Pacesetters....it has been a very challenging pivot point. Being faced with such a task, on top of my everyday work, family, friends, church, routine, you either choose to carve out time, or you don't. That has been my challenge. I don't consider myself to be someone who has a lot of "free time", so carving out time, has had to be very intentional!!
The previous post had a list of books that we were given to read. At the time, we had just been given "the Circle Maker" by Mark Batterson. A summary never does a book justice, but here is a "quick" summary.
The Circle Maker.
Another great book, one that really challenges you in your mindset regarding prayer. The imagery is that of "circling" God's promises in prayer. Praying for God given dreams and vision. Dreaming Big, Praying Hard, and Thinking long term. Making a list of things you are praying over, short term, long term, personal, spiritual, to - do's, covering all aspects of life.
Too often we don't get what we want, because we don't even know what it is we want. To be clear, this is not a book about what "we want", it is about what dreams God has given us, the focus is about God getting glory, not us getting what "we want" from a non biblical "Genie" God.
Too often we "give up" on God, we stop praying, we stop working towards his will and vision. One of my favorite quotes from the book is "work like it depends on us, pray like it depends on God". Miracles happen when God intervenes, and He does so, so He get's the glory!!
Dreaming Big, it is about having the faith to look foolish, like....I have no idea how this dream is going to become a reality, but if God truly gives me the vision for it, He will deliver. God is not offended by big dreams that are rooted in Him, He is offended by anything less!
The book gives the reader a challenge, a pivot point, with which our prayer life, and life in general will hinge on. It is based on a quote by AW Tozer (one of my wife's favorites!), Tozer believed that a low view of God is the cause of a hundred lesser evils, but a high view of God is the solution to ten thousand temporal problems. So,.......the question is, Are your problems bigger than God, or is God bigger than your problems? Good grief!!!, talk about a pivot point!! Answer that question honestly!
The more God given dreams we have, the more complicated, and honestly, the harder life will get. But a very common misunderstanding of the Christian life is that it will be and should be easy. The Goal of our spiritual maturity is not self-sufficiency or independence, the goal is co dependence on God. The more mature we are spiritually, the more we know we need to depend on God!! The goals of a Christian life are not our happiness or our personal comfort, if we believe that and act like that, we are not in line with God's objective, which is His will be done, and Him being glorified!!
In our last Pacesetters meeting, I told Pastor Rob that when we first met, I sat in Rob's office and asked him what his vision was for Bethany Christian Assembly. On my part, I asked the question as a sort of test, wanting to know where the leadership was focusing. I was literally blown away by the Big Dreams that he shared, and not for anything other than making the name of Christ known, wanting to serve the people of Everett in any way that God called them to. ( I had asked this same question to Pastor's at previous churches, and can now see the correlation between their answers and where their respective churches were growing, or lack thereof.) Pastor Rob then shared what he was "circling" in prayer. And he asked us to pray alongside him in the same things. I love seeing the vision of church leadership. It is really easy to jump on board when you know what the vision is!
Next time. Pivot Point......First Impressions at BCA
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