Practice #1: Come Before God Daily, Part 2

The second thing that Jesus taught was that our view of God in prayer will determine our intimacy and our answers - our view of God.

He was a man of prayer, and His disciples would watch Him pray and they had the Pharisees prayers that they heard. They'd go on street corners and they would quote lots of scripture and made sure everyone could hear them. And John the Baptist taught His disciples to pray, and they had a routine that they went through.

And there was something about Jesus prayers. Of all the things we have in scripture, they didn't ask Him, teach us to preach. They didn't ask Him, you know, could you teach us how to do miracles like you do? Here's what they said, "Lord, would you teach us to pray?"

And so, we have in Luke chapter 11, the conversation, and He gives them a pattern because they wanted a pattern. When you pray, say, “Our Father who art in heaven…” and you know the Lord's prayer.

What He realized was their issue wasn't saying the right words. Their issue was how they viewed God. And then He tells the story about someone coming late at night and knocking and saying, "Hey, I've got visitors." And in that culture, hospitality is important. You don't turn them away, so what am I going to do?

And the point He was making was the only person you would ever go knock on the door, think of you calling someone at three A.M. and saying, "Hey, my car's broke down and I know you would come and get me."

It means that you have such confidence in that person that they don't want to get up, but because you would ask that they realize, wow, you must think the world of me. And then He flipped it around with another illustration. He goes: You, as fathers, if your children ask you for an egg, you wouldn't give them a scorpion. I see God accurately. I see Him as a good God. I see Him as the how-much-more-God. I see Him as a God who is kind and gentle and patient and loving. I see Him as a God who gives mercies each and every day. I see Him as a God that you don't have to perform for. I see Him as a God where you don't have to earn it. He's your Father. He loves you and He's for you.

If you saw God like that, if I saw God more like that. It would be pretty easy to get up in the morning and say, “I'd like to get to know You better.”

You know, the Bible says that God delights - think of this word - God delights in the prayer of the upright.

Can you imagine you grasping and understanding that the God of the universe who is all-knowing and all-powerful hears your prayer and it delights Him? And He just wants to spend time with you and wants to share with you and wants to hear your hurts and wants to help you.

I mean, all of us have been little kids, right? When we ran to mommy and mommy comforted us or we went to Dad and we needed some wise advice or counsel or something. God is all that and infinitely more. You see, Jesus taught His disciples that our view of God would determine our intimacy and the answers to our prayers.

The third thing that Jesus taught His disciples was obedience to God's Word is the prerequisite to experiencing His love and His presence.

That very last night, John 14, He told them the Holy Spirit would be coming. He said, “I'm going to prepare a place for you…” And then He says, “He that has My commandments and keeps them, he it is that loves Me.” Then listen. “And he that loves Me will be loved by My Father and I will love him and we will come and,” the old English is, “make our abode” or manifest our presence [to him.]

You see, it's not just taking in truth, it's not just listening to a good message. It's not just reading the Bible and getting through your reading program for the year or the New Testament. It's not just kind of going through YouVersion, which is really wonderful, but it's saying, God, what do You want me to do? I want to obey what You say because obedience is the organ of transformation.

Here's what I'm saying. Jesus taught, in one word, the goal of coming before God is to “abide.” The word just means to be connected. Your heart connected to God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. “If you abide in Me and My Words abide in you, just ask whatever you wish and it'll be done for you.” In other words, abiding is our responsibility and the result is joy.

So, how do you develop the practice of coming before God privately?

Number one, make a daily appointment with Jesus. Set a time, set a place, and have a plan.

Second, it's a habit to be developed.

I mean, I don't want to de-spiritualize it, but here's the deal, if you don't do this regularly, your life is being discipled by social media, by friends, by work. Every day you have a path, you're living a path. You have a rhythm that you live. It's called your way. What I'm trying to tell you is there's a way of Jesus, and so I have a pattern and all of it doesn't sound really spiritual. I get up. Like you, I go to the bathroom. I let the dog out, I feed the dog. I get my cup of coffee, I tell my dog to wait for His master to get up, who's my wife, and then I have a place and it's a chair, and then I take God's Word and then I spend this amount of time that has worked for me over the years and I talk with God.

