Do It Then Pray It?

Maybe it is time to rethink the whole 'look for God first' before moving on to loving God and following God.  I have been very much challenged as I look for the presence and leading of God in my daily life.  I keep wondering why I haven't been doing this all along.  I don't think there is a more important expectancy followers of Jesus can fuel than to expect God to be alive and at work in our daily lives.  But I also came across a useful idea from Mark Batterson, the author of the All In book we recently based a sermon series upon.  Batterson suggests that sometimes we have to move beyond asking and looking into doing.  Let me share his thoughts with you:

"In my experience, signs follow decisions. The way you overcome spiritual inertia and produce spiritual momentum is by making tough decisions. And the tougher the decision, the more potential momentum it will produce. The primary reason most of us don't see God moving is simply because we aren't moving. If you want to see God move, you need to make a move!

 "I learned this lesson in dramatic fashion during the first year at National Community Church. We had been praying for a drummer to join our worship team for months, but I felt like I needed to put some feet on my faith, so I went out and bought a four-hundred-dollar drum set. It was a Field of Dreams moment: if you buy it, they will come. I bought the drum set on a Thursday. Our first drummer showed up the next Sunday. And he was good. He was actually part of the United States Marine Drum and Bugle Corps. Rock and roll.

"I cannot promise that signs will follow your faith in three minutes or three hours or three days. But when you take a step of faith, signs will follow. God will sanctify your expectations, and you will begin to live your life with holy anticipation. You won't be able to wait to see what God is going to do next.        
       Mark Batterson, Wild Goose Chase (Multnomah, 2008), pp. 32-33

Batterson's insight makes me wonder if it might not make sense to try and follow God more closely first, and in the process, we might see God's handiwork all the more clearly.  It's worth chewing on at least.

How about you and I try to act in ways that we already know God favors and blesses.  How about we step out in faith, trusting that when we do what God commands, when we are faithful to our calling--AS BEST AS WE KNOW IT--then God will reveal God's self to us in ways God may not have been doing up to that point.  And the more we see God surround and use our actions, the more we will love and glorify him in response.

A new attitude--an expectant mindset--can make a huge difference in any aspect of our lives.  But we don't actually grow and change unless we act on that attitude--unless we put our expectancy to work for us.  I am going to do exactly that for the next two weeks. I invite you to join me.  Let's see how our praying the Chichester Prayer changes when we act on God's behalf, when we step forward in faith, when we take what we already know to be right and true and live by it.  It's a great way to usher in the Lenten season.