Dear Friend,
I am glad you had such a great Thanksgiving Day. We ate too much too and did our share of laughing around the table. In answer to your questions; we had both turkey and ham, blackberry pie for dessert, and yes – the Lions were pathetic.
My wife is busy de-falling our home decorations. By the time I get home tonight the living room will look like a pack of elves hyped up on sugar attempted to repopulate the earth with ceramic snowmen, fake pine branches, and nativity scenes. I’m really glad that pink and lime are not colors of choice for Christmas décor!
As we head to the Christmas season and I plan out sermons to end one year and start another I too find myself reviewing the year and wondering about the next.
We both certainly have had the ups and downs emotionally this year. I’ll never forget how excited you were when you got the news from your boss about your job, and then found the other extreme when you heard a week later from your doctor.
You’re right about needing to take everyday a little more purposeful. Maybe 2009 will hold new anointing from God for you and your family – I’ll pray for that… no, I really will.
In your note you asked me about prayer. You said that it has been quite flat lately, as if you were “habitually talking to the air.” I’m sorry you find yourself feeling guilty and discouraged about such an important part of our faith.
The truth is most people pray – but it rarely has passion. There are times that I find myself talking to God as if He were an invisible force rather than an awe inspiring relationship that I couldn’t take my next breath without. That’s not what God intended for our relationship with Him. We’ve got to bring passion back into prayer.
Read this quote from E.M. Bounds, “If prayer puts God to work in earth, then, by the same token, prayerlessness rules God out of the world’s affairs, and prevents Him from working. And if prayer moves God to work in the world’s affairs, then prayerlessness excludes God from everything concerning men, and leaves man on earth the mere creature of circumstances, at the mercy of blind fate or without help of any kind from God.”
I love the challenge in that.
God longs to do the miraculous through us, but I don’t know if we really believe. Too often we read a list of requests expecting little to nothing to really be different. We are more moved by the TV than we are by talking to God. Isn’t that astounding?
Hey, here’s an idea – what if you and I took the remainder of this year to really pray with passion? What if we committed to set a time aside every day to beg God to have His way with us? What if during the Advent season we stormed the gates of heaven with boldness and humility and asked God to make the end of this year a transformational one that prepares us for the New Year.
I have a hunch that if you and I did that we’d both be different and somehow God would be glorified! I’m not sure you and I are ready to enter this Christmas season with a new passion – but let’s try it! Let’s take it up a notch!
Say “hi” to your neighbor for me.
Your friend and God’s servant,
D. David Kessler
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