Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Day 12
Let
me share one of the defining moments in my prayer life.
About a decade ago I was at a small
group meeting. At the end of the
discussion, we took time to share prayer requests and then I led in prayer. One
of the guys in my group mentioned that he needed a computer for the campus
ministry he worked with. I started
praying for him and the Lord interrupted me. He told me to quit praying. It’s one of those rare moments when you’re
pretty sure you’ve just heard the inaudible yet unmistakable voice of God. The
still small voice said, “Why are you asking me? You’re the one with the extra
computer!” It stopped me in my
tracks! The truth is that we had an
extra computer we weren’t even using! So
I quit praying mid-sentence and said to this guy, “We don’t need to pray about
this. I’ve got a computer I can give you.”
There
are some things you don’t need to pray about.
You don’t need to pray about whether or not to sin. You don’t need to
pray about doing good when it’s within your power to bless someone. You don’t need to pray about it. You need to
do it.
Too often we get our job description
and God’s job description confused. We want to do God’s job for Him and we want
God to do our job for us. That’s when
prayer becomes a cop out. We’re too lazy
to do something about it so we pray about it.
Don’t get me wrong! You need to
pray like it depends upon God. But here
is the second half of the equation: work like it depends on you. It can’t be either/or. It’s got to be
both/and. And if you pray like it depends on God and work like it depends on
you, all bets are off.
Mark
Batterson-Circle Maker
