prayer coach

image courtesy of TwoBit Dog.

Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD,
the people he chose for his inheritance.
Psalm 33:12

There is one week left in the call to fast and pray for our nation. This past Wednesday I heard a talk from Melissa Davis who heads up PrayDC. She made a profound comment which stuck with me the last few days. She had felt God say to her, “as I have made covenants with Abraham, I have made covenants with the founding fathers.”

What a profound thought! God loves to make promises because it causes us to build trust in Him. And, His promises are eternal. Just as we can still benefit from the promises He made to Abraham, we can enter into the promises He made to the founding fathers of the United States as citizens of this country. God keeps His word.

What are the promises God made to the founding fathers? That is a question for those of us who pray.

Daniel, having read the prophet Jeremiah, contended with the Lord for the end of the Babylonian captivity (Daniel 9:1-3). Why did Daniel pray when God said the captivity would end? Because He was holding God to His promises. This is a model for us.

Just as the grace of God sustains us in our lives. Just as we benefit by taking hold of the promises He has given to us. God is willing to sustain the United States by His grace.

As the mid-term elections approach, continue to pray for the right people to be elected.

• Pray for politicians that would be free from deceit (Psalm 101:7).
• Pray for politicians that would be motivated by love (1 Peter 4:8).

I heard a traveling preacher once pose this question: “Would you rather have ten women who loved you when they felt like it, or one woman who loved you with her whole heart?”

While no self-respecting Christian male would dare to publicly answer this question wrong, it does highlight the desire of God. While He may still love His bride who is fickle, He showers His affection on the one whose heart is completely His. God is looking for the one. “For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him” (2 Chronicles 16:9). Jesus instructs us not to throw our pearls before swine who will take our treasures and muddy them (Matthew 7:6). Will He not withhold some of His treasures and only give them to those whose delight is in Him? He gives some things to those who want it. God loves our hunger for Him. He responds to it.

I know we all believe that God loves us. But, the secret fact of Scripture is that God loves some of us more. Think about it: Abraham, Jacob, Moses, David, Mary, John. The Bible calls John the disciple Jesus loved (John 20:2). Did Jesus love the others too? Of course, but there was something about John. John loved to be close to Jesus. He was the one who reclines against Jesus at the last supper. Lazarus’ sister, Mary, was the same. If you draw near to God, He will draw near to you. You can’t out-love God.

This motivates my current fast. Not that I’m twisting His arm into action, but I know He responds with joy and loving-kindness to my acts of love to Him.

In 1996 Dr. Bill Bright started yearly 40-day fasts for revival in our nation. His commitment to this discipline helped many like myself to consider partaking in this valuable gift of the faith. As I have mentioned before, I have completely bought into the benefits of the 40-day fast. I have not always done them with the commitment of national revival, but it always has the element of my own personal revival. This past Sunday I became aware of Chuck Colson and Jim Garlow’s call to fast and pray for our nation. It reawakened the desires that Dr. Bright embedded in me and reminded me of the similar call issued in 200. After a brief discussion with my wife, we agreed that it would be good for me to enter in.

I am under a personal belief that God has more for me. I have been extremely blessed with a loving, supportive, incredible wife, two amazing kids, a stimulating job, and a wonderful vision for my life. I could have never dreamed all this was possible, but it is here. At the same time, I don’t think God is through yet – with me or this nation. Fasting is a tool that has been given to us to ask, seek, and know for the more that God desires to give.

This fast has been called for September 20th – October 30th, 2010 in order to press God over the issues of the sanctity of human life, the sacredness of marriage and the preservation of religious liberty. I believe this nation is ready for the next great awakening and spiritual revival. The fast is a call to ask for it. Here is some of the wording on the prayandact.org website:

This is an article I received from a Koinonia House eNews regarding fasting this Lent. I thought it would be helpful information about our attitude toward this season and toward fasting. Whether you consider to fast anything this Lent is up to you, but use whatever season you’re in to lead you closer to God and Jesus. For more information on fasting, see our other post on “What I Have Learned from Fasting.”

No Fasting God
from the February 16, 2010 eNews issue

“My dad asked me what I was giving up for Lent this year. I told him I was giving up God for Lent so I wouldn’t have to feel guilty.” – A Catholic teen overheard on a bus.

Ash Wednesday is upon us, a day when Catholics gather to have their foreheads marked with ashes in the shape of a cross as a sign of penitence and dedication to Christ. It marks the beginning of the 40 days leading to Easter. The idea of community repentance and fasting is a good one, one that could bring much spiritual fruit in our churches if practiced with the right heart. The question is, how much of Lent becomes just another gotta-do religious act? If Christians from any denomination choose to take this time to seek God’s face in the days leading up to the celebration of our Lord’s death and resurrection, that is excellent. Prayer and fasting are still biblical, but they must be done carefully and in truth.

• “As you love God and serve Him, you will undoubtedly experience the greatest adventure life has to offer.”
• “Love for God and obedience to His will is the criteria for giving. God desires to bless His children abundantly and promises to do so.”
• “We must talk to God about men before we talk to men about God.”
• “God does not require you to have great faith. You simply are to have faith in a great God.”
• “We need to believe God for great things. God is just waiting for us to believe Him for even greater dreams.”
• “By neglecting fasting & prayer u are blocking a dynamic means by which the Holy Spirit brings change.”
• “Fasting reduces the power of self so that the Holy Spirit can do a more intense work within us.”
• “Fasting, as it relates to prayer, is the spiritual atomic bomb that the Lord has given us against the enemy.”
• “I love Him because He first loved me, and He still does love me, and He will love me forever and ever.”
• “It is not until we know the reality of ‘death to self’ that we can live for Christ and God can truly use and bless us.”
• “Your view of God will impact everything about your life.”

This is an extremely tough post to write not only because I do not want to come across as prideful, but this is also a very personal topic for me as I would attribute the most significant factor of personal growth in the last ten years is to this one discipline.

Ten years ago I was on staff of Campus Crusade for Christ at the University of Florida. The campus director at that time was Aaron Read. He became a legend at that time because he did a 40-day fast for the campus ministry. Seriously, just about every staff in the Southeast region would tell us this when they found out that we were reporting to this campus. When we reported to UF, the rumors were proved true, and we could see the blessings that came from Aaron’s fast.

A little personal note about me… I have this desire to not let anyone love Jesus more than me, but forty days… yikes!

After my first semester on the campus, all of the Crusade staff gathered for the bi-annual staff conference. While there Dr. Bill Bright spoke about his commitment to 40-day fasts for revival and the staff celebrated others who had done them. Also at the conference I talked with a staff couple that joined with my wife and me who had also done a 40-day fast.

God used all of these experiences to push me over the edge and commit to one.

To be perfectly honest, this fast was really a discipline of perseverance. Every day I was amazed I made it that far without eating. Previously my longest fast was 2 days; now I was trying for 40. The hunger pains were strongest on day 3 and 7, but after that it was more that I wanted the taste of food than I was extremely hungry. My body got weaker, but I was able to continue playing sports in the hot Gainesville sun; I just needed water close by at all times.