And for me, some days then I need to process, so I'll write some things in a journal. I’ll put a few little boxes of specific answers to prayer, and I'll sit quietly and ask God, You know what's coming today? Would You speak to me? Would You give me direction? And then I go to work and then I have a time when I work out three days a week. There's a pattern to my life.

Here's the deal. Do you like your life right now? Are you married? Do you like your marriage? You’re a parent. Do you like how it's going with your kids? Your current path, your way, your road is producing the life you currently have. You are a disciple. I'm a disciple.

All I'm saying is let's be Jesus' disciple, and the first step is let's come before God daily and meet with Him. One, make an appointment. Two, it's a habit. So, are you ready? Like every habit, you do it good for two or three days, then you miss, right? And then you struggle.

Here's the pattern. Yes, it feels like a duty early on. That's okay. Then little by little by little, it becomes a discipline and pretty soon... Like, do you have to, like, make yourself a note? Make sure to brush your teeth. Do you have to write that down?

The day can come where part of your life is you meet with God, it becomes a habit, and then what I can tell you is over time, with practice, it goes from duty, to discipline, to delight.

I could tell you a time as an early Christian where I had to get out of bed to meet with God. And then I will tell you, as the years went and the discipline developed, I love the mornings. I love to get up. I bounce out of bed, but it took time, it took practice.

The third thing is you have to have an actual plan or practice, and I got mine from Solomon, the wisest man in the world. In Proverbs, chapter 2: 1-5. Listen carefully to what he talks about in terms of coming before God.

He's talking to his son, “My son, if you'll receive my words and treasure my commandments within you, make your ear attentive to wisdom and incline your heart to understanding; for if you cry for discernment, lift your voice for understanding, if you seek [for] her as silver and search for her for hidden treasure, then,” notice a result, “then you'll discern the fear of the Lord and discover the knowledge of God.”

As I broke this down, just follow along. In fact, you might want to download the notes on this: “My son, if you'll receive my words,” he's talking about the words he's gotten from God, “treasure my commandments.”

Step one, be intentional; have a plan; receive His Word. Get into His Word in an intentional systematic way.

Number two, make your ear attentive to wisdom; incline your heart - be teachable.

I'm mentoring a young, very gifted man from another country right now, and he's really fast. He's really sharp, and in my last trip when I was there, he said, "Would you mentor me?" And I've watched his life. I said, "Sure." My last time there, he said, "You know, I'm hanging around you and I think I may have to, like, forget a lot of my Christian life and start over."

I said, "What do you mean?" He goes, "I like to get things done. And honestly, man, I get up. I read through the Bible in a year. Bam, I got my four chapters. I say a few prayers I run. I'm a doer, doer, doer, but I don't think I'm very teachable. I'm not sure I'm really hearing God's voice. I think I'm doing these things so my life will work and that God will love me. And from hanging around you, I'm thinking, that's not really the plan, is it?"

I said, "No, it's not." I said, "But you don't have to start over. He's gentle. He understands. He just brought us together to maybe give you a couple tips. You know, that's why He brought people into my life."

Third, he goes, “for if you cry for discernment, lift your voice for understanding.

Notice, cry. “God, I need this!”

In other words, be passionate.

Be intentional, be teachable, be [passionate]. Cry out, “I want to know! I want to know You! I want an answer to this! God, this matters to me! Show me how to fix my marriage. God, this addiction, I don't know what to do.”

Cry out! Come to God like a real person, instead of all this religious phony stuff. Bring who you are to Him.

And notice what he says, and then be diligent. “…for if you seek her as silver and search for her as for hidden treasure.”

I mean, if there was $5 million buried in your backyard or somewhere in your apartment, you wouldn't go, “Oh gosh. Well, I've looked for two days. You know, I guess it's just not here.” No, no, it's guaranteed. It's there. You would knock down walls; you would do whatever it takes. Be that passionate; be that diligent in searching out God's Word.

I get up a lot of mornings, I don't feel like praying; I don't feel like reading. But isn't it interesting that once you start, right? It's a lot like working out. Once you start to practice - it's the same here.

And then notice the huge payoff, “… then you discern the fear of the Lord, discover the knowledge of God.” That was the goal.

