Prayer in the Middle of the Night

Galatians 2.20
20 "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.

Carrying your cross is not an easy thing. It can be painful. Galatian 2.20 is one of my favorite sayings of Paul. It says so clearly what happens when we submit our bodies to the cross; we slowly transform into the image of Jesus. Of course the whole question of how do I submit my body to a cross that is not literal may and should arise. That is what this blog is all about. It is about thinking creatively about ways we can deny our pleasures/passions/desires/flesh/self for the sake of Jesus.  So I have a great spiritual experiment for all of us to try this week.

Experiment 009: Prayer in the Middle of the Night (Approximately 2:20 am)

One night this week before you go to bed set your alarm clock to 2:20 am. The reason you set it for 2:20 am is to remind you to pray what Paul was saying in Galatians 2.20. So how is this taking up your cross? Well, your body at 2:20 am wants nothing else but sleep. So, when you wake up and get out of bed and get on your knees and begin praying, you are asking God to help you identify with the death of Jesus on the cross. It is a way of saying to God, "I am willing to give of my self to your cause, I am asking for you to change me Jesus." It is a way that you let God know that you are serious about following Him, your faith is more than words, it's acting and moving.

We don't possess the power to change ourselves into the image of Jesus; only the Spirit can do that. But we do have a little power in us to direct and say what we will do with our bodies. That means everything from sitting my butt in a chair and reading the gospel stories, using my feet to walk around downtown Dallas and pass out food and offer prayer to anyone who needs it, or using my mind and mouth to meditate on a scripture. Our body is what we have control over and this is what Jesus wants us to nail to the cross.

So, wake up at 2:20 am one night this week and make your prayer something like this: "Jesus, thank you for showing me how to die. I am asking you to help me crucify my flesh this very moment. Please transform my selfish heart into a more loving and selfless heart. Please come and drive out my old life and replace it with yours. Live in me Jesus. Show me how to live out your faith in my world. Thank you for forgiving me and now please free me!"

Then you can hop back in bed and have a good night's rest. Remember spiritual disciplines are not heroic; you don't have to stay up all night trying to prove something to God. You just simply talk with Him for a few minutes and then allow his Spirit to do the rest! I hope you have a great time with this experiment this week! I would love to hear how it goes.

Seek the Kingdom,
Jon

The Need for Speed

I once heard Dallas Willard say, "You must relentlessly remove hurry from your life." He went on to say this is one of the hidden hazards to our spiritual formation into Christlikeness. Hurry it seems, is certainly not as overtly evil as sexual lust or greed, but it lies at the surface of our lives and devours any kind of meaningful time with Jesus. We are always in a hurry. I am always in a hurry. Therefore being meaningfully present with Jesus is difficult. I am trying to squeeze one more page of my book before I get ready to go to work, or just fifteen more minutes of sleep before church. We squeeze and we squish, and now to make it anywhere on time we have to hurry because we were hurrying. It is a vicious cycle!

Why is a lifestyle of hurry so hazardous to our discipleship? Because it bleeds over into our time with Jesus and it rips us out of God's kingdom, thus we cannot fully seek it.

So a couple of years ago I began to get serious about thinking of ways I could practically take steps toward eliminating hurry from my life. The first I employed was driving the speed limit. One of the hard lessons I had to learn was, my car is not a time machine. It's funny, but how we drive our cars can be a reflection of what's going on in our minds. Are we angry, calm, worried, distracted, or in a hurry? If we are in a hurry our speedometer will be a good indicator. Have you ever noticed though, that you are not in any particular time-crunch but you are still driving fast? You may be cutting in and out of traffic, trying to beat a yellow light, rolling slowly through a stop sign or cutting someone off so you can advance further on the highway. We are so used to being in a hurry that now it is just what we do. Getting from point A to point B in the quickest possible time is the sole objective.

So driving the speed limit for a lot of us will be a crucifixion of our old nature that loves to hurry. I have found that a quiet car traveling the speed limit can be one of the greatest opportunities for prayer, silence and meditation.

So our experiment this week is to drive the speed limit one day this week.

Experiment 007: Crucifying Hurry

Now think about it, once you drive the speed limit you don't have to worry about getting ahead of the next car in front of you, making a red light, looking intently for cops on the horizon as you speed, or ride the bumper of the car in front of you to make a point. This will cut down on hurry and worry, which are big killers in discipleship. Perhaps you will feel a calming peace as you drive and enjoy it so thoroughly that you decide to drive the speed limit everyday.

I hope you enjoy this week's experiment and feel Jesus riding shot gun with you as he molds and shapes you into His image. Let go of hurry. Crucify yourself by driving the speed limit. It should hurt and that's a good thing!

Seek the Kingdom at all Cost,
Jon

Cross Chores

Hebrews 12:1-2
"Let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."

When we talk about dying to self, that really means something. There really are things we can do to move in that direction. It is not a passive process, it's and active process! Remember, grace is not opposed to effort, it's opposed to earning (Dallas Willard.) Jesus said take up YOUR cross and follow me. Not His, but yours. It is our responsibility as 21st century disciples of Jesus to bring that archaic 1st century teaching to life, our life. This week that is our goal. Essentially Jesus was saying, you need to die! That selfish, prideful person inside must die. Of course there are many ways to do this and creativity always helps. This week I want to introduce you to cross chores.

Cross chores are those weekly responsibilities we all have to do, for instance, taking out the trash, doing the dishes, cleaning the toilet, making dinner, doing the laundry, folding the laundry, hanging the laundry, etc. Does anyone else find these things highly annoying? Most people do, and that is why in any relationship whether husband or wife, roommates, or if your living with your parents these chores are divided up so no single person has to do all of them. In my marriage, I am basically responsible for all the trash in the apartment, paying the bills, and Kori does the laundry and cleaning. We both split doing the dishes. I am sure you all have a similar set up.

So our experiment this week is to do some Cross Chores.

Experiment 002: Denying Ourselves, Serving Others, Serving Jesus.

I propose that if you have a spouse, roommate or mom or dad that this week you do one of their weekly chores. If it is dishes, laundry, trash, cleaning, whatever, you do it the entire week as a way of denying yourself, serving others, and serving Jesus. It may be simple and not heroic enough for some, but spiritual disciplines are not for heroes. Every time you clean that dish, fold that awkward shirt of your wife's, carry your smelly trash to the can, or scrub the stains off your toilet bowl, think of Jesus. Think of His suffering, His willingness to leave His Dad, to become a helpless infant, to get beat, to get his beard ripped off His cheeks, to get Roman saliva in His eyes, to carry a cross, all for the joy set before Him. As we practice this experiment this week, I know that we will feel the life of Jesus Himself begin to pour into our bodies and we will 'slowly but surely' feel the selfishness and the pride retreating. May Jesus and His Spirit be our guide this week! Have fun!

Seek the Kingdom,
Jon

PS. Keep the comments coming, it is fun and helpful to read each others experiences. Love you all!