A businessman dragged himself home and barely made it to his chair before he became totally exhausted. His sweet wife came to his rescue with a tall, cool, glass of ice tea and a comforting, loving word.
“My, you look tired,” she said. “You must have had a hard day. What happened to make you so exhausted?”
“It was terrible,” her husband cried. “The computer broke down and all of us had to do our own thinking.”
Many of us today don’t take a lot of time to think. Yet, most of us spend more time thinking than praying. There are some who spend time praying and doing nothing else.
“Have you noticed how much praying for revival has been going on of late – and how little revival has resulted? I believe the problem is that we have been trying to substitute praying for obeying, and it simply will not work. To pray for revival while ignoring the plain precept laid down in Scripture is to waste a lot of words and get nothing for our trouble.
Prayer will become effective when we stop using it as a substitute for obedience,” says the late Rev. A. W. Tozer.
The power of this statement is, if we are to be effective for Christ in this culture and age, we must be active and obedient.
Jesus, the Promised One, spent as much time walking as He did praying. Prayer is vitally important to any Christian, and so is “being like Jesus.” When Jesus was training the world’s future Love Leaders, he talked as he walked and walked as he talked. He added time apart to examine his heart — thinking about how much He loves you and me and to connect and talk with his Father.
If we are going to be effective Love Leaders that God can use, we must take time to think, praise, pray and share the Good News of his love. No more just taking up space without giving him first place.
Start with a time apart to examine your heart! Think about it! Pray about it! Get UP and GO tell He will fill your heart space d with greater grace as you go about your world blessing those in his love field.
2012, reprinted by permission from Lifeway.