Missionary thoughts...

Sparked by my friend Kelly's blog, here are my thoughts on mission work...

Mission work is important. Many lives have been changed and many people have come to know God loves them through the hard work and sacrifice of missionaries. I have missionaries in my family. I respect and admire people who travel far and/or put in physical labor to feed the hungry and provide shelter for the poor...

My passion, however, has never been "mission work" in the US or overseas. I used to feel guilty about that - like I needed to just suck it up and do what every good Christian is supposed to do - MISSION WORK...But as I break off he religious baggage I have carried for so long I have realized a much bigger picture...

What if I see my job as a mission? My screenplay as a mission? Sozo as a mission? Why does mission work have to entail traveling to far away places or building buildings/water ways/schools or feeding the physically hungry? All of these things are wonderful, beautiful, necessary things...But if we all did that then who would feed the spiritually hungry? Set the spiritual captives free? Build by way of building spiritual lives? We're all wired for something. And we're not all wired for the same things.

Maybe the idea is to follow the passion God placed inside and you'll find the treasure He has in mind for you....???

This is what happened...

When I dried Bentley in the dryer...

Share your prayer style...

(photo credit: stagneslongsite.org)

So, we all have quiet time with the Lord...(Ok, most of us)...

In my mind I have always pictured that the 'proper' thing to do is kneel beside the bed, hands folded, head bowed...You know the stereotype. Well, I don't do that. At least not often. Sometimes I have been led to kneel, but usually my prayer time with God is in bed with some soft music or in silence. I usually don't talk outloud and I do not keep a list...Oh, I have tried. And then I feel like a terrible Christian if I don't pray my list, or keep it updated. I've tried many ways of keeping with my prayerful duties. There are great suggestions out there:

Keep a 3 ring binder divided into sections of "requests, answers, praises, thanksgivings," etc.

The 5 finger prayer

Prayer journaling

Prayer Mapping

Checklist

Daily Devotional


I have tried - and failed - at keeping up with all of these wondeful prayer time tools (prayer mapping is really cool!). I simply am not one of those gifted individuals who has a passion for getting in the prayer closet and engaging in long periods of intercession. However, I LOVE praying for people (and animals, too, of course!) on the spot, when the request is made. I'm more of an ER or "crisis" prayer warrior. If someone/something/some situation is laid on my heart or presented, I will happily saddle up my war horse and go after whatever needs to be gone after in the authority that Jesus has given me. This is whyI love being on the prayer line and doing Sozo.

Now, I do have my quiet times...Sometimes I will lay in bed and just let God lead my thoughts and talk to him about whoever comes to mind. No list. Just free-flowing. This works well for me.

Recently I realized that I spend much of my day in ongoing conversation with or at least about God. That's when I understood the meaning of "praying without ceasing". That was a cool revelation!

Still, I sometimes think I'm not doing as good a job as I could be in taking time out to pray for people and situations. I know I will likely never be one of those intercession butt-kickers whose faithful, daily, consistent prayers were foundational in leading someone to Jesus or for bringing about a miracle. But I'd like to do more in this regard..

So tell me -

What does your "quiet time" look like? Are you a journaler? Do you pray outloud? Do you keep a list? Do you keep track of answers? Do you pray at a certain time? I'd love to get a peek inside your prayer closet!