LORD, teach us to pray and LORD, increase our faith!

“LORD, teach us to pray!” and “LORD, increase our faith!” (Luke 11:1-13; Luke 17:5-10). 

These two requests the disciples asked of Jesus have always intrigued me. When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray it followed watching Jesus go off and pray and shortly after they were sent out in two to make disciples in search of the people of peace, upon their return Jesus told them the story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10). When the disciples asked for the LORD to increase their faith Jesus had just taught about the importance of guarding themselves against the temptation to sin and not providing forgiveness. Jesus’ answer was found in the model prayer, He provided when the disciples asked Him to teach them how to pray. The prayer is also found in Matthew 6:9-13. It is a bit longer than Luke’s account. I will use both as the model prayer. 

Jesus said when you pray, pray like this…

Our Father… Notice that this is communal. God is the Father of all creation. 

Who are in heaven… He is eternal and so other.

Holy is Your Name… He is holy and His name is Holy. This means that there is no other like Him. He is set apart/sacred. Therefore, treat Him with respect and awe.

Give us this day our daily bread… Focus on today. Seek to take care of today and trust God to provide for what you need today. 

Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us… Today I should make sure that I forgive others as I seek forgiveness. It is important to keep short accounts with others. Do not allow a debt of the mind, heart, soul, or spirit to get in the way of a relationship. I honor His Name as Holy by honoring others as sacred as one of His image bearers. When I keep unforgiveness in my heart I am not honoring on earth as it is in heaven. I must give forgiveness freely because God the Father gave it freely to me through His Son, Jesus. If I should have past debts against others, I should take them to the Father today and deal with it now. Do not let it grow. 

Lead us not into temptation… Dealing with being forgiven and giving forgiveness is one step closer to walking away from one sort of temptation, but there are a whole host of temptations set before us by the evil one. All temptation is common to man. There is none that each one of us put in the right circumstances would not walk into it. This is why we must pray for awareness and willingness to walk away. God promises He will give us the way of escape, but we must ask to be led away from it! 

Deliver us from the evil one… Our world is wrought with evil. The evil one reigns and loves to lead us astray. Our world loves to call darkness light and act like what it is doing is okay. We are reminded in the Bible that when we call darkness light then our darkness is very deep. We must hate evil as God hates evil. This means we must be willing to recognize darkness and walk away from it. It means we must stand up against it. It means that we might have to face it head on so we must beg for deliverance today! Today, LORD, deliver us from evil. Focus on the moment and the now. 

The Bible does not put an indentation for the forgiveness of sins, lead us not into temptation, and deliver us from evil the way I just did. I did this because it is a daily prayer need. We will face these daily. We must not think that we have it all together and are just fine. And we must not think these are things that are too far off so I don’t need to deal with them now. We also must not be so overwhelmed with what tomorrow will look like or the next year. We must focus on these today. Right now, we must pray “LORD, teach us to pray!” and “LORD, increase our faith!” This is how we deal with the world’s crazy! Pray!

What I have done in the last week as I felt overwhelmed by so many overwhelming needs brought before me through prayer requests, I simply started the model prayer and then after each section, I began to say the need or request. I wasn’t doing this as a form of legalism, but out of these thoughts, “I don’t even know how!” “Do I even have the faith?” By simply praying the model prayer and adding in the requests in my own simple way I sought to honor God and keep His name holy today. 

Maybe, you might want to try it. 

Our Father… Praise HIM!

Who are in heaven… Recognize that HE is eternal!

Holy is Your Name… Recognize that HE is sacred/holy! List out other characteristics of God that you know!

Give us this day our daily bread… Ask Him for what you need today. Go ahead and list them and release them to Him.

Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us… List out any sins you should repent of that you have not already released and walked away from. List out what you need to forgive of others that you have not already done so.

Lead us not into temptation… List out any temptations that have come before you that you need to walk away from and ask Him to help you walk away through the way of escape that He has provided.

Deliver us from the evil one… Ask Him to deliver you from whatever evil you are confronted with that you need help. The Holy Spirit will come alongside and assist you. Remember, He promises that He will not leave you or forsake you.

Shalom y’all!

LORD, increase our faith!

The disciples asked for Jesus to increase their faith after hearing they must forgive 70 times a day if someone repented. 

They didn't ask Jesus to increase their faith to follow Him. 

They didn't ask Jesus to increase their faith when asked to leave everything behind. 

They didn't ask Jesus to increase their faith as they dealt with persecution.

The disciples asked Jesus to increase their faith when He told them they had to forgive 70 times a day if someone repented of sinning against them. This is the one stumbling block that they knew they really needed help. 

Why? It is found in the daily routine of life. You know those moments of thoughtless spoken words as you go about your day that can build up and grow barriers that will hinder our ability to serve one another. 

Are you willing to say, "Hey, that hurt." in such a way that it causes a heart to recognize their words were off or unkind? So they repent and apologize. 

Are we willing to receive rebukes and apologize without fighting back and throwing lashes? 

Sometimes, I get this. Other times not so much. I like it better when my heart rests in forgiveness. Don't you? 

