“Prayer is the constant calibration of the soul.”

                                 Bob Sorge in Secrets of the Secret Place

So much about prayer is shrouded in mystery. While God makes it clear that prayer is a backbone of the Christian life,  how He uses our prayers remains a mystery to us. And perhaps He wants it that way. After all, the idea is to pray and let the Holy Spirit worry about the results.

But as soon as I read the above quote, I couldn’t get it out of my head and heart. I had to come back to it and reread it several times, letting it sink in. What was God trying to tell me?

The word calibration intrigued me. I have a vague sense of the meaning, but I looked it up to clarify. Wikipedia shares this definition of calibration:

•          Calibration is a comparison between measurements — one of known magnitude or correctness made or set with one device and another measurement made in as similar a way as possible with a second device. The device with the known or assigned correctness is called the standard. The second device is the unit under test, test instrument, or any of several other names for the device being calibrated.

Wow! When I look at this definition through a spiritual lens as an analogy to prayer, the implications are eye-opening.

1. God is our first “measurement” of correctness, the standard, and people are the second measurement, made in as similar a way as possible to Him. Indeed, Genesis 5:1 tells us that “when God created man, he made him in the likeness of God.”
2. We also see that people are “the unit under test.” Isn’t that interesting? Deuteronomy 8:2 and several other places in the Bible tell us that God does test us: “Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands.”

God tests us to see if we are on the same page as He is, willing to obey Him. Because of sin, we know that often times our rebellious hearts are “doin’ their own thing.” I know that too many times I have made my own plans, and I don’t really want to know if God likes them — or not.

Here is where the calibration part becomes life-changing:

When I take the time each day to come before God and pray, He is able to calibrate my heart so that I start to align my plans with His. Through prayer and the power of the Holy Spirit, He is able to bring me, the unit under test, up to His standard. How amazing is that?

That’s one reason why prayer is so important to a Christ-follower. If we don’t daily sync our souls with Jesus, we run an increasing risk of getting off track and running out of power. We need that daily calibration to protect us.

How about you? Have you ever felt God calibrate your soul to His in an obvious way? I’d love to hear your story. Just share it below in the comment section.

Pray on!

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calibration

“The Lord says, ‘I will guide you along the best pathway for your life, I will advise you and watch over you.’” Psalm 32:8NLT

 Learning that God had a plan for my life was a relief to me.

I hadn’t done such a good job at it myself, making mistakes along the way, living in fear that I’d never get it right. I soon discovered, however, that knowing He had a plan and following it were two different things. I still felt like something was missing. And it was.

~

When I was 18, I had the delight of traveling to Germany after high school graduation to meet my relatives. My German grandparents also happened to be there at the same time, returning for a trip to visit the “old country” and their families they had left many years before. At the end of my visit, I was packing when Grandpa slipped a few pouches in my suitcase.

“I don’t think I’ll have room for these when we leave next week, Janie,” he said as he stuffed them in my suitcase. My cousin Max loaded my suitcase in the car as I searched the house for any forgotten items. At the airport, I waved good-bye to family and grabbed my suitcase to head through the Frankfurt airport. I could barely budge the thing. “What happened to this?!” I thought to myself. I suddenly recalled the bags Grandpa shoved in there, wondering what could possibly be in them.

I dragged that suitcase what seemed like miles to my gate, so encumbered by the weight of it that I wasn’t certain I would make it, arms and back aching. I was never so glad to unload something as I was that suitcase at the baggage check.

Extra Baggage

When I got home, I found the bags Grandpa had glibly tossed in. I peeked inside one of them. BB pellets! Each bag was brimming with BB pellets, weighing about 5 pounds. Ugh. My ultra-frugal grandfather had found a deal on pellets, and I had just lugged them halfway around the world for him.

After spending the previous day dragging around my suitcase, I had learned the lesson of traveling lightly. But it wasn’t until many years later that I realized this truth applies to much more than our physical travels. Thomas A Kempis said, “They travel lightly whom God’s grace carries.” I spent too many years of my young adulthood dragging around 30 pounds of my “BB pellet” past. God was guiding me along the best pathway for my life, but I was so bogged down by my past that I was just inching along.

Finally, the Holy Spirit taught me that I was missing grace — the grace that rids us of what has come before, freeing us for what is now. I already had the grace that forgives all my sins at the cross of Jesus. But I needed to learn how to accept grace for the journey that each day brings, realizing that each day I can choose to walk in that grace and live it. I learned that traveling lightly means I live with open hands that are not full with holding on to the past but are empty, waiting to grasp what God has for me today, now.

And it makes all the difference: Grace means I can dump the baggage of my past, free to run the path God has laid before me. Free to relish His plans. Free to join in His work.

If you’re still towing around your past, it’s time to permanently check it at God’s baggage counter and run with Him down the pathway of grace called Your Life.

