Announcing the HOSANNA! Prayer Project

One of the things that is most striking to people when I share my story of leaving the LDS church is that nobody was witnessing to me at all at the time.  It was kind of like God just reached in and plucked us out.  What was really cool, though, were the Christians who told me after that fact that they had been praying for me and my family for years!  The power of prayer at work!

Another experience I had with prayer came at a prayer seminar I attended a while back.  The presenter asked those of us in attendance if we felt it was easier to pray for people or to evangelize them.  The unanimous answer of the group was that it was easier to pray.  He then asked if we thought it would be more effective to evangelize a people before or after they had been prayed for.  Again, the obvious and unanimous answer was that it was far more effective to evangelize a prayed-for people.  With that thought in mind, I immediately thought about the many outreach ministries that Christians have for Mormons, but how few of these are really dedicated to consistent and focused intercessory prayer on their behalf.

After spending some time in prayer myself to see if this was where God was leading me, we are now launching “The HOSANNA! Prayer Project: A Community of Christians United in Intercessory Prayer for Mormons.”  You can check it out at http://www.HosannaPrayerProject.org.  I hope you’ll consider getting involved in one of a few ways.  If you feel like praying along with us, join our email prayer team or find one of our local prayer groups to pray with.  If you are needing prayer, please let us pray for you, for your family, for your challenges.  We know how terrible the process of coming out of Mormonism can be, and we would love to be lifting you up in prayer.

http://www.HosannaPrayerProject.org

Our own miracle…

I HAD to share some incredible news.  I’ve mentioned in previous posts that my oldest daughter was diagnosed with a learning disability early in her life, and how I had been struggling with praying in faith for her healing.  It’s something I’ve been praying for for a long time, but was never sure that I had enough faith for my prayers to really be effective.  I actually beat myself up about it quite a bit.  I always kind of felt that I was letting her down by not having enough faith.

Another day of prayer and a tree

Okay, today’s post will be a little abstract. We had our day of prayer in Garden Valley today. It was beautiful up there. About a foot of snow, sunlight streaming through the clouds, and lots of wildlife running about. I spent part of my time after prayer just taking a walk, taking in all in, and listening for the Lord to speak to me about some of the things I am praying about in my life right now.

How George Muller Changed My Life

Okay, I should clarify that title. The way God worked through George Muller changed my life.

We’ve been talking about this man a little bit in some of our School of Ministry classes, kind of foreshadowing a book we’ll be reading next term. The story sounded so interesting, though, that I couldn’t wait to read it. I don’t think I actually even found the exact book we’ll be reading later in class, but I found a biography at our local library. It was one of those books I just devoured… couldn’t put it down. And I hesitated to post about it for a while because, when I totally get into books like that, I can lose my perspective and make them out to be something they are not. But not in this case.

Prayer Journaling

This is a new concept for me. As part of the School of Ministry, we are expected to dedicate a half an hour a day to prayer, and then to keep a prayer journal. Having never really done this before, I wasn’t sure how to really do it.

The Melding of Two Ideas…

I used to give this speaking presentation to local business and community service groups that went something like this…

"Small things done consistently over time result in the profound"

If I look at most of the skills and accomplishments in my life, either personal or professional, they’ve come about because of very small things done consistently. You don’t just learn a language, a musical instrument, or build a relationship all in one big effort. These things come about from tiny little miniscule investments of time on a consistent basis. The change is imperceptible from one day to the next, but become very noticeable over months or years. One of the most obvious ways this idea is expressed is in physical weight. A few hundred extra calories per day will leave a person extremely overweight over a matter of years. While a few hundred less will allow a person to drop large amounts of weight over time. Unfortunately, I’m a better example of the former process rather than the latter. Anyway, that’s the basic idea of the presentation… and something I truly believe in. Anything you want to become or accomplish can be broken down into these tiny little pieces and, if you do them consistently, will add up to a profound change.

I was asked to give this business presentation again last week to a small real estate office, and I found myself really struggling with it. This whole change of religion has really made me re-evaluate things like that. My new belief is that all good comes from God. How can I be claiming to teach people how to better themselves or their businesses when I now understand that all of that really comes from God? It seemed very hypocritical to me, and the message I really wanted to bring to them was Jesus. Not quite what they would have been expecting, though.

