Fervent Study
We finished the Fervent study at church and I wanted to journal about it. I'm going to be writing a lot that came straight from Priscilla Shirer's book, Fervent. I'll be sure to put quotes around her words so I don't plagiarize.
She starts the book saying why a prayer journal is important and while I've never done one in the past, I decided to do one through this book. (I don't really like it.) I think there are many right ways to do a prayer journal, but for my first one, I wrote prayers, plus wrote Bible verses I was praying on that day. She talks about her grandmother praying over other people and how her journals were filled with how God worked and answered her prayers and worked in others lives. So far if anyone read my journal, it would be incredibly boring to them. I think they key is to journal longer and longer so you can go back and see God working. (I kind of do that here on my blog - I love seeing God working through the process of us moving here, for example.) I may keep up with my notebook, or I may just go back to this blog.
Okay, this awesome book focuses on prayer, and how to pray fervently. It was a great book to read after we did the armor of God study because it went through 10 major aspects of our lives that Satan attacks and how we need to strategically pray against those attacks to fight. "Despite what we may or may not understand about prayer, God has deliberately chosen this particular vehicle as the one that drives His activity in people's lives." p. 5 To the unsaved, prayer sounds crazy. Closing your eyes and having a conversation in your head sounds very strange. But to the saved, we have the Holy Spirit living in us, and we get to be in contact with the Holy of Holies whenever we want. That is amazing. Seriously, think on that for a minute. We don't have to sacrifice things first, we don't have to be cleansed first, we can come as we are. Any time. Amazing.
She starts every chapter with "If I were your enemy" and I think they were written so well that I'm going to copy them onto here.
1. Your Passion
"If I were your enemy, I'd seek to dim our passion, dull your interest in spiritual things, dampen your belief in God's ability and His personal concern for you, and convince you that the hope you've lost is never coming back - and was probably just a lie to begin with."
The main idea is how our passion for prayer and for God fades over time when our prayers aren't answered the way we want, in the timing we want. Also, our passion fades when we fill our lives with so much stuff that we are too busy to spend time with Him.
The verses she mentioned that meant a lot to me were:
"For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Luke 12:34. This was convicting for me - where do I spend my time? What fills my calendar more than my time with God? That's where my heart really is.
"I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh." Ezekiel 36:26 This just filled me with warmth. Time and time again I slip back into this world (fortunately, less and less deep as I grow older), and time and time again God is there waiting to make me fresh, new, and forgive me. This is mind boggling. I'm not the kind of person who looks at this and thinks I'll do whatever I want because I'll be forgiven later, I see this as a reason not to stay away when I've slipped. His forgiveness and newness is always offered, always there, I just have to ask. Again, amazing. I don't deserve that!
"He will come to us like the rain, like the spring rain watering the earth." Hosea 6:3
"How does a person receive rain? Not by prying it loose from the sky but just by watching it fall, by standing in the downpour, by thanking Him for opening up the floodgates and ending what He knows we need and can't get for ourselves, yet what He so faithfully, regularly, and graciously gives." p. 38
So. Good.
2. Your Focus
"If I were your enemy, I'd disguise myself and manipulate your perspectives so that you'd focus on the wrong culprit - your husband, your friend, your hurt, your finances, anything or anyone except me. Because when you zero in on the most convenient, obvious places to strike back against your problems, you get the impression you're fighting for something. Even though all you're really doing is just....fighting. For nothing."
This is all about how we tend to blame other people or ourselves for what Satan is doing to attack us.
"In order to live in victory, you must call the enemy's bluff, pull back the curtain, open up your spiritual eyes, and remain continually aware of the one who's truly behind a lot of the stuff you're always blaming on your circumstances, your upbringing, your boyfriend, or whatever. Even on yourself."
Whoa. Did you just read that?
So, when these things come up, we are to recognize that the reason they are entering our thoughts is Satan. Pure and simple. And we need to pray to fight against that.
Some great verses she listed include:
"I will exalt you, Lord, for you rescued me. You refused to let my enemies triumph over me." Psalm 30:1 Thank you, Jesus.
"Do not rejoice over me, O my enemy. Though I fall I will rise; Though I dwell in darkness, the Lord is a light for me." Micah 7:8 He is always there. He will fight for us and be our light. Light is a huge word illustration for me. Have you ever been afraid in the dark, lost, not able to figure out which way is up? Light is a relief and salvation. Have you ever been really cold, like to the core, and felt the warmth from fire light soak into you, warming you? Yeah, light is special to me. God is my relief, my safe place, my warmth.
"The Lord is faithful, and He will strengthen and protect you from the evil one." 2 Thessalonians 3:3 Just in case you were still wondering if God has our back.
"For the battle is not yours but God's" 2 Chronicles 20:15b
Stop blaming other people, stop blaming yourself (I have a friend with real self-loathing issues), stop blaming your upbringing. It's satan. Focus on fighting him. Focus on fighting him through prayer.