Has grace made a difference in your life? Please feel free to share your experience below.

Pray on!

“Image courtesy of iconmac / FreeDigitalPhotos.net”.
“Image courtesy of Keattikorn / FreeDigitalPhotos.net”.

“Jane—is there an app for that?”

I called to my sister from her guest room while was tidying up her office across the hall. We had just returned from the Proverbs 31 She Speaks conference and were brain-storming on how to apply what we had learned to our lives and ministries. During one of my sessions the facilitator encouraged me to use a notebook to organize my writing ideas. I thought a computer would be more efficient than a notebook, so I asked my tech-savvy sister if there was such thing as a writer’s app.

Jane answered, “Yes, there is a writing organizer app for your Mac, but they also have apps for your Kindle.” My Kindle? I purchased a Kindle a few months ago and instantly became a Kindle fan. When I bought my e-reader, however, I thought it was only for reading books. I did not know that I could use my Kindle for other thing such as watching movies, making voice recordings, searching the Internet or editing documents.  I looked with new respect at the intricate little instrument sitting next to me on my bed. I wondered how many others untapped powers and abilities were hidden behind its glossy black screen.  Abruptly I felt my heart quicken as the Holy Spirit nudged my soul. “This is how people often live life … using only one app … John 3:16.”

The wheels began turning in my mind as I thought through what God was revealing to me. We app-ly John 3:16 to our hearts and get saved, but some never move on to live the abundant life. The John 3:16 app is just the beginning. Sadly, many Christians remain unaware of the powerful potential that is hidden within God’s app store, the Bible.

God has countless apps. In fact, God has an app for every need. For instance, if you have blown it big time, download Evergrace at Ephesians 1:7. Perhaps you feel lonely and need a little fellowship—purchase the app Faceinthebook at 1 John 1:3 and start interacting with social media. Maybe you are low on faith–try TheWord 2008, which must be directly downloaded to your heart from Romans 10:17. The best thing about God’s apps is they are free! (Save your coins for your tithe!)

What great need do you have today? Go to God’s app store (the Bible), and download an app (a verse) to your heart. Please remember–God’s apps are meant to be app-lied to your life. The more apps you download, the more you’ll realize there’s no limit to what God can do!

By Mary Kane

All rights reserved. Copyright 2013

Image courtesy of ddpavumba / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Image courtesy of nikorn / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Fish and Loaves Faith

“Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up, “Here is a boy with five small barely loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?” John 6:8

Read John 6:1-15

Miracle Story

Of all the miracle stories in the Bible, this is one of my favorites–for many reasons. First of all, I love the fact that the lunch of five small barley loaves and two small fish belonged to a child.

Understand, the Bible leaves some of the details of this exchange to our imaginations, so I don’t know that this is exactly how the story unfolded, but I imagine it playing out in the following way:

The Bible tells us that Jesus asks Philip where they should go to buy bread for the five thousand people to eat. Philip replies that eight months of salary wouldn’t be nearly enough to feed the crowd of people.

Here is where things get interesting. I think that perhaps a young boy who is sitting close to where Jesus is teaching hears the conversation between Jesus and his friends and eagerly offers his lunch that his mom packed for him that morning. It would be just like a child not to see the futility of his meager lunch feeding such a crowd, but to instead faithfully hand over his bread and fish to Andrew to give to Jesus. And it would be just the typical adult thing to then bring it to Jesus—with the caveat of “but how far will they go among so many?”

Spark of Faith

Jesus was just waiting for that spark of faith. He takes the lunch, has everyone sit down, gives thanks for the fish and bread, and passes it around–and everyone took as much as they wanted (v. 11). After they had all eaten, Jesus wants nothing wasted, so the disciples gather up 12 baskets of leftovers!

Doesn’t it seem that we could learn a lot about faith from children? In most cases, their minds have not yet been clouded by the harsh realities of life. It’s not hard for them to believe in the improbable, or the impossible.Their eyes can easily see the thin space between the reality of this world and the unseen heavenlies where angels, miracles, and God all live. Jesus took the little boy’s lunch and multiplied it into a buffet for 5000.

That’s the kind of faith that Jesus is watching for, that we need to cultivate. A faith that causes us to unflinchingly step forward and offer up our bread and fish to Jesus to multiply beyond our wildest expectations.

When we feel that nudge of the Spirit to take our offering to God, we need to stamp out the adult voice that rises up with a “But, …” and just give it. Or just do it.

What does this look like in our lives?

• The nudge to give that $20 to a charity, even though it’s just a drop in the bucket of what’s needed.
• The nudge to teach a Bible class, even though you’re not a “real” teacher.
• The nudge to keep praying for your wayward child, even though you haven’t seen any change in three years.
• The nudge to start a Moms-In-Touch prayer group at your child’s school, even though you’ve never led anything in the past.

