Soda

Link: Core Values
Focus: Worship (1/7)
Day: 17/95
Pathway summary: Committing personally to having a lifestyle that glorifies God, expressive in praise and adoration, ultimately, in everything we do.
Justification: (Psalm 150:6; Colossians 3:23)
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Setup:

Is it possible to worship soda?

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Prep:

It appears these are all building; prayer was harder than reading the Bible. Worship is harder than ether.

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Execution:

I started with prayer and direction to speak on this topic
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Day 17 Conclusions / Thoughts

So I started to pray several days ago to capture things I might worship. Some of the answers I believe God has given me have been ... non-traditional answers to the question and have made me want to redefine the term. What does "worship" mean?

How about "worthiness-ship" - the vehicle that captures all of the things that are worthy about something or someone else?  This kind of makes sense if you think of worship as a vehicle. And perhaps it is.

In practice, for me, worship is far simpler - it is anything or anyone I look forward to instead of God.

• Do you look forward to spending time with your kids when you get off work?
  You probably worship either kids in general or your family in particular.
• Do you look forward to drinking some sort of refreshing beverage when you get off work?
  You probably worship soda or beer or whatever you drink after-hours
• Do you look forward to intimacy with God?
  Then you actually worship God.

You can actually worship lots of things at once - the three above are examples of things I tend to worship. The point as relates to this challenge is that I need to drop the worship of things that are not Godly (and retain the ones that are - as long as they do not detract from my own faithfulness).

So I came to the conclusion that I worship (or have been worshiping) soda. And I took steps - I have stopped drinking soda as of last week (roughly when this post was supposed to be released).

This means that many of the foods I love are no longer as tasty - because they were really opportunities to "eat food with soda"; Pizza is a great example. I am uncertain why, but I associate eating pizza with soda.

The motivation should be simple. I realized that the Bible speaks to the body being a temple. As a human having a spouse, my body is not my own. I have been asked by every member of my family, at different times, to stop drinking soda. It has been just about a week - and I feel like I'm slipping back there.

So, for the duration of the challenge - I am no longer drinking soda.

Thankfulness - Prayer

Link: Core Values
Focus: Thankfulness (Prayer)
Day: 16/95
Pathway summary: Study of the Word of God with expectation of Holy Spirit inspired revelation.
Justification: (Deuteronomy 6:6-9; Psalm 119; John 16:7-15; 2 Timothy 3:16-17)
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Image:

Still not decided on the image - temporarily scrapping it because I am so far behind.  Will have to address this.

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Setup:

Summarizing how thankfulness can be applied to the Prayer

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Prep:

Answering the question: how does thankfulness look with respect to the path of the Prayer

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Execution:

I began with prayer - and mostly want identify aspects to Prayer for which we should be thankful and because of which we can draw closer to Christ.

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Day 16 - Observations on Week 2 (Prayer)

My first day-of-thankfulness was supposed to speak to the nature of being thankful with respect to the Holy Scriptures - and it became, instead, an observation of the need for thanks and how it relates to Prayer.  So, I will follow my own lead and explain the transition from Prayer to Worship.

If prayer is the petition, worship is the container.  We are not called to worship without respite - and I believe this is because, if our hearts are aligned to the correct vectors and our attitude is properly oriented, what we get is right prayer - which can inform our worship.  However, we pray about what we think about - and we think about what we worship. This is the bridge.

We humans are built to worship; as I mentioned previously, I believe we ache for intimacy. It is technically an ache for intimacy with God - but we humans are marvelous at filling it with not only anyTHING but anything. We can fill it with drugs, alcohol, soda, sleep, music, or a multitude of other things. We can fill it with family, friends, duty, work, and an even more grand verisimilitude of abstractions. In some ways it fits these betters - because, in spite of how REAL God is, much of the ways in which we directly relate to him have characteristics which map to these abstractions.

To conclude, my observations about prayer is that, between the Holy Spirit and Prayer, I am remarkably better at reading - hence far better at reading the Bible. It is hard to regularly put down the abstractions of intellectual effort and pick up the banner of simple prayer.  So, at this time, between the two, my simple observation is simply - I desperately need to more diligently pray, and pray with reverence, and let it inform my decisions.  Which leads nicely into worship - because if prayer is what you in response to what you worship, then prayer can be a powerful feedback loop to let you know what you actually worship.

Freedom

Link: Core Values
Focus: Prayer (7/7)
Day: 15/95
Pathway summary: Being faith-filled, fervent, continual, and heartfelt in my expressions, petitions, and supplications to God.
Justification: (2 Timothy 1:3; 1 Thessalonians 5:17; Matthew 6:5-13; Mark 9:23)
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Setup:

What is "just enough" prayer? What is the impact of praying as frequently as is feasible?

