Tag: prayer

Expectations for 2022

2021 is now over and we’ve entered into a new year. I don’t know about you but the magic of entering into a new year has started to wane for me. I hope this doesn’t discourage you from boarding the ‘new year, new me’ train. A new year always feels like we can start afresh and set new goals and gain perspective on the past. In fact, I usually do try to build some healthier habits at the beginning of a new year.

The problem, of course, is that much like the magic of a new year fading, so do the consistency of those new habits.

I’m also realizing those ‘new habits’ that I try and start to build are always the same ‘new habits’ that I tried and failed at last year. whether it be a diet, exercise, bible reading, or daily prayer, it’s the same thing at the beginning of every new year and the same failure to follow through.

But this year…maybe this year will be different…

All joking aside, I don’t think it’s bad to fall short in those goals or expectations set at the beginning of the year. I think we often find ourselves woefully short of what we’d like to be and find that another year has already passed and little to no ground has been gained in improving our weaknesses. In the end, we set too high of expectations on ourselves and put a lot of pressure on ourselves to meet some probably unattainable goals.

As followers of Christ, while it is important and, dare I say, necessary to have daily habits like reading and reflecting on Scripture, prayer, fasting, evangelism, giving, missions, and helping the poor, it would be counterproductive to think that even these daily habits are done without God’s grace.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned this past year about myself is that I rely on myself way too much. I think that I can take care of all my responsibilities as a husband, father, and pastor by my own strength and strategy. In the end, I end up burning myself in one or more of those roles I have and end up letting everyone down and hurting those I love most in the process. 2021 was a humbling year, to say the least.

The last few months of 2021 opened up my eyes to the realization that I do not trust in God’s grace to sustain me. When the Lord tells the apostle Paul: “My grace is sufficient for you”, I did not believe it. Not in my heart and actions, anyway.

How does anyone rely on God’s grace in the daily ins and outs of life? I am still figuring that out but two things come to mind as I begin this year:

  1. Humility. When I think about how I relied on my own strength, strategies, gifts, and talents, I feel very foolish. Namely because I am not particularly strong, strategic, gifted, or talented in anything. It humbles me and it makes me realize how foolish I was being to think that I am, in and of myself, a reliable resource to anybody. Everything I have already is from the hand of God. Why would I think that anything I could give would be mine to give in the first place?
  2. Prayer. Prayer is the first step to putting humility into action. To come before God, to stand in His majesty, to confess my own weakness, sin, and shame, to ask for help, and to worship Him as He works, is indeed a very humbling experience. I hope to make prayer a focus in my life this upcoming year. What I hope prayer will do for myself and my family and my church is to make us get down and to help us stay down. My instinct is that prayer is supposed to lift me up and make me a better person but I’m learning that that’s not the case. Prayer is supposed to keep me down and to make me a more dependent follower of Christ.

Zoe Fellowship, as you know, every Wednesday at 7PM, we have a weekly prayer meeting for about an hour where we gather to reflect on Scripture, to pray through the Scripture, and then to pray for one another. As we enter into the new year, I pray that you’ll join me on our knees humbled before the Lord in prayer to Him, asking Him for the grace to sustain us, to help us become more faithful followers of Christ, and to lead us to bear fruit in our lives, for His namesake and for His glory.

Fake It ‘Till You Make It

One of the things I struggle with the most in my walk with the Lord is consistency. Whether it’s regular Bible reading, regular prayer, or checking in with church members, I always start and then end up skipping a day…then another day…and then a week…and then a month…until I feel like I’ve fallen too far behind to start up again. My faith often feels like I am trying to keep up with a New Years resolution.

This has often led me to think that my love for the Lord has gone cold. Or that maybe my devotion to the Lord was false. I feel like an imposter and a hypocrite. Shouldn’t praying be easy? Why can’t I make time to read the Bible every day? Shouldn’t reaching out to brothers and sisters at my church be simple?

And often these questions lead to other questions that plunges the knife of guilt even deeper: shouldn’t I want to pray? Do I really desire to know the Lord through His Word? Do I really love my brothers and sisters in Christ if I feel this awkward reaching out to them?

These are questions that I wrestle with all the time as a pastor and as a Christian.

I want to encourage you with really just one word of practical advice that helped me to push through in building godly habits and growing in spiritual disciplines:

Fake it ’till you make it.

I know. It sounds crude. It’s not pretty. It doesn’t even sound Christian. But hear me out.

I think my generation has believed in the ideal that our feelings must be true and authentic before we act on them. If our hearts are not in it, then it’s not real and it’s hypocritical.

While I think in some cases that can be true, I wonder if spiritual disciplines is a good context to apply this ideal.

Think about this: if you exercise and lift weights even when you don’t want to, will you still gain muscle? Or if you diet and eat healthy foods even when you don’t desire those foods, will you still not lose weight and get healthier overall? And on top of that, when you see people who exercise consistently and eat healthy foods, don’t they seem like they actually enjoy it? Doesn’t it seem like they love sweating and feeling worn out after a workout? Don’t they seem like they’re really enjoying that salad for lunch? Your muscles that you gained and weight that you lost are still very real despite your feelings about how you got there.

Much like bodily disciplines of healthy eating and exercise, spiritual disciplines can feel fake and insincere at the time, but the effects are very real. I believe that the growth of our desire and affection for the Lord and His church are the effects of spiritual disciplines, not the prerequisite for spiritual disciplines. Furthermore, the desire and affection that grew out of our spiritual disciplines helps us to love and enjoy our spiritual disciplines themselves because they lead to our greatest Love and greatest Joy in Christ.

All that to say, all the advice out there for practicing spiritual disciplines are great and I would recommend them to you all. Put bible reading and prayer in your schedule and make it immovable. Don’t overburden yourself by trying to read too much or praying too long or using fancy theological words. Partner up with others to hold each other accountable. Keep a journal. Use your free time to spend time with or reach out to church members.

However, don’t let a false sense of insincerity keep you from growing in your love and devotion to the Lord and His people. Yes, you might feel fake when you start, but the effects are very real as you continue to push yourself. You might be digging up dirt and planting and watering but only the Lord gives the growth. Trust in Him. Your labor is not in vain.