Do you know how to run?  I don’t mean you are a marathoner or anything like that.  I just mean, if you were being chased by a bear or a zombie or a clown, would you be able to run?

Do you remember learning how to run?  Did you take running lessons to be able to put one foot in front of the other in rapid succession?  I’ll bet you don’t remember the first time you ran.  It’s one of those abilities that most people just know how to do.  Obviously we have to learn how to run.  And before that we have to learn how to walk, and before that crawl, and before that roll over.  But even before kindergarten, most of us have running down pat.

Now, how about prayer?  Do you know how to pray?  Has it become one of those things that you just know how to do.  Some people I know have told me they don’t know how to pray, and I think “How can anybody not know how to pray?”  I think praying is definitely easier than running–and definitely more rewarding.

How about you.  Can you pray?  Would you like to?

PS. Sorry about the sound quality of this one.  It’s pretty bad.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 48:42 — 22.3MB)

Do you ever wonder why some prayers don’t seem to get answered?  Did you ever think that maybe he is answering–it’s just not the answer you were hoping for?  How do you sort through questions like that?

One good thing to do might be to reflect on where the interference to your communication with God might be occurring.  Is it a problem with God not being able or willing to hear you?  Maybe there’s a good reason for that.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 48:46 — 22.3MB)

What do you pray about?  Do you pray at all?  Would you say you have a good prayer life?  Do you enjoy it?  If you don’t, why not?

How about your human relationships–is it easy for you to talk with friends and family?

Prayer is pretty similar.  At it’s most basic level, prayer is communicating with God.  If you know and love God, prayer comes extremely easy, and it’s enjoyable.  If you don’t know God, it’s going to be a lot more awkward trying to have a meaningful conversation with him.

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If you knew on 9/1 about the 9/11 attacks that would kill thousands of people in the Twin Towers, how hard would you try to save those people?  How much work would you do to convince the government to stop those flights or keep people from going to work in those buildings or whatever you could do?  It probably wouldn’t be easy because until that day, nobody would believe something like that could happen in America.  Would you try anyway?  Would you make sacrifices to save all those lives?

Do you remember watching as people jumped from the building and fell to their death because the fire was so terrible?  It was a horrible sight.  Would you work to keep that from happening?  Now how about the millions of people who will die in their sins and face much more suffering in Hell than anybody felt in the Twin Towers?  Would you do anything to stop those people from dying in their rebellion against God?

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How many electronic devices do you carry around with you?  How many TVs and radios do you have?  How many hours a day do you spend talking on the phone or texting or e-mailing?  How often do you watch TV while you’re doing something else?  Our lives are full of noise and distraction and busyness.  We are a fast paced culture that never sleeps.

I love watching the old films that guessed about the technological advancements we would have today and how much time they would save us.  There were people who were seriously worried that our modern technology would free us up from so much work that we’d wind up with too much extra time on our hands.  But it seems like we can put those fears to rest.  With every new modern advancement, it’s like we learn to multitask another level.

Have you ever just stopped?  Put down the devices and books and magazines, turned off the electronics, and sat down and listened for the voice of God?  The Bible describes the leading of the Holy Spirit as a still, small voice.  How much have you missed of God’s voice because your life was too full of busyness and noise?

Perhaps it’s time to be like Jesus and choose to make some solitude and silence in your life.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 40:26 — 18.5MB)

Have you ever been asked to do something crazy?  I know people who do wild fun things just for the adrenaline rush.  But have you ever been in a situation where you really had to decide to stretch beyond your comfort zone for a bigger purpose?  It can be a tough decision to make.  This talk is about just that kind of dilemma.

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So the other day me and mi linda esposa, Jenna, were at WalMart to get a couple picture frames and a B-day card for Chris–his birthday is next Sunday!  Anyway, we also were thinking it would be nice to have a couple new pillows for our bed. (You know how pillows get flat and hard after too many years of use?)  So while we were looking at pillows, we also looked at sheets.  We had 1 set of bedsheets that we use all the time, and they have always been a tight fit on the mattress–they barely cover the whole side of the mattress.   So we figured, ‘We’ve got a little extra in the household budget, let’s get some new sheets.’  The really nice 400 thread count, Egyptian cotton sheets were on sale for $35.  So we got ’em.  With the taxes, they were a little less than $40.

Pretty exciting, right?  Ok, here’s where the plot thickens:

This lady starts checking me out…because we had taken all our stuff to the checkout lane.  Anyway, she bags everything up and and we cart it out to the car.  But something wasn’t right.  The total on the receipt was less than what I thought it should be–by about $40.  So we took a closer look, and sure enough, somehow the sheets never got rung up at the register.  So now I’ve got a choice to make; do I keep the sheets as a gift from the benevolent WalMart corporation that was kind enough to put them in a nice plastic gift bag for me…or do I go back in and pay for what the checkout lady missed?  As soon as I asked that question, I already knew the answer.  My conscience told me the right thing to do was to pay for what I wanted to keep.

I grumbled about it.  Even as I walked back into the store, I thought about how much I was spending on being honest.  I wondered how much difference this would make.  $40 is didley to a multi-billion dollar operation like WalMart.  They certainly aren’t going to notice or care about what I was doing.  I wondered how much it mattered to God.  I know he always wants us to do the right thing.  But was this something he’d be really happy about or simply satisfied that I did what was right?  I didn’t do it for a reward or for recognition, but I did plenty of bad things in my life B.C. and it would be super cool to know anytime that I did something to really make God happy.  I would pay way more than $40 anytime I can make my relationship with God closer.  The more I hear from him the better my life gets. So my real question was, did I gain anything for being honest–besides bed sheets?  What does $40 worth of honesty get you?  You can’t buy God–he owns the universe.  His law says to be holy, so being honest was simply my duty to him.  But does the fact that I was faithful in this small matter help connect me any closer with my Savior?

I shared all these thoughts with Jenna on the drive home, and she pointed out the fact that actually listening to and obeying God’s leading on my heart would promote more leading from God.  Jesus said “Those who love me are the ones who keep my commands.”  And he said when we are faithful with the small things he asks us to do that he will bless us with bigger things.  So listening to the still small voice of God’s Spirit in my heart, and doing what was right, demonstrated my love for God and proved to him that I was faithful in this way.  So he now has that much more reason to bless me with more of his trust.  What a cool thought–something as small as that could improve my relationship with the Almighty!  Not that he ever loves me more or less, but to prove my faithfulness in service to God–even in a small way, just makes me feel good all over.

God has blessed us with more than enough to get by.  We can sleep on Egyptian cotton sheets.  When most of the world lives on $1 or $2 a day, I feel extremely blessed.  So we prayed in the car, on the way home that God would help us to always be as honest as he has been generous to us.  He has given an overabundance to us.  So we can give an over abundance of honesty and faithfulness to his commands.  In the grand scheme of our lives $40 is a tiny drop in the bucket.  But the priceless rewards for righteousness are worth more than any bank could hold in its vaults.

I thank God for the opportunity he presented to make that choice to pay for the sheets or not.  It was a great chance to stop and think about all the blessings God has given us and how much doing the right thing is really worth in life.  May your life be filled with moments of doing the right thing in big ways and small.  And may you know an abundance of God’s blessings through your faithfulness!

PS. My father-in-law pointed out that if you want God to bless your marriage bed, you shouldn’t sleep on stolen sheets!