January 13, 2011 Forward Motion Faith

I started a new series tonight at church titled “Me”.  The idea of the series will be to connect ourselves with Christ in fresh and intimate way.  It was great!  The series got off to a great start (my point of view and biased I might add)!  I am so excited about challenging our congregation to growing in Christ.  If you have not been attending our mid-week class in I invite you to start.  If you cannot come on Wednesday nights I want you to pick up the CD from the class.  I believe the class will challenge you to a new level of Forward Motion Faith.

 I read somewhere recently an article about “success”.  I can’t for the life of me remember where I read the article so I can’t give anyone due credit.  I remember it was about the “3 P’s of Success”.   I remember the three P’s: Pause, Process and Pace.   I remember the article was directed toward introverts.  I guess I was more impressed with the title than I was the content (totally understand this because folk have remembered some of my sermon titles more than they did the sermon).  Go figure!   Anyway, back to my blog point of these three P’s.

Let me take the three P’s and direct them toward a process for intimacy with Christ.  Let’s start with Pause.  Practically speaking one needs to pause in their everyday experiences to strengthen their relationships with the Lord.  One of my favorite passages in Scripture is Psalm 46.10, “Be still and know that I am God.”    Reason being is that in our busy lifestyles we all need to focus on time with God.  We are never too busy to spend time with Him.  In order to do that, we need to simply “pause.”  Take time.  Take time to sit in His presence.  Don’t say anything.  Don’t ask Him for anything.  Just sit in His presence.  Meditating is unspoken thoughts about God, who He is and how He affects our life.  Take the time to meditate.  Pause and consider Him who has given His life for you.

Next is the word “process.”  I use this word a lot.  I use in counseling or giving direction for personal life experiences.  I usually instruct people to “process this out” or I will say something like “we all process thoughts differently.”  According to the dictionary the word “process” means “the action of going forward; course; a series of actions directed to some end.”  I know that sounds academic but it is what it is.  The point of this definition is to help us understand that once we have paused with Him, we need to process what we have gained in our devotion time with Him.  I encourage folk that this “pause” time should be deliberate.  It should be focused.  It should be comfortable.  It should not be filled with anxiety or weariness.  Our time with the Lord should be processed.  In other words we need to take a “series of actions toward an end.”  In other words once we have paused we need to engage actions toward an end.  Our intimacy with Christ, our devotion time should motivate us toward action.  Choosing to act on Scripture.  Choosing to act on the Holy Spirit’s inspiration.  James 1.23 instructs us to become a doer of the Word and not a hearer only.  Processing – actions toward an end.

Third is the word “pace”.  I think the intention here is to pace yourself in devotion time.    Don’t rush your prayer time.  Don’t feel like there is a set time to hear from Him.  For instance if you don’t “get anything” from the Lord within a certain amount of time – don’t condemn yourself.  I have actually gone days without “hearing from the Lord.”  Oh the Word has been inspiration and academically challenging but as for hearing from the Holy Spirit in direct and distinctive way – not always.  Pacing yourself allows you to persevere with passion.  Knowing He speaks will be enough to bring you back to Him.  Paul wrote to Timothy and said that the Holy Spirit will speak expressly in the last days (1 Timothy 4.1).   We know the Holy Spirit will speak.  We just have to be in a position to hear Him.  Pacing ourselves in our prayer/devotion time will put us in the place to hear Him.  Pace yourself.  It’s your prayer/devotion time.  There is no one to compete with – it’s you and Him.  Pace yourself.  Take time to know Him.

Pause, process and pace.   The Three P’s of Success in prayer and devotion time.   Try them.  Put them to work.  Come on…were burning daylight!