can look at scripture for the answer on this one.
Genesis 25:21 Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was barren. The Lord answered his prayer, and his wife Rebekah became pregnant.
Ezra 8:23 So we fasted and petitioned our God about this, and he answered our prayer.
Old Testament specific prayers that are answered by God. Isaac prayed his wife would become pregnant and she did. Esra's people fasted and prayed and he answered. In the Psalms you can hear the emotion and passion in their prayers.
Ps 54:2 Hear my prayer, O God; listen to the words of my mouth.
Ps 55:1 Listen to my prayer, O God, do not ignore my plea;
Ps 61:1 Hear my cry, O God; listen to my prayer.
People have said that the written word is powerful. When you talk, your words go out and may or maynot be heard again. When you write it down, it is permanent. But when you pray, your prayers go to the heart of God immediately. There is no middle man, no naughty or nice list that God reads later. Your prayers go straight to God.
No priviledge is greater than being able to call God "father" and knowing it is true. he is the greatest father and is available to talk to you at any time. As Alistair Begg has said "A prayerless Christian is a contradiction in that if our life is under the control of Christ's Spirit, we pray to the Father with delightful confidence."
How can we pray? Ther have been a few acrostic created to help us be more effective pray-ers. Not more effective in that God listens to them more, but more effective in that we don't get into a rut where prayer is just repetition of a few words and no substance behind them.
ACTS prayer
A-adoration
C-confession
T-thanksgiving
S-supplication (intercession)
Adoration is to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. We give everything in praising God and telling Him how we feel.
Confession - If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. confession gives us a chance to air out the things that are blocking the path between you and God.
Thanksgiving is thanking God. We are constantly blessed by God in all we have and are able to do. IN these times we need to give him thanks.
Supplication is asking God for our needs and the needs of others. It seems like we get here first many times. "God I need this or that. " The time of praying for others is not where we make God do things, but it allows us to be a part of the blessing he gives to others.
ACTS is not the only way to pray, and if you missed one letter, your prayer does not get thrown aside. You should have no worries for that. Paul said to "pray without ceasing".
Maybe we should pray as Jesus taught us to pray. He said that we must come to God like little children.
"Our Father in heaven" -- We need to always acknowledge first and foremost who we are talking to. He (God) is our heavenly Father. We address Him with respect just as we should address our earthly father with respect. He is the only true God who created all things in this universe, including ourselves. He loves us and we need to show our love for Him.
"Hallowed be your name" -- We must see Him as being holy, sanctified, consecrated; worthy of praise, honor and glory!
"Your kingdom come" - We acknowledge His coming kingdom. We pray that Christ will soon return and establish His earthly kingdom where we will reign with Him for eternity.
"Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven" -- We need to be praying for His will to be done in our lives, so that we might bring glory to Him here on earth as He is also glorified in heaven. We need to do things His way, instead of selfishly doing our own things to satisfy our own desires. "Give us today our daily bread" -- We should ask our Father each day to provide for our needs, just as He promised in His Holy Word. His Word says that we don't have, because we don't ask. Of course, we must first know God through His Son, our personal Lord and Savior. If we don't know Christ, God won't acknowledge this request for daily provision.
"Forgive us our debts (or transgressions) as we also have forgiven our debtors (transgressors)" -- This speaks about forgiveness among our associates, neighbors, friends, family and loved ones. Any and all persons in our lives that we come in contact with in social or business situations are included as well. If we can't forgive others, how can we expect our heavenly Father to forgive us?
"Lead us not into temptation" -- We need to ask our heavenly Father to help us recognize every evil thing, every temptation before us. We need help to stay focused on our Father and see the evil that we might fall into, for what it is really is, a trap set by Satan to bring us down to his level.
"But deliver us from the evil one" -- Help us, dear Father, to steer clear of that liar and deceiver. Let us see clearly the path that you want each of us to walk. By the power of the Holy Spirit that dwells within us, may we never stray from your will and way...
Lord's Prayer - A Glorious EndingSome commentators believe that the end of the Lord's Prayer - "For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever" - was added by someone other than the original writer. Whether that's true or not, this last phrase simply emphasizes more praise and glory to God the Father - so it's absolutely biblical… a glorious ending to a model prayer to God!
