The Fight Against Urgency

In my younger days, I spent a lot of time at the gym. I would label myself as a very very very very amateur bodybuilder at the time. I lifted weights a lot, but I took very little protein supplements and didn't really watch my nutrition too much. I was good on the exercising side, but not really too focused on the nutrition side.

For the guys and gals who are truly pursuing a better physique by adding mass through bodybuilding, their calorie intake skyrockets. Eating almost becomes a chore, because in order to gain mass and keep up with the metabolism spike that occurs from so much weight lifting, bodybuilders in training have to eat constantly! Most people will increase their daily caloric intake by 1,000 calories or more. Serious bodybuilders are basically stuffing their faces anytime they aren't pumping their muscles.

Therefore, meal preparation becomes essential for these serious lifters. You always have to have hard-boiled eggs, sweet potatoes, broccoli, chicken breasts, tuna, and who-knows-what-else cooked, and ready to eat. Most of the time, bodybuilders will dedicate a majority of their Sunday to grocery shopping, dicing, slicing, cooking, and getting their meals ready for the week. Meal preparation can be as important to these lifters as the workouts themselves.

Preparation is essential to every part of life. A football team practices, watches game tape, and self-scouts to prepare for the weekly schedule. Students cram for final exams so that their grades will be up to snuff. We fill our 401Ks up throughout our careers. A military unit will gather intelligence on its enemy. The prepared life makes us more ready.

The opposite of a prepared life is a reactive life. The reactive life is not marked by readiness, but urgency. The reactive life is marked by emotion, quick-decisions, and often frustration. It is much easier to default into living a reactive life than it is to keep up preparation in life.

For example, if I am living a prepared life, I will have something packed for me to eat at lunch during the workday. If I am living the reactive life, I don't have a meal made and when lunch time comes and I'm hungry, I'm far more likely to make an unhealthy Taco Bell choice. I wasn't prepared, and I reacted to my urgent hunger by stuffing my face with burrito goodness. (I love Taco Bell.)

Another example can be financial. Life throws us all kinds of curve balls, and it can be much easier to get caught up in living in a reactive way. A prepared life saves some of each paycheck and tucks it away as an emergency fund. That way, should a surprise car repair pop up, the money is in the bank and the situation can be easily resolved. The reactive life would be marked not by saving but rather by impulse spending. A new pair of shoes online becomes more important than saving, a want becomes more important than a need. However, for the reactive person, should a car repair issue arise, they are now backpedaling to try to resolve the problem, and may for example end up putting the repair on a high-interest credit card.

Being a prepared or reactive person can apply to all of life. The prepared life is marked by contemplation, goal-setting, and often self-control. The reactive life is marked by emotion, urgency, and often frustration. A prepared person isn't shocked by some new development in the news that doesn't seem to go their way. An urgent person struggles to handle bad news or a change in their circumstances and immediately posts urgent and emotional comments on Facebook. *(I know these things because I used to be an extremely volatile and reactive person, and by God's grace I am changing.)*

All of our lives can easily slide toward being reactive. The 24 hours constant-access news cycle and our seemingly unlimited options to communicate our views via social media definitely help us to live more reactive lives. Every news story we see suddenly becomes the BIGGEST DEAL EVER! AHH!!! Consider the amount of hyperbole used on the internet today. All we do is call events and people the biggest, the worst, the best, the craziest, etc. Social media has us constantly giving our reactions to every news story and event there is! That's basically what the #hasthag was invented for!

This tendency toward urgency in life can negatively impact our prayer lives as well. How hard it can be to follow the Apostle Paul's instruction to be, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, (Ephesians 6:18 ESV) 
or to
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 ESV) when we are living the 24-hour news cycle world of Facebook comments, Twitter, Snapchat and every other opportunity we have to be distracted or air out our opinions. There is no doubt my smartphone hinders my prayer life.

How much easier it is to "throw up" some prayers in the morning or the evening than to be constantly in prayer throughout our daily situations? It is so much easier to default into random and undisciplined prayer - not to mention become practically prayer-less - than it is to pray over our workday, for our spouse, for our family and friends, for our growth in Christ, on a consistent basis.

Being a prayerful person is essential to being a prepared person.

How are preparation and prayer linked?

Consider how Jesus teaches us to pray in the Lord's Prayer:

Pray then like this:

“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil. (Matthew 6:9-13 ESV)

This prayer is the example for us to follow. It prepares us to live for God's glory and to do God's work.

When we pray in this way, we are aligning our hearts to make God's name holy!
We are aligning our hearts to work for the advancement of God's kingdom!
We are aligning our hearts to do God's will!
We are aligning our hearts to be dependent on God!
We are aligning our hearts to be forgiving people!
We are aligning our hearts to abhor what is evil!

