The Zone Gathering

Bible Drill Wednesday is brought to you today by guest author Heidi Scanlon. Heidi and her family have been a blessing to NCC and to NCCers for several years, and she is the visionary behind the NCC Alpha ministry. She is a great friend, a great encourager, and a lover of Jesus.

If you are interested in being a guest contributor to Bible Drill Wednesday, please email Heather Zempel.

I don’t know what your prayer time looks like between you and God. Mine is different depending on the circumstance and the day. Sometimes I wake up and have an open line of communication with God that seems like we never “hang up”. Sometimes its total intercession for others. Some days I hit 2:00 pm and wonder why I am having such a hard time dealing with things and I realize that I have spent most of the day trying to live in my own strength instead of relying on God for His.

One way I talk with God is through keeping a prayer journal. You may not have time for this in your life right now. So if you can’t write things down, think of meditating on verses as you read. Praying through scripture is so beneficial. Writing out your prayers gives the opportunity of being able to visually see how God has answered them. Or perhaps how He has changed your perspective on something. Let’s think about this and look at a scripture or two together. Let’s pretend that we are meditating or prayer journaling this verse:

Romans 1:5 – “through Christ we receive grace to call people to obedience that comes from faith.” Let’s unpack that one. Through Christ we receive grace. Apart from our salvation (which is by grace) take a minute to thank God for some of the grace in your life. You may want to write down some graces you noticed this week.

Next, “through Christ we receive grace to call people…” So when you are with someone, and you feel the Holy Spirit prompting you to share Christ with them, you can count on the fact that God will give you the grace to do it. Why is this true? Because you can read Romans 1:5 as a “promise” that God will give you grace to call people – or share with people – or love people – into His kingdom. Maybe I want to ask God to help me to hold fast to this promise that when I share Him with people He will give me grace, in other words, He will enable me to do it.

Look at the last part of the sentence “…to call people to obedience that comes from faith.” In the simplest sense, this “obedience” is choosing to accept salvation from Christ by faith in His work on the cross. But we can go deeper. Here is what strikes me – there is a direct connection between faith and obedience. So I pray, “Lord, show me every area in my life where I am lacking faith to obey you.” I write it down. Here’s an example from my life. I felt God specifically calling me to pray for someone’s healing one day. I love doing that. But praying for this guy would have taken me way out of my comfort zone. So I questioned God, basically said, “you’ve got to be kidding right?” And I flat out just disobeyed Him. Right on 34^th Street. I didn’t have the faith in that instance to obey. So when I read this scripture it reminds me of this. So I pray, “Lord, increase my faith so I can follow hard after you and obey you when you call me.” Faith often requires an action. We can pray like this and be open with God because He deeply desires for us to know Him. To know how much He loves us. To know His grace in amazing ways.

The bible says that “in Christ (who is the Word) there are hidden treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” One of my favorite preachers says that God loves to hide things FOR you, not from you. It’s our joy to uncover them in His word. So maybe you want to try. Here are a few great verses to mediate on in your heart or in your journal from Romans 1:

Vs 7 “to all who are loved by God” – what does that mean to you to be loved by God? Tell God how you feel about this. Do you believe it?

Vs 8 “I thank God for all of you” – who are you especially thankful for today?

Vs 9 “your faith is being reported all over the world” – Lord may it be that my faith in you will proceed me

Vs 10 “I long to impart some spiritual gift to make you strong” – Lord what gift do I have that I need to use today to build someone else up? Show me Lord who I need to encourage. Give me opportunities that I will recognize as coming from you

Vs 16 “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes.” Lord write this verse on my heart. Show me Lord, when am I ashamed of the gospel? Am I ashamed when I am with certain groups? Do I compartmentalize my faith? When do I this? Lord give me the courage to share the good news of your grace in my life. Lord help me to see it as a privilege to share my faith by loving others and sharing your goodness. The Word of God is not some stodgy 2000 year old book that is irrelevant to our lives. The Bible says that it is “living and active”. The more I pray the scriptures the more I know it’s true.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 18th, 2006 at 10:23 am and is filed under Bible Drills. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.