Crying out today, "LORD, increase my faith!" I am longing for that mustard seed that can uproot a messy mulberry tree.

"Here I am" Faith

Do you have a "Here I am faith?" As I examined Abraham's most trying moment in Genesis 22, I am humbled by the "Here I am faith!" 

Abraham took small daily steps of faith that caused him to leave family, land, and culture to walk in obedience to God. God had already given Abraham three promises that He would make His descendants like the stars in the sky and like the sand on the seashore (Genesis 12, 15, & 17).

The voice of God automatically invoked a "Here I am" attitude in Abraham.  All of those small steps of faith had already revealed that God is I AM. He is present. He is at work. Maybe Abraham thought, "My thoughts do not make sense when it comes to God's plan, but I am going to move forward in obedience knowing God will provide. He did with the birth of Isaac. He can do it in his death."

Abraham's obedience brought about the fourth reminder of the promised blessing! And a provision of a ram! God obviously wanted Abraham to keep moving forward by faith. 

But what really struck me about the story is that Abraham then went back into his simple routine. He gathered his servants and went back to moving forward in faith steps that are not even recorded.  Except that so and so had a baby and that his beloved Sarah, the one the promised child would come through, passed away. "Here I am" faith steps go unnoticed in the daily. Yes, they will show up at some point and surprise us that we have a faith stronger than we thought, but in the daily it seems more like normal living.

What we view as huge God moment leads us into living out simple faith steps in our daily routine. Great faith like Abraham's did not come in this moment. It came over time as he kept moving forward by faith. He kept listening for the voice of God and when he heard it, he took a step of faith that revealed a "Here I am" LORD attitude. 

What about you? Can you say that you are living in a "Here I am" attitude? Do you trust the LORD will provide? 

I think I have a new prayer to pray today!

Father, please give me an attitude of "Hear I am" LORD. I pray I am willing to do it in my daily routine through small faith steps trusting that You will provide and bring forth Your promised blessings.

Do you ever wonder if what you do matters?

Do you ever feel like what you do does not matter? And maybe you tell yourself, "I am not the ___. So what does it matter?" You fill in the blank. As I read about the choosing of seven leaders full of faith and the spirit to become table servers in Acts 6 so the disciples could devote themselves to prayer and the Word, I noticed that after praying over the seven table servers we are told, "So the Word of God spread. The number of disciples increased..." 

Do you see how each person's part is so important? Seven full of faith and spirit led people can make a huge difference as a table server. We might wonder, Is this because it gave the disciples more time to pray, study, and share?  Or is it because the seven are so full of faith and spirit led that they are doing the ministry where they are as they serve? 

I would like to say, "Yes!" to both! 

The first table server mentioned was Stephen. Stephen was so full of God's grace and power that great wonders and signs came from him and people noticed.  Opposition arose against him. Yet, the opposition could not stand up against Stephen's wisdom so they plotted against him and stoned him to death. 

Stephen was a table serving Saint! And the first Christian martyr written about in Acts.

Do you get it? Whereever you go there you are! Whatever you do you are supposed to be! Give what you have as you go. It is never about the position. It is about who you are as you do! 

If we humble ourselves and ask by faith for the Holy Spirit to fill us with His presence, power, and grace. He will answer, "Yes!" That is a prayer God will not say, "No!" to if we seek to do it for His glory. 

Beloved, you matter right where you are, right where you are at! God will use you if you ask. 

Do you live your life right where you are so full of faith and the Spirit of God so that the Word of God spreads because of you?

Why not? 

And if yes! I imagine there is a bit of shine on your countenance!

Do you have Resilient Intelligence (RI)?

I was recently asked to speak on resilience. I wondered how the person who asked me to speak had come to the conclusion that I was a resilient person. I found myself asking myself, “Do I have resilience?” By definition, a person with resilience has the ability to bounce back in difficult circumstances. As I reflected on various life circumstances, it occurred to me that God has allowed me to face some very unique circumstances that reveal that I have the ability to bounce back. I realized I am a resilient person. One moment that wrought great havoc in our lives occurred when Tropical Storm Francis dumped 25 inches of water on Houston in less than an hour. Greg and I were sound asleep when the phone rang. When I picked it up my sister-in-law was frantic, “Get up and prepare! A tornado is coming toward our neighborhood!” We lived in the same subdivision, but in different city grids. It was 5:30 am in the morning and I was almost six months pregnant with Grant. Fast movement was not on my list of things to do at 5:30 am. Greg jumped up to go see what he could see, and he came back running into the room before I had fully stood up and said, “Forget the tornado! We are flooding! We need to get out of here!” Greg immediately started telling me what to gather. It was all very fast. I packed up a bag for Mikayla, who was two at the time, while Greg packed up important documents we would need. He had the forethought to place some files in the attic. 