You'll be transformed.

Be intentional, be teachable, be passionate, be diligent, be transformed.

I want to wrap up our time with how to practice the presence of God. What I don't want you to do, I don't want you to get the idea that I start to have this time with God and I get in God's Word and you're all fired up - that's the beginning of practicing the presence throughout the day.

So, let me give you a few tips on maybe how to begin doing that.

Take one truth, or one promise, or one verse in your time with God, and chew on it throughout the day. In other words, that word chew, we get the word ruminate, or meditate. Let's say you read Proverbs 3: 5 and 6. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways, acknowledge Him and He will direct your path.”

Let's say that was the verse that stuck out to you. Let's say you wrote that on a card, or you got your phone out and typed it in, and got in the car and you started to drive, and you usually turn on the radio and either music or sports or something you say - You know, uh, I think I'll just, I’ll let that go around in my mind.

So, you're driving - Trust in the Lord with all your heart…. Lean not in your own understandings… You just chew on it. Or maybe there was a promise and you're in line at the bank. You're in line at the grocery store and instead of scrolling, you think, Okay, Proverbs 3: 5 and 6, right?

We can have a time with God and we come before Him and then we practice His presence throughout the day and it makes all the difference in the world?

Another tip is limit technology and develop the habit of practicing thanksgiving and interceding rather than scrolling. All I'm going to say on this is that you've heard it, you know the research. I know the research. Take baby steps. It's six, seven, whenever you eat dinner. Then take your phone and put it someplace else. Don't be someplace else when you're here.

You have to break some habits. Some of the spiritual disciplines are subtraction, not addition, and this is one of those I feel like I'm getting fired up and poking around, aren't I?

Can I tell you, this is hard for me. I'm very visual. I understand how hard, but as I've gone into training, not to try to be a better Christian, but to come before God and then eliminate distractions little by little, you'll be transformed.

Proactively, spend some time in nature, take a walk, listen to some good music, do some things that just give you a sense of awe and a bigger world. Go out at night and look at the stars. Do some things that if you're into art that are just beauty and magnificent, read some really high-quality books that invigorates your heart and invigorates your mind.

See, Philippians 4 says, whatever's true, whatever's noble, whatever's lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there's anything of excellence or worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things because they're a reflection of the nature of God.

In summary, life-change and bearing fruit and being used by God can only - are you ready? - can only happen when the supernatural life of Jesus is flowing into your life and your heart by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit takes the written Word and He makes it the living Word, and then He empowers inside of your heart a new set of desires, a breaking of old habits and addictions, and begins to manifest the love of God and the mercy of God, and the kindness of God in your heart and in your mind, which gives you a very different view of God, but - are you ready? - it gives you such a different view of you.

See, when you start living as a: I am a beloved child of God, fully accepted, completely forgiven and infinitely valuable, now that's an identity that you can live out of.

Finally, coming before God daily does not earn any favor with Him. There's no magic about coming before God that your life will automatically or quickly change, but it positions you to allow the grace of God through the activity of coming before Him in His Word of practicing His presence. It positions you where the grace of God can manifest the truth of God and the power of God that brings transformation from the inside out.

Final warning: Take baby steps.

Consistency is way more important. Don't say, I'm going to start spending a half hour, an hour with God every morning. 10 minutes. Doing it every day is more important than you spend an hour one day and then do it again two weeks from now.

And then remember that Jesus is gentle and humble. You're going to mess up. You're going to go a day or two or a few days where the habits break, and then you get all down on yourself and the enemy's going to come in and say, "See, you don't really love God. You don't really care."

The Bible talks about our relationship with God as - what? Walking with God, and I can say this as a grandparent, and I've watched lots of young parents, when they see their little maybe 12 or 18-month old starting to take steps, right? Are they like this going, come on, walk faster, walk faster.

What do they do? They're like this. “Come to daddy. Come to Grandpa,” buh, buh, buh…. Right? And the little kid goes [loud clap] smack, face-plant, and we run. We pick them up. We go, "Oh my lands, you did so good. You did so - you did two steps." Right?

Can I tell you something? That's exactly how your heavenly Father thinks and feels about you as you begin to walk and spend time before Him, He's on your team. Take some baby steps.