I don’t know who I first heard say this. Maybe it was Shodankeh Johnson…but the point is spot on.
Often we make strategy without praying. How proud do we have to be to even attempt that? Yet I can say that it is common in my life and common in the church.
Shame on me!
If God knows everything and God can do anything and God loves us all tremendously…then why would we not take everything to God in prayer and ask Him what He wants most? Why don’t we ask him to empower us to do what we cannot do without His help?
If you want a strategy, make it prayer!
Ask God what to do and do what He shows you. Go where He sends you. Approach who He puts in front of you and see how you can love them well and bless them.
We like a plan. We like the details. But walking with God doesn’t always work like that.
Before we start – ask God if it is the right direction.
Before we plan – ask God to guide us.
If we aren’t sure about something – don’t forge ahead…stop to ask God for help and don’t move ahead until it is clear that He has given an answer.
Take some time to reflect on Isaiah 55. Pray over this. Open yourself up to God’s leading.
“Come, all you who are thirsty,
come to the waters;
and you who have no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without cost.
2 Why spend money on what is not bread,
and your labor on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
and you will delight in the richest of fare.
3 Give ear and come to me;
listen, that you may live.
I will make an everlasting covenant with you,
my faithful love promised to David.
4 See, I have made him a witness to the peoples,
a ruler and commander of the peoples.
5 Surely you will summon nations you know not,
and nations you do not know will come running to you,
because of the Lord your God,
the Holy One of Israel,
for he has endowed you with splendor.”
6 Seek the Lord while he may be found;
call on him while he is near.
7 Let the wicked forsake their ways
and the unrighteous their thoughts.
Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them,
and to our God, for he will freely pardon.
8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
10 As the rain and the snow
come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
12 You will go out in joy
and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and hills
will burst into song before you,
and all the trees of the field
will clap their hands.
13 Instead of the thornbush will grow the juniper,
and instead of briers the myrtle will grow.
This will be for the Lord’s renown,
for an everlasting sign,
that will endure forever.”