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Prep:

I recognized, of the studies in this journey so far, that compared to studying the bible, prayer (for me) is a much more difficult to thing to do regularly. Every post for this focus section has been late - so definitely something to work on.

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Execution:

I started with prayer and asked for guidance - recognizing I need Him to pray properly ... and also to complete this arc addressing the same.
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Day 15 Conclusions / Thoughts

The whole "just enough" is always a trap - much like any earnest relationship anyone is ever in, choosing to be guided by a "tit-for-tat" (or zero-sum) perspective will always falter in the end - this is because life is messy and we're talking about relationships between real people.

In other words, if you DO have a zero-sum perspective in a non-business relationship that is based on presumption of intimacy, you're probably not trying hard enough.

Flipping it, however, bears massive amounts of fruit. If you, instead, function from the perspective that you haven't prayed enough (and choose/fight to not be motivated by fear of this fact), you will err nicely on the side of sufficiency - which is to say, actually live out the "pray without ceasing."

And that's my take-away for prayer.  It is a perpetual font of opportunity to connect with God, it provides a tool to work through literally any dilemma, a means of productively investing in those people and enterprises you care about, and provides an earnest way to connect with the body of Christ in a discrete and intimate way.

My caution to you is to not take it for granted.

And prayer is so very, very easy to take for granted.  In fact, of the twelve core foci of the core values, it is the most easy to take for granted - because it requires no travel, no material commitment, and no tools. It believe it was designed with the intent that ANYONE can talk to God.

And God, so accessible and loving, is, as a result, easy to take for granted.

But not YOU. You are reading these words. You see the value of intimacy. And YOU realize that prayer should NEVER be taken for granted - especially because God has designed it to be accessed and used with a terribly low bar.

Maybe put God into perspective. Isaiah speaks about visiting God and having unclean lips (which are then quickly cleaned by an angel). The unview-able, unknowable, unthinkable creator of the universe is so worthy of our praise, our worship, our respect - and this is the same fellow who is offering us the opportunity to pray.

So ...

Pray in earnest - share on what you think and share your fears.

Pray in truth - do your best not to like about causes but speak from need and love

Pray in intimacy - do not hold things back from Him

But

Pray with reverence - He literally made you. He is worthy of worship

Pray with faith - He laid the groundwork for faith with his life.  Do not deny it.


Pray, in all things, about all events, for all people, giving everything to Him.

Perhaps on your knees.

But pray.

P.S. This post is entitled Freedom because there is freedom in praying without ceasing - you can trust God is actively involved in your life. You don't have to worry about praying for this but not that - and you can earnestly sink-your-teeth into the presumption that He is in control.

Facilitation

Link: Core Values
Focus: Prayer (6/7)
Day: 14/95
Pathway summary: Being faith-filled, fervent, continual, and heartfelt in my expressions, petitions, and supplications to God.
Justification: (2 Timothy 1:3; 1 Thessalonians 5:17; Matthew 6:5-13; Mark 9:23)
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Setup:

What would a life filled with an abundance of prayer look like? Is it possible to have an excess of conversation with God? 

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Prep:

Earlier I considered the aggregate impact of not praying and made the claim that most of the problems we have as individuals (or otherwise) stem from insufficient prayer coverage. This is the counter to that.

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Execution:

I started with prayer and began studying scripture for aspects to prayer I may have missed with the intent of capturing what a life-fully-enriched-with-prayer would look like.
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Day 14 Conclusions / Thoughts

Cursory observations and conclusions regarding prayer from scripture:

• Matthew 6 is absolutely rife with content and context
• Romans 8 teaches us that we need help praying
• We are to pray without fainting (stopping), pray for ourselves and others, and pray without the intent of being rewarded
• That prayer doesn't necessarily protect you from temptation (in fact you're to guard against it when you're praying)
• Righteousness comes from praying
• Usage of prayer to share one's faults can confer healing
• Most of the profound capabilities of believers resulted simply from faithful people praying

So the concept of righteousness is close to my heart - I've prayed over and dwelt on "The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." And I've wondered long days at who is righteous.  It seemed to me, before this bible study, that nobody knows if they're righteous - but that, if you are righteous, those items over which you pray will be impacted. Not because a righteous person is better - but, rather, the righteous person were likely given the desires of their heart AND God has made provision for those in that domain to succeed.

I think the heart of the impact of this much prayer is simply captured in the word "sufficient". If we are asking for how much, God has answered in two ways. The one, in the command to "pray without ceasing" - sufficient would be "constantly". The second answer is one supplied by Jesus in response to Peter - if you're keeping track, every single offence / need for prayer corresponds to 490 times you are to forgive/pray for such things.  Thus, isn't about accurate prayer accounting (in spite of how interesting a prayer accountant would be). It is about prayer density.

