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From Self-Reliance to God-Reliance

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From Self-Reliance to God-Reliance

Think about the ways that being independent gets sewn into your life. It happens in school from the first day you go to Kindergarten. It happens in business as you learn to promote yourself and advance your career. It happens as you move away from home and take responsibility for things your parents used to do for you.

But after all those lessons in becoming independent, you have to live in the opposite direction. For most of us, the first big lesson happens in marriage. We discover the limits of self-reliance and the beauty of a collaborative, loving relationship with someone else.

But the greatest lesson in dependent living is the one we learn as a child of God. Jesus said:

I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. – John 15:5 (NIV)

Abiding in Christ means that you depend on Him in every corner of your life. That happens most readily through prayer. Bill Hybels said it this way:

From birth we have been learning the rules of self-reliance as we strain and struggle to achieve self-sufficiency. Prayer flies in the face of those deep-seated values. It is an assault on human autonomy, an indictment of independent living. To people in the fast lane, determined to make it on their own, prayer is an embarrassing interruption.

Interruption or not, prayer is the indispensable ingredient in any relationship with a communicating God. Without it, the faith relationship breaks down and your independence asserts itself once more. To break the chains of self-reliance and self-sufficiency:

  1. Start your day with prayer. Confess your sins before God and commit to an attitude of worship and Spirit-sensitivity throughout the day. Taking that simple step at the start helps build a supernatural perspective for the daily grind.
  2. Live with God-reliance vs. self-reliance. Approach your daily routine with healthy skepticism about old habits and tendencies. Ask key questions to keep the proper perspective for living a life on mission for God. Pray short prayers throughout the day, asking God to help in both the big and small things.
  3. Consider the source of every decision you make. Are you making decisions with human wisdom, knowledge and motivation, or is a supernatural God transforming and directing your life? Remember that prayer and meditation is not an interruption, it’s at the heart of your relationship with a communicating God.
  4. Acknowledge your inadequacy at every turn. Demonstrate humility and servant leadership, remembering that God is holy and you are not. Believers are not meant to operate independently from the sustaining presence of their God. Your humble words and actions make that task a lot easier.

So what’s the Big Idea?

Live with God-reliance vs. self-reliance in every aspect of your life. The key is regular communication with God in the big and small things of life. That unnatural activity pushes self-reliance to the side and leads you to embrace total dependence on an eternally faithful God.

Resources


Source

Bill Hybels, Too Busy Not to Pray: Slowing Down to Be with God (10th Anniversary Edition, Revised and Expanded), 2nd ed. (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1998), 9.

Live an Everyday Life on Mission

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Live an Everyday Life on Mission

Who among us doesn’t want to live a life with eternal significance and purpose? Put aside the trappings of earthly success in business or ministry and recognize that real impact happens only when you surrender everything to God.

Over the last two months, our staff has studied Life on Mission by Aaron Coe and Dustin Willis. Here’s how they describe the everyday life believers are called to live:

A life on mission is a calling of abandonment. It is the confession of our willingness to set aside—to abandon—our preferences to follow God’s mission. Like a bungee jumper diving off a platform, we must relinquish our selfish hopes with total abandon to spread the true hope we have found in Jesus.

What does it mean to live life on mission for God? I’ll answer that question with 4 words:

  1. Wait
  2. Abide
  3. Watch
  4. Go

Here’s the full detail of the spiritual truths Coe and Willis present:

1. WAIT on the Lord. Perhaps you spend too little time considering what God is saying in the quiet moments. If so, the watch word is “wait”—create some space in your day to pray, study the Word and worship. Your purpose is to glorify God in everything you do. If you don’t do that, you won’t achieve much that matters.

In the morning, Lord , you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly. – Psalm 5:3 (NIV)

2. ABIDE in the Vine. A total realignment takes place when you follow Jesus with abandon. Your life is defined by doing and saying that bears witness to your faith in Christ. More than a head knowledge of who Jesus is, “abiding in the vine” is about living a life in love with the Savior. It translates into doing what God says instead of doing what culture says.

I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. – John 15:5 (NIV)

3. WATCH for opportunities to share. Seeing the world with new eyes is the big result of waiting and abiding. Once you’ve prayed, worshiped and focused your heart and mind, it’s amazing how sensitive to the Spirit you become. Your new eyes make it easy to identify people who need the gospel.