"Truly, our enemy is going to pay for what He's done and is doing to us, for daring to pick on the children of God." p. 53
This is all good stuff and there are 10 chapters, so I'll put the rest on several more posts.
She starts the book saying why a prayer journal is important and while I've never done one in the past, I decided to do one through this book. (I don't really like it.) I think there are many right ways to do a prayer journal, but for my first one, I wrote prayers, plus wrote Bible verses I was praying on that day. She talks about her grandmother praying over other people and how her journals were filled with how God worked and answered her prayers and worked in others lives. So far if anyone read my journal, it would be incredibly boring to them. I think they key is to journal longer and longer so you can go back and see God working. (I kind of do that here on my blog - I love seeing God working through the process of us moving here, for example.) I may keep up with my notebook, or I may just go back to this blog.
Okay, this awesome book focuses on prayer, and how to pray fervently. It was a great book to read after we did the armor of God study because it went through 10 major aspects of our lives that Satan attacks and how we need to strategically pray against those attacks to fight. "Despite what we may or may not understand about prayer, God has deliberately chosen this particular vehicle as the one that drives His activity in people's lives." p. 5 To the unsaved, prayer sounds crazy. Closing your eyes and having a conversation in your head sounds very strange. But to the saved, we have the Holy Spirit living in us, and we get to be in contact with the Holy of Holies whenever we want. That is amazing. Seriously, think on that for a minute. We don't have to sacrifice things first, we don't have to be cleansed first, we can come as we are. Any time. Amazing.
She starts every chapter with "If I were your enemy" and I think they were written so well that I'm going to copy them onto here.
1. Your Passion
"If I were your enemy, I'd seek to dim our passion, dull your interest in spiritual things, dampen your belief in God's ability and His personal concern for you, and convince you that the hope you've lost is never coming back - and was probably just a lie to begin with."
The main idea is how our passion for prayer and for God fades over time when our prayers aren't answered the way we want, in the timing we want. Also, our passion fades when we fill our lives with so much stuff that we are too busy to spend time with Him.
The verses she mentioned that meant a lot to me were:
"For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Luke 12:34. This was convicting for me - where do I spend my time? What fills my calendar more than my time with God? That's where my heart really is.
"I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh." Ezekiel 36:26 This just filled me with warmth. Time and time again I slip back into this world (fortunately, less and less deep as I grow older), and time and time again God is there waiting to make me fresh, new, and forgive me. This is mind boggling. I'm not the kind of person who looks at this and thinks I'll do whatever I want because I'll be forgiven later, I see this as a reason not to stay away when I've slipped. His forgiveness and newness is always offered, always there, I just have to ask. Again, amazing. I don't deserve that!
"He will come to us like the rain, like the spring rain watering the earth." Hosea 6:3
"How does a person receive rain? Not by prying it loose from the sky but just by watching it fall, by standing in the downpour, by thanking Him for opening up the floodgates and ending what He knows we need and can't get for ourselves, yet what He so faithfully, regularly, and graciously gives." p. 38
So. Good.
2. Your Focus
"If I were your enemy, I'd disguise myself and manipulate your perspectives so that you'd focus on the wrong culprit - your husband, your friend, your hurt, your finances, anything or anyone except me. Because when you zero in on the most convenient, obvious places to strike back against your problems, you get the impression you're fighting for something. Even though all you're really doing is just....fighting. For nothing."
This is all about how we tend to blame other people or ourselves for what Satan is doing to attack us.
"In order to live in victory, you must call the enemy's bluff, pull back the curtain, open up your spiritual eyes, and remain continually aware of the one who's truly behind a lot of the stuff you're always blaming on your circumstances, your upbringing, your boyfriend, or whatever. Even on yourself."
Whoa. Did you just read that?
So, when these things come up, we are to recognize that the reason they are entering our thoughts is Satan. Pure and simple. And we need to pray to fight against that.
Some great verses she listed include:
"I will exalt you, Lord, for you rescued me. You refused to let my enemies triumph over me." Psalm 30:1 Thank you, Jesus.
"Do not rejoice over me, O my enemy. Though I fall I will rise; Though I dwell in darkness, the Lord is a light for me." Micah 7:8 He is always there. He will fight for us and be our light. Light is a huge word illustration for me. Have you ever been afraid in the dark, lost, not able to figure out which way is up? Light is a relief and salvation. Have you ever been really cold, like to the core, and felt the warmth from fire light soak into you, warming you? Yeah, light is special to me. God is my relief, my safe place, my warmth.
"The Lord is faithful, and He will strengthen and protect you from the evil one." 2 Thessalonians 3:3 Just in case you were still wondering if God has our back.
"For the battle is not yours but God's" 2 Chronicles 20:15b
Stop blaming other people, stop blaming yourself (I have a friend with real self-loathing issues), stop blaming your upbringing. It's satan. Focus on fighting him. Focus on fighting him through prayer.
"Truly, our enemy is going to pay for what He's done and is doing to us, for daring to pick on the children of God." p. 53
This is all good stuff and there are 10 chapters, so I'll put the rest on several more posts.
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