What kind of prepared people we can be when we pray!

When we pray, we are preparing ourselves to do God's work in God's way for God's people and God's glory!

Prayer also showcases that we are dependent upon God for provision. Being dependent on God showcases His magnificent glory because He the all-sufficient God of grace! Being dependent through prayer on God brings Him glory! Consider Jesus the very Son of God as our example for dependent prayer:

In these days he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God. And when day came, he called his disciples and chose from them twelve, whom he named apostles: (Luke 6:12-13 ESV)

Jesus didn't just go and choose random men. Jesus prayed all night to God. Jesus didn't choose the disciples based on a reaction of his feelings. Jesus didn't choose the disciples based on the urgency of the situation. Jesus didn't choose his disciples of his own accord.

Rather, Jesus communed with God the Father on the mountain all night. Jesus sought God's face in dependent prayer when choosing the Apostles because he wanted to be prepared and have the right men in accordance with God's plan and purpose.

Do we pray this dependently to God?

The reactive life can leave us despairing, fearful, and hopeless! When I was without God in my life, I experienced a deep depression because I was always reacting to failures in my life and I didn't have any hope out of those situations. If I didn't get a promotion at work, I would react with anger, frustration, gossip, and hostility towards others. I would also become depressed and self-doubting as I reacted to the idea that I might not be as great as I thought I was. Being reactive was very destructive.

On the other hand, prayer prepares us for anything life throws our way.

How does prayer prepare us?

Jesus again is our example. No man ever faced any greater woe than Jesus as he prepared to go to the cross, and so in order to ready himself for his great and horrible task, he prayed.

Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there and pray.” And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.” And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, “So, could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.” And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. So, leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words again. Then he came to the disciples and said to them, “Sleep and take your rest later on. See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer is at hand.” (Matthew 26:36-46 ESV)

Jesus was sorrowful, troubled in his soul, even to death. In Luke's account of this scene Jesus was under so much pressure he was sweating blood! Sweating blood! Jesus was under such extreme levels of stress that during his prayer he was experiencing hematohidrosis, namely, sweating blood!

During this prayer session Jesus was under intense levels of pressure, such that no man has ever faced before. He asked God, "My father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me."

Jesus didn't want to go to the cross. His prayer prepared him to overcome his own desires. His prayer aligned his will to God's will.

Jesus says, "...nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will."

Prayer prepares us by aligning our will to God's will. 

We are told that Jesus prays in this intensity three times, and it readies him for the actions that are to come. Jesus responds to his followers with calm assurance and readiness to participate in God's plan.

Then he came to the disciples and said to them, “Sleep and take your rest later on. See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer is at hand.” (Matthew 26:45-46 ESV)

Prayer readies us for action even in the face of the most difficult of circumstances. 

Jesus did not emerge from the garden in a reactive way. He was prepared and ready for what was to come. Jesus had aligned his will perfectly with God's will and in prayer had readied himself to take the action that was to come. His mind was set on doing what he must do, which was go to the cross and pay the penalty for sin. Jesus set his face on fulfilling God's plan for his life through prayer, and because of what he accomplished on the cross, we can sing:

I will not boast in anything,
No gifts, no power, no wisdom;
But I will boast in Jesus Christ,
His death and resurrection.
Why should I gain from His reward?
I cannot give an answer;
But this I know with all my heart -
His wounds have paid my ransom.

Thanks be to Jesus! Praise be to God! Let us be people who follow his example in prayer and live prepared rather than reactive lives.

How can prayer make you more prepared?

NOTE:

Today and every day in the upcoming few months my wife and I have a great opportunity to pray like Jesus. Beginning in August of 2017 I will be entering into full-time ministry.

I will be doing the Leadership Development Institute, or LDI Internship through my church, Hope Community Church, in downtown Minneapolis. In pursuing ministry, Allison and I are stepping out in faith. We will be leaving behind our "two income" life because I will be leaving the workforce to become an intern.

This is an opportunity to watch God's grace in provision for us, because this is a huge leap of faith! I will be seeking to raise support by gaining partners who will come alongside me to support me both in prayer and financial giving as I pursue this path. This is an opportunity for Allison and I to pray in dependence to God. This is an opportunity for us to align our plans with God's will for us and then to act in obedience. This is an opportunity for us to pray and prepare our hearts for action as we take this next step in life.

We are truly thankful for God's provision in our lives in the biggest way, sending Jesus to die on the cross so that we can be reconciled to God!

If you have any questions about LDI or are interested in partnering with me as I enter into ministry, feel free to email me: 

stiver189@gmail.com

or text/call me: (715) 218-5842

Thanks for reading! God bless!