A vibrant faith requires that I present to God what I have. Jesus is waiting for people with a fish-and-loaves faith to take Him up on His promises so He can to equip us (2 Timothy 3:17) and set us loose in His kingdom. The results are up to Him.

What do you have to offer Him today? We’d love to hear your thoughts.

Fish-and-Loaves Faith is the second post in our  faith series. Please leave a comment below on your thoughts, feelings, or experiences in growing your faith.

Image courtesy of [FrameAngel] / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

And being in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, as He sat at the table, a woman came having an alabaster flask of very costly oil of spikenard. Then she broke the flask and  poured it on His head. Mark 14: 3 (Read Mark 14:1-9)

In my Bible study the other morning, I looked at this passage from Mark. A couple of things really stood out to me as I was reading.

Simon the Leper

The first thing I notice is that Jesus is at the house of Simon the Leper. We don’t know this for certain, but most likely Simon is one of the lepers that Jesus miraculously heals in the Gospels. While he was probably healed physically, most likely some stigma was still associated with him, which would make most people want to avoid him. Do you notice how the text still refers to him as Simon the Leper?

How would you like to be forever immortalized as a disease or perhaps a bad character trait you had as a child or adult? I would hate to be introduced as Jane the Fearful wherever I went! But what I love is that Jesus didn’t let a little thing like a disease or bad name slow him down. No, He went right to Simon’s house and had dinner with him. Actually that’s very reassuring, isn’t it? When I’m feeling like I’m not “good enough” for Jesus to want to spend time with me, I just  think of this story or the story of him going to the tax collector Zacchaeus’ house, and I realize Jesus accepts me just as I am.

Mary of Bethany

The aspect of this story that just does me in is the woman’s response to Jesus. John 12:3 identifies this woman as Mary of Bethany, Lazarus and Martha’s sister. Some believe that she is the same woman as Mary Magdalene, but we don’t know for certain.

What she leaves no doubt of are her feelings for Jesus.

She takes her alabaster flask of spikenard, breaks it, and pours it on His head. What a lavish, all-in response to Jesus! I had to stop and think about this for a few minutes. First of all, Mary had to have known that she was opening herself up to ridicule and criticism by doing this, and that’s exactly what happened. Women were supposed to stay in the background in this culture, and she boldly moves forward and does what the men probably considered to be a brazen act.

To make matters worse for herself, she used a very costly bottle of perfume. Spikenard had to be imported from India, and the cost of it was about a year’s salary for a working-class man. Sure enough, she was roundly criticized for not selling the perfume instead and then using the money for the poor.

After reading about her actions, I had to ask myself, Am I overwhelmed with that kind of love for Jesus that I don’t care what others think? On the contrary, I think that too often I am inhibited by what others may think.

Rather than rebuke Mary, Jesus instead rebukes those who are criticizing her and says that what she has done will be told to others as a memorial to her. And we are still reading about her and her brave act today.

I want to more like Mary in my response to Jesus. And to do that, I’ll have to learn to “get over myself.” Whether I want to be more bold in how I worship in church or more bold in using my money in ways Jesus wants me to, it certainly gives me something to pray about!

How about you? Please share any thoughts that you have about Mary’s act of love and devotion and how free you feel to express your feelings for Jesus.

Pray on!

Illustration courtesy of https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3e/Schnorr_von_Carolsfeld_Bibel_in_Bildern_1860

“And God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM.’” Exodus 3: 14

“And He said to me, ‘It is done!  I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts.’” Revelation 21:6

Don’t you just love how God settles everything?

With these few words, He gets to the root of the matter. As I came across the Exodus verse in my Bible reading today, I had to stop and think about it. I realized that because God is who He is, then I can be who He made me to  be and can do what he made me to do.  Everything I am and do rests on me cooperating with Him and following His plan for my life.

That is the very thing that can be a stumbling block for many people. They don’t want to give up control of their lives, thinking that if they do, they’ll be stuck in a drab, dreary life of boredom, or worse yet, doing something they don’t want to do.

The verse in Revelation should settle those fears. Jesus says that He will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. I was curious about the word life, so I looked up the connotation of the word life in Blue Letter Bible.

The Greek word for life is zoe, and I love it’s meaning. Here are a few of its definitions: a full life; possessed of vitality; absolute fullness of life; active and vigorous; devoted to God, blessed.

This doesn’t sound like a dry, unexciting life to me! On the contrary, a life lived out surrendered to God is a life of passion, fullness, and vitality. Yes, we will also experience tribulations as Jesus did, but it’s a life that is full and rich of meaning and purpose and will reap a harvest for God’s kingdom.

I can trust God to be my I AM in this adventure, especially when I am not …

•    the bold speaker He has asked me to be
•    the attentive wife He has called me to be
•    the brave witness He has asked me to be
•    the leader he has asked me to be, and so on

Because He is I Am, I am too.

Pray on!

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