I’ve also been praying a lot lately that my Father would change my nature to become a more prayerful person. I don’t really know what keeps me from praying more often, and I’ve been asking Him to just keep it more at the forefront of my mind and to help me find opportunities and places to do it. It occured to me that this idea of needing to pray more often and my presentation material had some common ground… and not just the idea that I should pray more consistently. It actually struck me that I am probably praying for the wrong things.

Let’s take my physical condition for example. A typical prayer for me would be asking my Father to change my nature… take away my desire for bad foods and give me a desire to exercise… to change who I am as a person to become a more naturally active and healthy person. I think of it now as a "fell swoop" prayer. In other words, I was asking God to change who I am in one fell swoop. I wanted to wake up the next morning as a brand new person with different likes, dislikes, and lifestyle and have the thing beat.

God can absolutely work miracles and could change me like that if He wanted to… if it was best for me. But it’s probably not best for me. But He could also change me in little tiny ways each and every day until the change becomes profound over time.

What I’ve been expecting to accomplish in one "fell swoop" prayer could no doubt be accomplished over time through many, many small and specific prayers.

"Lord, help me to eat wisely at lunch today and stop when I’m full."

"Lord, help me to have the desire and energy to get on the treadmill right now."

"Lord, help me to limit the amount of Christmas candy I eat this evening."

"Lord, help me to not buy the Snickers bar I’ve been thinking about today when I gas up my car."

If He is powerful enough to perform miracles, I have no doubt that He is powerful enough to assist me with the little tiny things that come up as I need help with them. Sure, it would be easier to be changed by a single "fell swoop" prayer, but is it any less a miracle to be changed over time through a thousand smaller prayers? The end result is the same. The only difference is I’ll learn a lot more and become more of who He wants me to be if I do it His way.

I may have to change my saying from

"Small things done consistently over time result in the profound"

to

"Small prayers prayed consistently over time result in the profound."

Hard to pray?

Why is it so hard to pray? Physically, it’s a very easy thing to do. Sitting here at my desk, all I’d have to do is bow my head and close my eyes and I’m there. Actually, I wouldn’t even have to do that much. I could literally just start talking, either in my mind or out loud, to God. Now that I think about it, there’s absolutely no physical effort involved in praying. And yet it’s something that I don’t do near enough of. Am I really so busy that I don’t have time to even think a prayer? It’s as if God is sitting next to me all day long, waiting eagerly for me to talk to Him, and I simply ignore Him… all day. He follows me out to the car in the morning, sits across from me at my desk, pulls up a chair at the dinner table, and plops down on the couch next to me at home. And I say nothing to Him? He must be a loving and patient God to be treated that way and still stick around.

I think I try to make prayer too formal, too… ummm… important isn’t the word, because it’s obviously important. But I think I try to make prayer too profound. It should be a more natural part of my day and my life rather than attempt to make it this life-changing and deeply emotional occurence every time.

But I don’t mean to minimize it, either. I just think I need to work on making prayer something more normal, more natural, and more common.

The plan for me?

The prayer of my heart lately has been for direction from Him. My real estate business just stopped almost on the very day we left the Mormon church. It’s been weird. I know it’s all part of His plan for me… to teach me to rely on Him.

I received an answer to a prayer the other day in a very different way than I had before. No burning in the bosom… no profound experience… no whispering voices. It was just a thought that came to my mind, clear and powerful. I was in the middle of a fervent prayer about my future. His answer to me was, "You’re not meant to be doing what you’re doing."

I wish it had been a conversation, because I had some follow-up questions for Him. Like…

"What am I meant to do, then?"
"Should I quit cold-turkey and do something else?"
"Should I be looking for a new job?"
"Should I be starting a new business?"
"Am I meant to transition out of this business?"
"Will you still support me if I stay in it a little longer til I figure things out?"

But His first answer was all I got. Which is profound and important in and of itself. It’s more than a lot of people get, I think.

I’ve been working towards launching a new business for some time now. I’ve always been gifted as a public speaker (Thank you, Lord) and wanted to use that skill much more in my career. I’ve been working towards becoming a seminar presenter and author for the real estate industry. Is that the direction I’m meant to pursue?

And then again, I’ve felt strongly compelled lately to share my story of coming out of the Mormon church. Anytime I pray and ask the Father how I am supposed to help build His kingdom, that thought comes to mind. Does that mean I should be writing a book about that experience rather than how to get started in Real Estate? Does that mean somehow if I pursue sharing that story as much as possible, to all who are willing to hear, that he’ll support my family financially somehow through it? I have no idea.

