Imagine

Imagine if Jesus had complete control of your workplace today.

You would anticipate what new and exciting miracles Jesus was going to perform this week.

You would walk with a spring in your step and a gleam in your eye because your great big God was handling every potential problem.

If Jesus was in absolute control of where you work, employees would be so busy helping each other to excel that your companies productivity would skyrocket.

And if Jesus was in control you would be more concerned about your co-worker getting the accolades and promotions than you would about yourself.

There would be joy in servitude.

There would be peace and harmony.

Stress would be a thing of the past.

Integrity and fairness would reign.

Sick days would all but disappear.

Managers would recognize a job well done.

And transperancy and trust would so permeate the hearts and minds of men and women that the local newspapers would want to investigate the source of such harmony and wellbeing.

If Jesus could have His way today.

History provides great examples of what happens when  great men and women of God prayed until their communities were shaken.

Men like Johnathan Edwards who preached "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" and sparked a huge revival. Or George Whitfield who prayed until he shook under the power of God. Or the great Welsh Revival where 180,000 men came to God over a two year period.

And all of this is still possible today!

If we will but pray and allow Jesus to flow through us to those around us then our jobs can be transformed.

Peace, joy and love can be the order of the day - every day.

If we will but pray.

We must pray earnestly, fervantly and consistently.

But if we will, then God will answer in ways that we can only imagine.

"If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land." (2 Chronicles 7:14)

How can I pray for your workplace today?

What are the most pressing needs?

What is the corporate climate?

What human ways of thinking needs to be saturated with the love of God?

Post a comment and let's pray about this together.

Or, if you prefer, email me directly at dsimlergoff@sbcglobal.net.

Let's make 2011 the year we imagined together for revival and transformation in our workplace!

-Debbie

Praying Outside the Paper Bag

Have you ever felt like you can't pray your way out of a paper bag?

Would you like to know how to pop the bag and have deep, meaningful prayer every time?

Then keep reading.

It's true that sometimes prayer can be difficult. Even E.M. Bounds, that great man of prayer had this to say on the subject of prayer:

"Prayer is the easiest and hardest of all things; the simplest and the sublimest;
the weakest and the most powerful; its results lie outside the range of human possibilities - they are limited only by the omnipotence of God."
And while it's true that prayer indeed can be all of these things:


Easy and hard.

Simple and sublime.

Weak and powerful.

There is a secret in breaking through to sweet communion with God each and every time we bow our knee.
The secret is in surrender.

The more we surrender, the more of Christ and His truths fill our mind.

Our hearts become  fixed on Biblical truths.

Our will becomes Christ's will.

Joy flows.

Peace fills our being.

Anxiety dissipates.

And because at those moments our spirit is in sync with the Holy Spirit of God prayer is easy.

So the challenge, the struggle, the hardness that E.M. Bounds speaks of is not in getting to God - He is always with us. It is in the breaking of our self-will, our agenda's, our pride.
If we are angry and really don't want to forgive, or if we are more worried about all the things we have to do as soon as our prayer time is over, then prayer is a chore.

An obligation.

A drudgery.

A duty to be fulfilled.

The more our minds are focused on our needs, our wants,  and our discomfort the less awareness of God's spirit we feel.

Perhaps that is why we are instructed in scripture to "... lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us." (Hebrews 1:21)
Because we must first let go of everything that is not like Christ before we can truly come into close, intimate fellowship with Him.
So if you, like me, feel like  you're trying to pray yourself out of a paper bag look inward. Search your heart and see if there are any attitudes or grudges that you're holding onto. And if you discover that there is, let them all go, ask Jesus to purify you, to help you to overcome.

Then look around you and discover that while you were asking for Christ's help, He removed the paper bag.

Lord Jesus, we want to live every day in a way that glorifies You. Forgive us of our selfish ways. Help us to let go of hurts and resentments. We want a deep fellowship and closeness with You and we know that is only possible if first we lay aside the sins that beset us. In Jesus Name. Amen


 

FLAT BALLOONS

I’ve had family in all week from Tennessee which means my normal devotional routines are off.

I normally get up at 5am, but so does my sister-in-law. This means I’m spending the first hour of my morning with her, instead of with Jesus.

Although, I’ve enjoyed the time with my sister-in-law; I can’t help but feel that Jesus is sitting in the next room waiting for me. There is a song by Larnell Harris that says, “I miss my time with you, those moments together…” which sums it up exactly what I mean.

 I wonder how often we miss our quiet time with the Lord because the demands of life creep up on us. Maybe we hit the snooze too many times, or perhaps we jumped on our Facebook first thing in the morning instead of opening our Bible. I know I am struggling with all of this today, and can feel the lack of buoyancy in my spirit.

Prayer fills up my soul like helium fills a balloon. And when I’m not praying my ‘balloon' as it were goes flat.’

Oh God, help all of us to always seek you first no matter our circumstances!

“But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” (Matthew 6:33)

Skittles

I teach a weekly women's Bible study. Last night, when we met I gave them a bag of Skittles and asked them to count out 24 of them.

Then I told them that each Skittle represented one hour of their day. Next, I instructed them to group their Skittle according to how they spend their day.

