Sounds like Elijah after whipping 400 prophets of Baal atop Mt. Carmel, then getting scared out of his mind by Jezebel, doesn't it? 1 Kings 18:16 - 19:3
Facing new challenges of the magnitude we currently face is daily, humbling, faith-building, and sometimes just really hard. When you can, and will, and have time...., would you pray the following prayer or similar for me as I try to rest in God's hands and lead my family and ministry wisely? I don't want my heart to get "numb" as a defense against feeling the pain of those to whom and with whom we minister. The only way my heart will stay healthy to "give and receive love freely .... starting at home" is if I do what I am praying others will do.....run to Jesus first rather than wait until I am moving down the tracks away from Him to try to find a quick fix for the poisonous emotion I am feeling. Lately, I find myself in greater battles than before and losing more often. So, would you pray for me, for us to be faithful and loving and reflect the love of Jesus Christ. We know His power and have seen the "power of His resurrection" as well as some of the "fellowship of His suffering".
Here is how I have stated the prayer I am asking you to pray for me:
Dear Abba,
Isaiah 43:19
"See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland."
You are doing a new thing in me and in us. Trusting you for more of the "everything you already provide" is new. Deeper gratitude for more of the "everything you already provide" is new. Asking you for more specific things as daily needs is new. Talking more often and more deeply about real faith with the family, our friends, and co-laborers I love so much is new. Specifically praying that pastors/leaders couples will experience revival in love for you and for one another then pass it along to the church and community is new.
Our culture is a wilderness and our world is a wasteland/desert; we need for you to do a "new thing" in us, starting in me. You are the "way in the wilderness" and the "stream in our desert". Oh, God, please use us in new ways to do this new thing. I already see it springing up.
Isaiah 43:19
"See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland."
I think this verse was written just for me sometimes. (I know it wasn't but it fits so well.) Help me, Father, to run to you quickly when I begin to doubt, worry, fear, or outright panic. When there are challenges in difficult, sensitive, personal areas, help me to get close to you, not argue with my enemy, not wonder what I am going to do about it, but first or quickly ask you what “you are going to do about it” and rest. No matter what it is. When I am "1/2 afraid and 1/2 excited" about today, help me rest knowing you hold the rope on my saucer-sled.
You have always been faithful to me in really great times and really hard times, help me not to doubt you or grasp for confidence in other people or things that can’t supply the need and don’t love me as you do. In the process, help me as a yielded man to release the calm, passionate, powerful love of Jesus even when people don’t love me back, the need seems bigger than the supply, the sorrow seems overwhelming, and when it seems that few others really care about the things that consume my soul. From that peaceful place near your heart let me still love, still give, still care, and still obey from the power of your Holy Spirit, when my own resources are all gone or are inaccessible. You are my source; my own abilities or aptitudes are powerless unless you empower me by the Holy Spirit. Thank you for loving me so much that I have You to be all that I need at any and all times and to let me live loved and give love freely ... starting at home.
Your loved son, Dave
Isaiah 43:19
"See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland."
You are doing a new thing in me and in us. Trusting you for more of the "everything you already provide" is new. Deeper gratitude for more of the "everything you already provide" is new. Asking you for more specific things as daily needs is new. Talking more often and more deeply about real faith with the family, our friends, and co-laborers I love so much is new. Specifically praying that pastors/leaders couples will experience revival in love for you and for one another then pass it along to the church and community is new.
Our culture is a wilderness and our world is a wasteland/desert; we need for you to do a "new thing" in us, starting in me. You are the "way in the wilderness" and the "stream in our desert". Oh, God, please use us in new ways to do this new thing. I already see it springing up.
Isaiah 43:19
"See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland."
I think this verse was written just for me sometimes. (I know it wasn't but it fits so well.) Help me, Father, to run to you quickly when I begin to doubt, worry, fear, or outright panic. When there are challenges in difficult, sensitive, personal areas, help me to get close to you, not argue with my enemy, not wonder what I am going to do about it, but first or quickly ask you what “you are going to do about it” and rest. No matter what it is. When I am "1/2 afraid and 1/2 excited" about today, help me rest knowing you hold the rope on my saucer-sled.
You have always been faithful to me in really great times and really hard times, help me not to doubt you or grasp for confidence in other people or things that can’t supply the need and don’t love me as you do. In the process, help me as a yielded man to release the calm, passionate, powerful love of Jesus even when people don’t love me back, the need seems bigger than the supply, the sorrow seems overwhelming, and when it seems that few others really care about the things that consume my soul. From that peaceful place near your heart let me still love, still give, still care, and still obey from the power of your Holy Spirit, when my own resources are all gone or are inaccessible. You are my source; my own abilities or aptitudes are powerless unless you empower me by the Holy Spirit. Thank you for loving me so much that I have You to be all that I need at any and all times and to let me live loved and give love freely ... starting at home.
Your loved son, Dave
(Side note: This phrase: "1/2 afraid and 1/2 excited" is how a friend of mine described the look on his son's face as he/dad pulled his son on the saucer sled during one of our snow events in Atlanta the past winter. He observed his son's wide-eyed look and tight grip on the sled and described him/5 year old son as being "1/2 afraid and 1/2 excited.)
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