We had just bought and had delivered a few days before our first pieces of real wood furniture. They were in the garage because Greg was in the process of staining them. I do not know how, but the two of us lifted them onto sawhorses so they would not be standing in the water. One hour later when Greg went to open the door, it was already two feet high outside. We realized that we couldn’t open our door without flooding our home. He ran and flipped off the circuit breaker so that we wouldn’t risk getting electrocuted and we called our neighbors to get them up. We had two dogs and a cat. There was no way we could manage all of them, but we had two floaties and a little life preserver my mom had just bought for Mikayla that summer. So, Greg climbed through the window and held the floaties as I passed the dogs and Mikayla through. Somehow, I hefted myself up over the ledge and out the window. 

At this point, the water was now waste deep. Greg carried all of the bags while I carried Mikayla. We had the two dogs laying perfectly still on the floaties between us as we began our journey of wading out to safe ground. We had no idea how far we would have to go, but we hoped to make it to our family that lived in different sections of the subdivision. It was so surreal. Mikayla kept crying, “Swim! Mommy, swim!” We passed by neighbors that refused to leave. I started to cry when I saw Samantha in her diaper looking out the window at us crying. I wondered, “Will I ever see her again?” We kept walking. We discovered that fire ant mounds were floating toward us and we had to dodge them. It was the craziest thing. They were fully intact and flowing rapidly with the water. We were very alert to the debris, tree branches, and the possibility of snakes because we lived right off the bayou. Fortunately, for us as we approached my parents house about eight city blocks away the water was only up to their front porch. It had not reached the inside of the house. When it was all said and done our house filled up on the inside about two feet deep with sewer and mud. And yes, we had a few surprise moments with snakes. Anything the water touched was destroyed. Our cat was rescued by a speed boat and we found ourselves to be homeless and very uncertain about what tomorrow would entail. 

What held me together? What held us together? How were we able to bounce back? It was a devasting time. Our neighborhood looked like a war zone. All but three families on our street ended up divorced because the journey of returning to normal was more than they could push through. The ability to push through starts in our thoughts. It was our faith in God and the truth that God uses all things for our good when we are in Christ Jesus that gave me hope when it seemed so bleak. I immediately started praying and asking God what He wanted from us in this moment. I remembered the that the God of all comfort and compassion will pour into you so that you can pour that same comfort and compassion into others (2 Corinthians 1:3-11). So, I asked God to show us how to pour out His comfort and compassion to others. I also started praying and asking God to show me how to give Him glory through this and how to give Greg glory. These were the core spiritual truths that made me strong inside when I felt very weak. I held onto them and believed them to be true. Some might call this positivity, but I call it faith walking. I believe that my faith walking made me resilient. 

The other thing that made us resilient was our family. When we were wading out, we knew that if we could get to our family, we would be safe. We knew our family would take care of us and help us through this even if they were going through it too! Fortunately, we were the only ones in our family of four families that lived in that subdivision that flooded. Our family carried us. We knew if we could get to them, we would not sink. It was our family community that made us strong when we were weak. Our lives were filled with hard labor for many weeks and lots of rebuilding for nearly seven months. In that time our family housed us, fed us, helped us, did laundry, hauled garbage, packed up items that were salvageable and comforted us. And when little Grant was born everyone took turns caring for the baby. 

That first night as Greg and I lay in bed with our two-year-old snuggled up sleeping and our baby nestled deeply in my womb, I whispered to Greg, “Babe, we have all we need. I could not be more content than I am right now. We are together and we are safe. We are going to be okay.” I believe without a doubt that another reason I stayed resilient was because I made a conscious choice to think from Greg’s perspective and other peoples perspectives of what they must be going through and this caused me to want to serve others. I made a choice to find ways to help others. Greg found ways to help others, too. So, when our church started showing up to help us, we started sharing people to our neighbor’s homes so that they had help, too. This gave us a sense of purpose and healing. It helped build our hope because we were able to get outside of our own pain and consider another’s pain. This grew a spirit of thankfulness and gratitude in us for others and each other. We discovered the gift of gratitude. 

Resilience is something that we all want, but the reality is that resilience is not something you even know you have until you are pushed beyond your limits and discover you must find a way to bounce back and push through. I remember walking into church two days later to give a testimony for an event coming up called, Friend Day and thinking, “No one in the church knows that my life had changed. I am not who I was when I was asked to share this story, but I will not disappoint them. It doesn’t matter what I have just been through, I have a chance to encourage my church to become a people that seeks to build friendships with someone different than them.” I wanted my church body to see that I was still able to see the value in being a good friend to those around me even when I was hurting. I look back now and realize that if I could have put a word to it that day, resilience would have been a good word to describe what I hoped to model. 

Resilience is born in adversity. It receives its ability to bounce back through faith. It is empowered by community to push through and emboldened by serving others to keep moving forward. Resilience is forged in the battlefield of the mind. It does not allow itself to settle for being a victim or a whiner. It makes the choice to seek God, live in community, and serve others even when it hurts. Resilience when practiced births the gift of gratitude and thanksgiving. Resilience finds hope and pursues hope at all costs, and this is why it has bounce back strength. Adversity grows our resilient intelligence. Do you have RI? Are you willing to pray for it and ask God to grow you?