Inspirational Tozer

Hat tip Major Stephen Court for finding this Tozer prayer.

“Lord Jesus, I come to you for spiritual preparation. Lay your hand upon me. Anoint me with the oil of the New Testament prophet. Forbid that I should become a religious scribe and thus lose my prophetic calling. Save me from the curse that lies dark across the face of clergy, the curse of compromise, the imitation, of professionalism. Save me from the error of judging a church by its size, its popularity or the amount of its yearly offering. Help me to remember that I am a prophet – not a promoter, not a religious manager, but a prophet. Let me never become a slave to crowds. Heal my soul of carnal ambitions and deliver me from the itch for publicity. Save me from bondage to things. Let me not waste my days puttering around the house. Lay your terror upon me, O God, and drive me to the place of prayer where I may wrestle with principalities and powers and the rulers of the darkness of this world. Deliver me from overeating and late sleeping. Teach me self-discipline that I may be a good soldier of Jesus Christ.”

A.W. Tozer

Sometimes a difficult prayer to pray – but I’ve been challenged to pray through this daily and I wait eagerly to see what God’s going to speak to me and change in me.

Anyone else challenged by Tozers prayer??

Romans 15:13 – May the God of hope fill you up with joy, fill you up with peace, so that your believing lives, filled with the life-giving energy of the Holy Spirit, will brim over with hope! (The Message)

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Make my life a Prayer

Lately I’ve been reading over some of the amazing lyrics written by Keith Green – trying to get re-inspired to write meaningful lyrics for a new project we’re starting here at the training college in the next couple of weeks. But I was especially moved this morning when I came across this gem of a song/prayer that articulates the prayer of my heart at the moment; both a challenge and declaration:

Make my life a prayer to you
I wanna do what you want me to
No empty words and no white lies
No token prayers no compromise

I wanna shine the light you gave
Thru your son you sent to save us
From ourselves and our despair
It comforts me to know you’re really there

Chorus
Well I wanna thank you now
For being patient with me
Oh it’s so hard to see
When my eyes are on me
I guess I’ll have to trust
And just believe what you say
Oh you’re coming again
Coming to take me away

I wanna die and let you give
Your life to me so I might live
And share the hope you gave me
The love that set me free

I wanna tell the world out there
You’re not some fable or fairy tale
That I’ve made up inside my head
You’re God the son and you’ve risen from the dead

Powerful words! I want to become less so that Christ may increase in my life – I want the things that aren’t Godly within me to die so that Christ may reign and live fully in me.

John 3:30 says: He must become greater; I must become less.

God grant it – please!

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Stop…take a breath….

In the madness of my busy morning (and may I add the boys were up at 5am…eek!), I’m having to choose to take a moment – stop – and take a breath. Sometimes I have been so caught up in the day-to-day craziness of this thing called ‘life’ and I have to admit at times that my eyes have been glued to the road and I haven’t always looked up to see who was around me, admire my surroundings, allow myself to serve others and most importantly acknowledge God who is in everything and in control of everything. So this morning, i’m choosing to take a moment and just STOP.

“S” is for still. Sometimes just being still for a few moments helps to put the business of life in perspective. Just now I’ve had to take a breath, acknowledge that life is a little crazy, but I will get through it because I have a God who is walking beside me through it all. Psalm 33:20-22 ‘We’re depending on God; he’s everything we need. What’s more, our hearts brim with joy since we’ve taken for our own his holy name. Love us, God, with all you’ve got— that’s what we’re depending on.’

“T” is for thankful. Be thankful for all the good things God has given to you; your family, friends, a roof over your head, food to eat (these are things that we so often take for granted). Remind yourself of the goodness of God and how he lavishes His love upon us – and we receive his love and grace daily, freely, undeservedly, and in great measure.

Psalm 7:17 says: ‘I will give thanks to the LORD because of his righteousness and will sing praise to the name of the LORD Most High.’

“O” is for be an ‘overcomer‘. Claim the victory that is yours in Christ Jesus. Sometimes, myself included, we can act as though we are defeated and therefore we start to pity ourselves and get caught up in ourselves. But the bible says that we who believe in Christ Jesus have the victory over sin and death.

1 John 5 says: ^1′Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. ²This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. ³This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, ⁴for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. ⁵Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.’

“P” is for praise. Give praise to God for the goodness He shows us daily. I have found that sometimes praise that is costly, is the most powerful. What I mean by that is sometimes when we’re having a hard time, grieving, sad, stressed or feeling weighed down in our circumstances – when we praise God and lift up the name of Jesus, something in the supernatural breaks through and even though it sometimes feels costly, God is honoured even in our pain. I have felt the amazing closeness of God in the times when life has been at it’s most painful – and it’s during those times of hardship when i’ve pressed through and praised Him, even though everything in the ‘natural’ would tell me to give up. I’m reminded of the song ‘Blessed be Your Name’ and especially the second verse that says:

Blessed be Your name

on the road marked with suffering,

though there’s pain in the offering,

Blessed be Your name.

May we all become a little better today at stopping….taking a breath…and living out this amazing life with our eyes fixed on Jesus Christ.

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