Which leads me to the initial heart of the post - prayer is a facilitation mechanism.  Through prayer we can see God's promises fulfilled, we have access to miracles, and we can have our heart transforms to be more Christ-like.  I find this last profound. In one fell swoop, sufficient, earnest prayer provides the ability to have a changed heart AND the confidence to understand we can be of use to God.

How do you renew your mind, be actually transformed, draw close to Christ, know His will, directly and indirectly impact loved ones and complete strangers, and acquire tools which will help you personally resolve conflict, acquire guidance and sufficiency on how to seek God?

Pray

Prayless

Link: Core Values
Focus: Prayer (5/7)
Day: 13/95
Pathway summary: Being faith-filled, fervent, continual, and heartfelt in my expressions, petitions, and supplications to God.
Justification: (2 Timothy 1:3; 1 Thessalonians 5:17; Matthew 6:5-13; Mark 9:23)
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Setup:

What would it look like to NEVER pray? 

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Prep:

I cogitated over all the areas in my life where it feels either in auto-pilot or which I find strife or awkwardness. I also considered areas that appear to be challenging for the lives of others as well.

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Execution:

I prayed and asked for guidance regarding the impact on a life without prayer.
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Day 13 Conclusions / Thoughts

God pointed out something to me about holidays - in particular regarding the fact that bringing families together for gatherings is a trying time for everyone involved. I believe He quickened to me that the problems evidenced in that context are tied to a lack of prayer. There is a connectedness and intimacy that happens when you have daily, earnest prayer for someone - and a loss of that same intimacy when you do not pray for someone daily.

I propose that family gatherings between family members who actively pray for one another, are earnestly invested in one-another's lives (but do not talk on a daily basis), and actually give thought to one another daily, have a much better time together than the standard family (at least in America).  Instead of there being implicit discomfort and discomfit, you have occasion for bonding, joy, and increased intimacy.

So - if not praying causes strife amongst family members (wherein there exists at least a cultural bond), how much more in areas where there is not autonomous connection and no implicit value in a relationship?

Our neighborhoods used to be places where people could feel safe, where you could ask after your neighbor's well-being and thought to be considerate, where taking time out of your day to physically visit someone's (perhaps even with your family) was considered appropriate and expected - and your own family would have the center room (and perhaps the kitchen) set up with the expectation that a visitor might drop by unannounced.

Our schools did not use to have metal-detectors, need bars on the windows, or have an expectation that our kids would be effectually baby-sat by the teachers; instead it was common for parents to be involved at every level. Perhaps it is a fundamental breakdown in the definition of family, or a gross increase in the price of things appearing to necessitate more income, or the diminishment of the value of currency - warranting either better or more jobs.

I claim, instead, it is the lack of prayer that has caused much of the things we attribute to the degradation of our society, our culture, our families, and ourselves.  Without continual prayer, without responding to things with prayer, each of us chooses to rely on self or family; and it is a compounding problem - because, in the short term (and apparently medium term) it appears to work. The consequences of not praying never appear to land - because we do not associate the lack of prayer with any negative impact.

We are a people who have sacrificed intimacy for convenience, autonomy, and independence. And the cost may be our souls.

I challenge you to develop intimacy with your family. Share your deep, inner life with your spouse, with your children (wrapped properly for loving consumption), and grow closer in Christ as you walk out life.

Excuses

Link: Core Values
Focus: Prayer (4/7)
Day: 12/95
Pathway summary: Being faith-filled, fervent, continual, and heartfelt in my expressions, petitions, and supplications to God.
Justification: (2 Timothy 1:3; 1 Thessalonians 5:17; Matthew 6:5-13; Mark 9:23)
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Setup:

Why do I stop praying? Why don't I start praying? What am I doing instead of praying?

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Prep:

I wanted to blog today - it seems exceptionally easy to talk about prayer. Then I realized that I had chosen to blog instead of being sweet to my spouse - which led me to reviewing prayers about frustration and praying against anger and getting delivered - which led to a list of reasons not to pray.

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Execution:

I recognized the lack of peace today and started with prayer "yay, minor win". And ... I am thrust back into the mix. Again, I am reminded that without the correct orientation, the right attitude, the enlightened perspective, the natural tendency is to either quit or do the wrong thing.
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Day 12 Conclusions / Thoughts

I suspect a part of the reason I am capturing my current state of these various topics is to ensure I document the problems I am having - so ... hopefully I can learn from them.  And so, today's topic focus is on the excuses I make to not just not pray (cause that's too easy). No, today's topic is on the excuses I make to not have a Godly perspective.

