As we learn how to dive more into worship though prayer, acts of service, and spending time with our God, it would be good of us to talk about why we need to worship. God created us for a purpose, and this week Philip Roland, one of our staff members, was gracious enough to write out some thoughts and ideas on this subject.

You came and bled and died
Gave all you had in life
All for love, all for love
Your life destroyed the grave
Brought grace to those in need
All for love, all for love

Christ died for love. All that Jesus did, he did for love, because everything he did was done according to the will of God (”For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me” -John 6:38). God is love personified–-the very definition of love (“God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him” -1 John 4:16). Everything he does is loving and everything about him is loving, from his grace to his mercy to, yes, even his anger (for his anger at us when we sin is derived from his desire for holiness and the knowledge that we suffer when we separate ourselves from him with our sin), and this is because it is his nature to love. As a result, when we say that Jesus died for love, it is not simply a statement of Christ’s love for us, but an affirmation of God’s character and his status as the source of all true love.

Because of this, the fact that Christ died for us while also dying to serve the Father’s will is not contradictory as some people believe (and my affinity for John Piper is about to be made pretty evident here with what I’m about to say). He died first and foremost for the glory of God, and we do benefit from this–obviously we are to gain directly from Christ’s death and resurrection giving us the opportunity to have our sins forgiven and our lives begin anew. In addition to this, however, at a deeper level we are also fulfilled because the Father was glorified through Christ’s sacrifice, and when God is glorified, our ultimate purpose (to glorify God) is fulfilled–-our lives are enriched as a result. The world is only at the right place when God is in his correct position as supreme over all creation. We ourselves are only truly fulfilled when God is glorified, for we were created for God’s glory. When we use our lives to bring glory to God, it naturally draws us closer to him and further fills our lives with his presence, and certainly, what does having an abundant life (John 10:10b) mean if not to have a life filled with God’s presence and Spirit?

We were made for his glory and we find ourselves empty and hollowed out within when we use our lives to pursue other things. This is why when you go into a time of worship with the right motivations–-to lift up and glorify God above all else–-that you often come out of that time with a sense of fulfillment. Your soul knows that you are living out your purpose, and you are made complete because of it. It is for this same reason that if you enter a time of worship seeking this feeling rather than looking to put God first that you will leave dissatisfied. As soon as you begin to pursue this fulfillment as your main concern it becomes unavailable. It only exists as a by-product of placing God at the center of everything. To chase after an emotional high in a time of worship puts the focus on something other than God and renders that sense of wholeness unobtainable.

We must realize that even though God has given us all specific gifts and abilities that we are to use to pursue the specific purpose he has for our lives, that above all else we were made for his glory! Christ died for love and we are to live for love. It is by doing so–-by living our lives in such a way that we die to ourselves and raise God high–-that we will change our world for the better! By chasing the light of God’s glory in all that we do, we will spread the love of God throughout the world. Where we go he will go, and as he is glorified we will be made fully alive.

“Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” Ephesians 3:20-21

Dive Deep,

Philip

In the beginning of the world, God would walk through the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve. How cool could that be to walk along side of your Creator in a peaceful setting? But we might think that now it’s not possible to get that connection with God. We sometimes get too wrapped up and forget that we have the ability to “walk” and spend quality time with God. We do this through intentionally praying to God about what is going on with us. Our God is a god that longs for us to talk with him because He wants to be engaged. He is always waiting for us to come and spend some time just soaking in His presence so that He can refill our cups.

 This means that we have to be intentional about spending time with Him. Daniel is probably one of the best examples of prayer in the Bible, and he models for us a method that works in Daniel 6:10 that says:

Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house; and his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime.

The writing that this passage talks about had banned prayer to anyone but the King, but Daniel knew that his God was the only King, and that was the only person that he would bow to. Daniel had made a habit of praying three times a day, and just because something was put into effect that would make this illegal, he chose to remain faithful to God and spend time with Him in prayer.

Daniel was intentional about prayer in the easy times, so when the hard times hit he was able to stand in confidence because he honored God, and through this honoring God saved him from the lion’s den. Daniel was privately honoring God in his daily life, and God honored him in his public life. We should strive to be intentional about when we pray to develop a sense of discipline. God also wants us to talk with Him about the things that are going on in our lives because He, like a parent, wants to be involved in our lives.