I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. – John 4:35 (NIV)

4. GO and make disciples. For a Spirit-sensitive person, seeing people who need the gospel leads naturally to sharing a verbal witness. Whether it’s a personal faith story, testimony or life lesson, missional living demands sharing. You are called to invest your life in others as you share the gospel and invite others into disciple-making relationships. Then, you send others out to share their faith.

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. – Acts 1:8 (NIV)

So what’s the Big Idea?

Wait, abide, watch and go. Live out radical obedience to God. Live an everyday life on mission.

Resources


Source

Dustin Willis and Aaron Coe, Life on Mission: Joining the Everyday Mission of God (Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2014), 59.

Make Prayer Part of Your Daily Routine

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Make Prayer Part of Your Daily Routine

Is prayer “missing in action” in your personal routine, family or church? I’m ashamed to admit that prayer falls to the bottom of my agenda far too often. Priorities and the tyranny of the urgent are the culprit, but there’s more to it than making easy excuses.

I’m compelled to ask myself whether or not I really believe in prayer. Do I faithfully expect that God will take my work and multiply it in the prayers I offer? Or do I have lowered expectations for the work God wants to do in and through me?

Spiritual issues and problems require supernatural solutions, and that’s where regular prayer becomes important. Prayer leads me to evaluate my priorities, decisions, motives and attitudes. It impacts my heart and mind, making me a more effective leader and servant.

Bill Hybels describes this “supernatural walk with a living, dynamic, communicating God” this way:

Authentic Christians are persons who stand apart from others, even other Christians, as though listening to a different drummer. Their character seems deeper, their ideas fresher, their spirit softer, their courage greater, their leadership stronger, their concerns wider, their compassion more genuine and their convictions more concrete.

I want that kind of power and conviction in my life, family and church. Perhaps you do too. If so, ask yourself some key questions about prayer:

  1. Where does prayer rate in your daily schedule?
  2. Does your family pray together regularly?
  3. Is prayer valued in your church or organization?
  4. How can you develop more effective prayer habits?

On that last point, let me offer a prayer model from Dr. Greg Frizzell, Prayer and Spiritual Awakening Specialist with the Oklahoma Baptist Convention. Based on The Lord’s Prayer, our most important biblical model, Dr. Frizzell’s PRISM acrostic is a powerful way to pray every day:

P = Praise
R = Repentance
I = Intercession (about spiritual things and for spiritual protection and deliverance)
S = Supplication (petition)
M = Meditation on the Word (listening for lessons in Scripture)

So what’s the Big Idea?

Make prayer part of your daily routine for greater effectiveness in every area of your life. Expand that principle to your family and church to appropriate divine power for living the everyday mission of God. Most of all, believe in the power of prayer.

Resources


Sources

Bill Hybels, Too Busy Not to Pray: Slowing Down to Be with God (10th Anniversary Edition, Revised and Expanded), 2nd ed. (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1998), 125.

Greg Frizzell, PRISM Prayer Model, January 19, 2015.

Clarify God-Sized Vision and Focus

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Clarify God-Sized Vision and Focus

Driving in blinding rain or fog is a nerve-wracking experience. When you can’t see the road ahead with clarity, anxiety sets in and the simplest journey becomes an excruciating chore. When it gets really bad, there’s really only one thing to do. Pull over and wait for the storm to pass. When the weather clears you can get back on the road confident that good weather and good vision will help you safely reach your destination.

Your church has a clear command from Christ to go and preach the gospel, winning the lost in the name of Jesus and then teaching and discipling them in His ways. That’s your mission—a clear command from your Master and Commander. But how does the church accomplish that Great Commission?

We know Christ’s command carries with it non-negotiables like evangelism, discipleship, ministry, missions and worship. But while the agenda is set clearly from the start, you have some decisions to make about what you’ll do (and what you won’t do) to make it happen. That’s the kind of clarity you want and need in the blinding rain.

An intentional process to capture God-sized vision and focus includes:

  • The Holy Spirit & Prayer – Prayer leads the church to appropriate divine power and understand God’s will. Read more
  • Vision (Global Objective) – Start with vision clarification and define what you stand for and where God is leading you to go. Read more
    What’s your vision of the future?
    Where are you going?
    Why do you exist?
  • Values (Defining Objectives) – Detail what the church will do (and what it won’t do) to achieve its vision. Read more
    What specific objectives clarify and support your vision?

So what’s the Big Idea?

Clarify God-sized vision and values through an emphasis on prayer and the Holy Spirit.

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