Perhaps I am different than everyone I know or have ever met - but when I'm on a roll of any kind, the inertia of remaining in that direction and maintaining that vector is ... addictive. Or at least desirous at the time. I would join the bandwagon during, before, and after on why the vector was bad at the time ... but while I'm in it ... it's like I want to feel all the hurt, frustration, anger, or whatever.

Much wrong here. Maybe it's the whole ... I wonder what the dialog would look like if I were to talk to Jesus about this ....

Is this how I act?

No, I am an imperfect copy.

Ah - yes, this is the post about excuses.  No two objects are identical.

Right!

That doesn't justify failing. You weren't trying. Seek me first and the rest follows.

But - I'm so tired and I don't remember in the moment.

Yes - you're tired for several reasons; but, do you remember your last post?

Um, I think so.

Right - you're not praying without ceasing - you haven't master the auto-response yet.

Huh?

The part where you practice praying in response to everything?

Oh, yeah ....

Yup - I put those words in your mouth. They are a goodness.

So ... I need to pray in response to everything?

Jason, the whole point is to train yourself to make this part your default response.

But ... I get tired and then the bad habit responses start.

We're not getting into sleep now. Be faithful in the small. The rest will follow.

I'm sorry for failing this so many times, God.

Don't be David Tennant.

What?!

Seriously - just be yourself but focus responding rightly in small steps.

Okay. Thank you for speaking English to me.

Sure - I love you :)

I love you, too.

Ceaseless

Link: Core Values
Focus: Prayer (3/7)
Day: 11/95
Pathway summary: Being faith-filled, fervent, continual, and heartfelt in my expressions, petitions, and supplications to God.
Justification: (2 Timothy 1:3; 1 Thessalonians 5:17; Matthew 6:5-13; Mark 9:23)
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Setup:

What does "praying without ceasing look like"?

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Prep:

Towards the end of really drawing out what Christ might have for me here, I looked up 1 Thessalonians 5:17 (Pray without ceasing) and checked the Concordance regarding its components.

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Execution:

I started off digging into the scripture - and was halfway through looking at the Concordance when I realized I hadn't prayed .... I wanted to really dig in so quickly that I forgot to use the very tool I was researching.  So I prayed (and apologized) and this post is the result.
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Day 11 Conclusions / Thoughts

The first pass of the verse suggests either clarity or the near absence of details.  "Pray without ceasing". Taking the liberty of looking at the original scripture is nearly absent of supplemental details.  Prayer is defined in a standard manner; "without ceasing" too has a very clear characterization.  Thus, this is either a colloquialism or there is something implicit to one of the three words that actual hearers of the original language would have known - and that was so obvious that they didn't bother to include it.

Scripture doesn't provide for any examples of non-verbal prayers ... but if we loosen up the word "prayer" to actually reflect a few other details, I think it clears things up.  First, the act of prayer is an artifact of having the correct motive, attitude, and focus - a properly aligned walk will result in prayer being the correct response to every situation. Thus, this is akin to rewriting this as "pray in response to all circumstances without ceasing". This is similar to the guidance to "in everything give thanks." The execution of this observations is that we're almost perpetually on the look-out for reasons to give glory to God - otherwise you'd miss the small, subtle opportunities to be thankful. And missing those opportunities would necessarily result in missing some of the less obvious (but much more devastating or horrific) events for which most of us respond with fear, surprise, anger, or whatever - instead we ought to be responding with prayer ... which we'd do if we were habitually responding to EVERYTHING with prayer.

Another aspect of praying without ceasing must take into consideration that we are not individual nodes intended to work as mindless cogs within an orderly machine. We are beautiful butterflies in the sensitive-dependent-upon-initial-conditions chaos theory machine that provides for the ordered macro universe while simultaneously providing for what appears to be directly-contradicted rule-sets for the micro/quantum universe.  And we are beautiful butterflies who are designed to work with other beautiful butterflies - which creates beautiful dependencies, and requires an intimate relationship between two or more butterflies to effectually function.

All of this to draw attention to our need for relationships - and the implicit idea that "praying without ceasing" can partly be expressed through sharing our prayer needs with others so we can ensure our needs are being prayed for while we spiritually recharge.  It is easy to use these sorts of verses as an argument to never feel adequate to our role as Christ-like; however, if you simply remember that God intended you to help others, to act in love and be support for your spiritual peers, you'd recall that each of us ought to trust there are others who can pray with you - and who need us to pray with them.

May you pray without ceasing - and remember it is a deeply beautiful thing to be a part of.