The longer I sit in my real estate office with nothing happening, the more I feel I should be throwing myself entirely into something else. I just don’t know what that something else is.

I heard once that we talk to God through prayer and He talks back to us through the scriptures… and I believe that to be true most of the time. I guess I need to spend even more time praying and reading. That’s hard to do when I feel like I should be using as much time and effort as possible in supporting my family right now.

Riches and food…

Okay, follow me here. I had this thought the other day after church, and it came to me again this evening after men’s discipleship. I hope I can put it into words that make sense. I tried to explain it to my wife and I think she thought I was off my nut.

God created this world. He created everything that is in it, including us. He could have fashioned us any way that He wanted to. He could have made our bodies function in a myriad of ways. Why did He make them function as He did?

I was contemplating the expression of "feasting on the word of God" the other night. I was thinking how God took this thing we all naturally did, and made it a symbol for His word. He used this normal, everyday function of our bodies and related it to Him. Or did He? Here’s the thought…

What if He created the concept of food primarily AS a literal symbol of His Word. What if food exists only to remind us of how often we should be feasting on His Word? What if food only exists to remind us that we should be constantly reading, studying, and filling ourselves with Him. That COULD be the real purpose of food… not to nourish us and keep us alive… he could have created bodies that would never need it… but so we would always, even many times a day, be reminded to feast on His Word.

The same thing struck me tonight with "richness". The Bible talks of Christ being rich before He came to the Earth to become poor. I know that speaks of spiritual things, and not temporal things… but what if the only reason temporal riches exist is to teach us about Christ’s sacrifice? Haven’t we all had money at one time… whether a lot or a little? We’ve all been at that place where we had enough money we could think, "Wow… I could almost do whatever I want!" Okay, maybe not THAT much money, but enough that we felt some freedom and power? For some that could be hundreds of thousands, for other just hundreds.. but the feeling is similar. And haven’t we all also been at that place in our lives where we are dirt poor and desperate? To me, it’s an example of Christ having all the spiritual riches available to Him, and being willing to give it all up to come to this earth and be poor. Think of all the good that could be done with temporal riches if we were willing to give them up as Christ gave up His riches? Is not the existence of riches on the earth our feeble opportunity to do as Christ did? Is it not our opportunity to sacrifice our own riches for the good of others, and earn the holy status of being poor? What if the idea of money, and our desire for it, is ONLY for the symbolism of Christ being willing to give up His riches? That would sure feel different every time we took a dollar out of our wallets and handed it over for something.

I said in a previous post that I hated money. Maybe what I really hate about it is what it does to people and how it is generally used. Maybe money is our crummy little symbol of true riches. And maybe it only exists to remind us to sacrifice it?

Yeah, I know. Big talk from a guy who’s been complaining about money for weeks.

Worried about worry

I’m a worrier. I get it from my mother who is possibly the best worrier I’ve ever come across. In fact, I often worry about how much I worry. Crazy.

I asked my Pastor last night about it.

"Is worrying a sign of a lack of faith?"

His immediate (and expected) answer was, "Yes." He went on to offer a great explanation of why, but I knew it already in my mind.

I am constantly frustrated by my own lack of faith. I would like nothing more than to be some spiritual giant (although that whole concept sounds like pride to me) who was constantly at rest in the peace that our Savior promises us. The stupid thing is that I know His promises are sure… that He will provide… that He will make a way… that His intentions for my are always Good. And yet I worry.

I did what my Pastor recommended. I prayed to my Father and confessed to Him that I’ve been worrying… that I haven’t had the faith I should have in Him. And asked Him to help me strengthen in faith… and therefore lessen my worrying. Today’s been better, but not without it’s moments.

So there is the Catch 22 of faith. If you lack faith, He will not give. If He does not give, how does one build faith? I know that this is overly simplistic, because the truth is that He gives all the time, every day, in every way. The breath I just took was given from Him. But somehow it’s different.

Every aspect of my life has changed with this new religious direction… not the least of which is my business. Apart from the fact that a lot of my referral base was from my fellow LDS’ers, just the time, emotion, and energy it’s all taken has had an impact, too. I need faith like never before right now. Somewhere inside me is the faith required to rest in the knowledge that He will provide for me. Until I find it, I’ll be talking with Him in prayer to continually ask His forgiveness and help to stay away from worry.