My guest today is Todd Marshall. After 30 years in pastoral ministry God led Todd to start the ministry called Worship is Life. He also has a book by the same name. He speaks around the country (and you will hear around the world) on the fact that Worship is more than the few songs that we sing on a Sunday morning. He is also the Worship Arts Director for the Minnesota District of the Assemblies of God.
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I love instigating things. It can be dangerous if I am daring my brother-in-law to climb through the McDonalds play land, but at the same time simple changes can make a big impact on our lives. This is true of short prayers. Short prayers become the punctuation of our life and the space that fills our moments with power. We can even make it a little game. Missionary Frank Laubach made the challenge to have a “Game with minutes.” The goal was to see if he could turn his thoughts to God even one second for every minute of the day. Do you think you could do that? Here are 3 quick ways to improve your score.
Shoot your prayers up.
Nehemiah was about to have an important meeting with the king and so he shot a prayer to heaven. As you go through your day try to bring every challenge that you face and launch it heavenward.
Author Mark Batterson in speaking of Frank Laubach brought up an idea I really like. He suggested as you go through your day shooting people with prayer in your mind as if they were arrows. Next time at the Wal-Mart checkout line send short arrows of prayer through the people in front of you or the person helping you check out. It might be the prayer that pushes them over the edge to run to Jesus.
Shoot Bible prayers inward.
In church history we read about what I like to call “breath prayers”. The idea is simply holding some scripture in your heart all day long as a source of prayer. For example I could pray the prayer Jesus taught, “Have mercy on me a sinner.” As often as it comes to mind pray that simple sentence over your life. Pick short prayers from the Bible or come up with your own like: “Lord help me to live today as if it was the Super bowl of my life.”
Each time you steal moments with God in prayer you are connecting to the source of true power. Today, how many minutes could you give God at least one second? Tomorrow you can try to beat your score from today. And I bet that if you ever get to a full day of minutes you would write to me to say thanks. Are you game?
You may be reading this feeling the intense pressure of a crazy schedule for your day. There may even be a small feeling that you shouldn’t be reading this right now. Then at other points of your day you will feel uneasy because you feel like you have not given enough time for God.
There are some thoughts that stick with you that help you for a long time after you hear them. A couple years ago I watched this video and the thought I will shared after may be a great comfort to you.
One of my big takeaways from this video is when he talks about needing to have a longer calendar. This helps me in some great ways. First it has given me grace to see the spiritual practices that may be more periodic for me than a daily routine. For example Jack Hayford talks about how he is now a big journal person. He just writes at certain seasons when he needs to process something. This helps me as I embrace my own journal method.
Second, it gives me joy in the seasons of life. Certain times of the calendar year have a different tempo than others. If you are a parent of school children the season of right before school can have a busier pace to it. Giving myself grace in those times brings new joy to my journey.
Third, he talks about this long view meaning that at other times you push in more intensely. Maybe you can’t spend your normal time in the morning with God so then you take a walk with God on one of your break times at work. It is a busier season of life so you have to set aside the news for a couple weeks so you can designate your free time to prayer and Bible reading.
Finally, I love his simple practice of getting up and saying that God is here. It reminds me of Frank Laubach and his game of minutes. He challenged himself to try to be aware of God’s presence at least one second of every minute of the day. Being aware of God is one of the greatest ways to bring God into our busy days.
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