It is one thing for us to say a few words here and there to God about what is going on with us; it’s another thing to truly connect with Him in prayer. God doesn’t want us to be casual about our relationship with Him, just like we don’t want to be casual with our best friends or significant others. God wants to talk to you, but unless you make an effort to establish that relationship, He can’t move in you. Prayer is not for us, but it’s for God to move in us.

If you find yourself in a place where you are just going though the motions of prayer, now is just as good of a time to make a change to become intentional. God is waiting for us to go to Him and cast our cares at His feet. He is a God of love and mercy. Everything will work to the good of those who know Him if we just allow Him to. This week, we want to encourage you to move from a place where you may not be as intentional about prayer as you should be. We are going on a journey to start pursuing Daniel type prayers and we want you to join us so that you may be able to change and lead others to what we have.

Daniel day prayers require us to show the same type of reverence and obedience that Daniel showed throughout his life. We are asking for the next week for you to intentionally pray three times a day, morning, noon and night. Some of you might be thinking that the noon one will be hard because you work in an open area, or it may seem weird if your co-workers see you praying, but let us remember that our God died for us on the Cross, and we should never be ashamed to live for Him!

So during the next week, begin to become intentional about praying three times a day. If you aren’t sure what to pray about, start by what is on your heart. Pray for the people around you who are unsaved, hurting, in times of trial, in times of triumph, and become intentional about lifting up others. Be prepared to honor what God asks of you in these times, because we believe that there are things He wishes of you. Begin to honor Him privately, and He will honor you publicly. Even though we are only asking you to sign on for a week, we want to encourage you to make this a lifestyle. If you want to sign on to this, we are setting up some tools to encourage you to live in this new lifestyle. Check the Dive Deep Facebook Page for more info. To God be the glory and we pray that He uses us in a mighty way.

 Dive Deep,

 KC

Living a life of prayer is one of the ways that we can begin to actually practice being living sacrifices like Paul talks about in Romans 12. In verse 12:2 it says:

“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

Most of the time we have a hard time figuring out what the pattern of this world is, but it becomes quite easy when we have open communication with our Father in heaven.

Last week we talked about bowing down at the feet of our Father in humility. This week we are studying  exaltation of others though prayer. Some people love to get compliments; it’s just how they are geared. Even though compliments lose their worth as time goes on, lifting someone up in prayer is not something that is easily forgotten.

To lift others up, we should strive to have a better communication with the Father ourselves. He always hears our prayers, but when we earnestly seek Him, our words have more power. Look at this as if you have a good friend who asks you to do something: you wouldn’t hesitate to do what they ask, but if a friend that you talk to once every few months ask for something, you will help them but it will be in time.

As we connect more to our Father in our prayer life, we can really discover what His heart is for us. Paul says in the passage that we should not be conforming to the pattern of this world, and heavenly communication is required to understand what that means. On the surface, it means that we must rebel against our current culture. Our world tells us to worry about things, take everything on ourselves, and that we are in control of our lives. This is not the case! Given we have free will, our God is ultimately in control of what goes on in our world.

When people begin to actually pray for something, the outcome is amazing: people are healed, lives are changed, and the Kingdom advances. During his time on earth, Jesus believed prayer was very important. Before he was taken to be crucified, he prayed his heart out. His prayer was not casual, but was very intentional. We tend to take prayer lightly and think of it as something we do to “bless” our food or end our day.

We don’t understand how to pray because we haven’t tried to pray earnestly to our God, or maybe we have tried and it hasn’t worked out the way we want to. In conjunction with bowing down, we have to humble ourselves so that we can lift up intentional acts of prayer. This doesn’t mean that we can’t pray for things that we want, but it means that we should really think if they are something that God would want for us. The stuff of this world will fade, but our true treasure is in Heaven. God loves it when we ask him for things like wisdom, faith, healing, comfort, and provision. It is through these prayers that He is able to move in our lives.

Prayer is a time that we should spend soaking in the amazing glory of our King. We should make it our intent that during that time we pray to really connect with the Father. Another thing we should strive for is to be in constant communication with Him about everything going on in our lives. Though this, we will begin to have a renewing of our mind.

This week we encourage you to be intentional in selfless acts of raising others up though prayer. There is something moving about really connecting though prayer. We hope that you find that same connection that we all strive for.

Dive Deep,

KC