Lessons from a Sabbatical – Part 3

Diane and I thoroughly enjoyed our Sabbatical. It was a time of rest, refreshment, and re-learning a number of things on a deeper level. In these newsletter articles I want to share those things with you. We covered two so far and now we look at a third: our desperate need for consistent, focused times of PRAYER.

As I mentioned in the first lesson, it has been easy for me to fill up my days with responsibilities and activities. I see needs that aren’t being met so I take them on, thus filling my days with hours of tasks. I have preached multiple times on Luke 10 and the story of Martha & Mary. I know the principles and how I should be like Mary, but at times find myself filling my schedule more like Martha. The Lord is calling me (and all of us) to spend more time sitting at His feet, humbly receiving His Word, allowing Him to transform my thoughts, attitudes, words, and actions, and reminding me that apart from Him I can do NOTHING.

Let’s apply that to the first two lessons: 1) Getting more workers involved in the ministry. In Matthew 9:35-38, we read that “Jesus was going through all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness. Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.’” Jesus modeled this very thing by spending an entire night in prayer before He selected and commissioned His 12 apostles (Lk. 6:12-16). How I need to learn from His example! So many of our former leaders at The Bridge have graduated to heaven or moved to other parts of the country. We need to raise up future generations of leaders for this church and need to begin with prayer. And for our other lesson: 2) Ministry to grandchildren. I learned from my own children and now again with my grandchildren, that I can’t change their hearts. I can teach, preach, encourage, exhort, plea, and model for them how to live, but I can’t change their heart. Only the Lord can change hearts (see Jer. 13:23), and I need to seek Him to do things in their hearts that only He can do. This means daily time praying for each one of them about specific things.

Now let’s multiply that need for prayer in my spiritual responsibility for hundreds of people at The Bridge and thousands of people under the ministry of our mission agency, Shepherding The Nations (STN). I need to serve all of you in so many different ways, but my two main ways should be in prayer and the ministry of the Word (Acts 6:4). I need to spend a whole lot more time praying for all of you, our missionaries, and the ministries of our church worldwide.

But more than seeking God to do the things only He can do in our lives and ministries, I desperately need to simply seek God. I need Him. I need to know Him better. I need to draw near to Him and receive from Him the things only He can give. I need to be reminded of His love for me and His desire to conform me to His image. I need to understand on a deeper level what He has done for me, is doing, and will do. I need to see Him in His glory (Is. 6; Rev. 4-5) and worship Him. I need to spend more time giving thanks for what He has done, is doing, and will do. I need to grow in my love for Jesus and my desire to see others love Him too.

I need more time set apart, dedicated to, and guarded for the purpose of prayer. It needs to be on my schedule like every other appointment throughout the day. Yes, I need to be in a spirit of constant prayer throughout the day (1 Thess. 5:17), but I also need time alone with the Lord with no or extremely minimized distractions on a daily basis. In my case, that is best accomplished early in the morning when no one else is awake. But beyond that, I need to schedule extended times of prayer. I do block out one-half days to full days away in prayer, but I need to do it more frequently this coming year.

What helps my prayer times to be more effective? Specific requests. Each week the prayer requests that come into the church office (either written on connection cards or filled out on the church app) are emailed out so we can pray. But for the number of people who attend the volume of prayer requests is small. It would bless my heart immensely if you would submit prayer requests frequently and include praises when the Lord answers our prayers.

How about you? Are you spending consistent time alone with the Lord? Are you worshiping Him, praising Him, and thanking Him? Are you seeking Him to do things only He can do? Are there things you could say “No” to so you could say “Yes” to spending time with Jesus? And what about praying with others? Are you praying with your family? Or roommates? Are you going to your small group ready to share specific requests and write down the requests of others? Are you receiving the weekly emails from the church with requests from our church family? [If you aren’t, call Jasmin Bonilla in the church office and let her know you want to – 818-776-1500]. Do you have a good way to keep track of prayer requests and answers to prayer?

Read through the Gospel of Luke and see Luke’s emphasis on the prayer life of Jesus. It was a top priority for Jesus, and it should be for us as well. I know and am deeply encouraged by the fact that so many of you pray for me regularly (sometimes multiple times per day). Please pray for me that I would spend much more time in prayer to my Lord and King. And ask Him to raise up more laborers to do the work of the ministry, which will free me up to spend more time in prayer and the ministry of the Word, so that I can equip those laborers to do the work He has gifted and called them to do.

14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, 16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. 20 Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, 21 to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. (Ephesians 3:14-21 – NASB)

Pastor Paul