It was interesting, fun and quite revealing.

Most of the women had extra hours they could not account for.  Yet out of a group of eight, not one of them alloted even one Skittle to time spent in prayer, Bible reading, or devotion to God. Naturally, I pointed this out and then told them the following story:

When my husband, Buddy was about 12 years old, he had a job delivering newspapers. He had to get up at 4am to do his newspaper route before school. When payday came, he gave most of his earnings to his parents who were struggling to make ends meet. But Buddy kept back a small amount for himself and one week he chose to buy his little brother David some M&M's. David was thrilled and ripped the package open right away and started munching. Buddy asked David for one of the M &M's and little David's response was "No! These are mine!"

My students got the point of the story immediately.

Just as Buddy had given David the whole package and only asked for a small portion back, if we're not careful, we do the same thing with God. He gives us the gift of 24 hours of life each day, and often we refuse to give God even an hour of the 24.

Part of living every day with Jesus is recognizing our responsibility in maintaining the relationship.

Let's do our best to share our time with God, afterall, it all belongs to Him anyway!

Unlikely Prayer Closets

I  slept in later than normal last Saturday, and the first thing on my mind when I woke up was the mountain of clean clothes that was waiting  for me to fold them.

You see, my husband and I each  work full time, so we share the housework. In terms of the laundry, we both gather and sort, he puts them in the washer and dryer, and then I fold and put away.

Let's just say that on this particular Saturday morning, my part of the laundry duty was in arrears.  So I decided to have a brief  devotional time:  one cup of coffee and  one chapter of Bible reading. Then I went downstairs to tackle the mound of clean towels, sheets and t-shirts that awaited me.    

After changing the clothes from the washer to the dryer, and depositing a fresh load into the washing machine, I  began folding. It was quiet in the house, and I found the rythmic tumble of the dryer soothing.  After a little while, my thoughts drifted to the prayer time I'd cut short this morning.

Well, why not pray now? I thought.

 It's quiet and there are no distractions...

But you're folding laundry! You're doing a chore! How can you do something so earthy and try to be spiritual at the same time? 

This kind of internal discussion went on my mind for several minutes, but ultimately I decided to give it a try. 

•  I  folded the hand towels and prayed for my children, their spouses and my grandchildren remembering all the times they'd come for a visit and dried their hands on those very towels.
• And when I got to the washcloths I prayed for the missionaries and wondered how many of them do without such small conveniences as a clean washcloth.
• The freshly dried bedsheets made me think of covers, so I prayed  a covering of protection for all those I come in contact with.
• And as I folded my husband's blue jeans, it made me think of his work, because he mostly wears jeans to work. So I prayed for his job, his employees, and his clients.
• Then as I matched socks, I prayed for the beautiful feet of the ministry because Romans 10:15 says the feet of preachers are beautiful.

And you know what? The sweet presence of the Holy Spirit met with me in a very special way that day. I wept under God's power, and then rejoiced in gladness at the fresh anointing He poured upon me.

It's so nice to know that God will meet with us anywhere. We just have to have a heart turned towards Him. And what about you? Where do you pray? What unusual Prayer Closets have you had? Share with me! Share with all of us!

I'll leave you one to get you started. It's by Brother Lawrence, a seventeenth-century French monk who knew how to Practice the Presence of God:

"The time of business does not with me differ from the time of prayer, and in the noise and clatter of my kitchen, while several persons are at the same time calling for different things, I possess God in as great a tranquility as if I were upon my knees at the blessed sacrament."

Encouraging Yourself

I'm sitting here staring at the blank screen trying to muster up something refreshing and brilliant to say that will encourage and uplift. But the truth is I'm sleepy and feel like I have about as much to offer today as a dry well in a sandstorm. But then I realize that this too is part of living every day with Jesus.

So what does one do when you feel this way?

I remind myself of all the things  God has done for me. And I quote scripture or sing worship songs. It's amazing how much this helps. The Bible confirms this in Colossians 3:15-17 because it says:

"And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him."

Keeping a Gratitude Journal is another way to give yourself a spiritual uplift. I haven't done this consistently, but the times I have done it have always made a big difference. The idea is to write down what your thankful for that happened each day. Then, when you are having a down day you review what you wrote and thank God for it. This too has a Biblical foundation because I Thessalonians 5:17 says

"In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you."

So, my dear readers who I value so much. Tell me what you do to encourage yourself. I'd really like to know....

GRACE-FULL LIVING

E.M. BOUNDS said "There's no arriving at a high state of grace without much praying, and no staying in those high altitudes without great praying."

Those words resonate with me. Just about the time I think I'm flowing in the love of Christ somebody comes along and rocks my boat. Suddenly, they're under my skin and making my life miserable.

There is a place where difficult people can't touch you. I've been there before. But to get there - and more importantly to stay there takes alot of prayer.

So I guess it comes down to this: Would I rather struggle with the individual who's frustrating me or struggle in prayer with my Lord? The obvious answer is with my Lord.

Oh, Jesus, make me so full of Your grace that nothing can drag me down.

"Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in His holy place? He that hath clean hands, and pure heart." Psalm 24:3-4