Overcoming Spiritual A D D

Week 2: Overcoming Spiritual A.D.D. How do I communicate with God?

(Wear one boxing glove.) Have you ever felt that talking with God can seem like a boxing match with yourself? At the end of it you feel more beat up then blessed about spending time with the God of the universe. Here is what I mean.

Dear God, Thank you for this day. (This gets you thinking…) Oh man I have a lot going on today. I’ve got that appointment and I need to do a load of wash and … Oh man, I’m supposed to be praying. (Punch yourself with the glove.) Focus. Focus. Focus. Okay, God, sorry about that. I’d just want to say how grateful I am for all the blessings you sent my way yesterday. (This gets you thinking…) Although I’m still pretty ticked John got the promotion over me since I am waaaay more qualified and everybody knows John takes two-hour lunches and…ahhh. (Punch yourself with the glove again.) Come on, man, get it together, you’re talking to God. Okay, I just want to pray for my missionary friends in Papua New Guinea (which gets you thinking…) ahhh man, I could really go for a Papa John’s pizza right now. Ummm, pizza. (Punch yourself with the glove.) Oh man, look what time it is. Okay, God … good talk. (Punch yourself one last time.) Ahhh, I should have prayed longer. Don’t get me started when it comes to reading the Bible sometimes. Wait, what did I just read? (Punch.) What the heck does that even mean? (Punch.) What am I supposed to do with that? (Punch.)

Can anybody connect with that at all? Today is for you. Eighty-four percent of Americans say they have prayed in the past week, so wherever you are in your spiritual journey, this is extremely relevant. I call this frustration/illness Spiritual A.D.D. Obviously we want to talk to God, so desire is not the problem. The issue is more in the “how.”

You’ve probably sat down with somebody and had an awkward conversation before. You know those people that answer every one of your questions with five words or less and don’t seem to know they are allowed to ask you questions back. In those moments, the clock ticks so slowly, and you’re looking for any kind of excuse to end your time because it’s AWKWARD. Just think, if it’s difficult to have a conversation with a real live person sitting across from you that you can see, smell, hear and touch, how much more difficult might it be to chat it up with a God who you can’t physically see, hear or touch?

Last week, we said that we need to understand God wants you to grow in spiritual maturity. He loves you just the way you are, but he doesn’t want you to stay where you are. It’s just like how you see your kids. God wants you to grow. As we look through the Bible at the lives of some really Godly people, by far the most-used spiritual disciplines are prayer and reading of Scripture. While this definitely can and should take place in community, there is something about spending time with God—just you and Him.

Check out these characters in the Bible.

“Early the next morning Abraham got up and returned to the place where he had stood before the LORD.” –

“Now when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before.” –

“About noon the following day as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray.” –

“Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.” –

Obviously these guys and so many others over the past 2,000 years have found spending alone time with God to not be exhausting but exhilarating. This is definitely my story, as well. Over the years I’ve learned some powerful and practical habits that have transformed my time with God into something that I can’t wait for and could definitely not live without.

If you grew up in the church you’ve probably heard of a “quiet time” before, but let me give you a definition.

A “quiet time” is a daily time I set aside to be alone with God, to get to know Him through the Bible and prayer. This spiritual habit is crucial because we were created to have a relationship with God. This is where we receive our source of strength. It’s where we receive our marching orders from God for the day, and it’s when we grow closer and closer in relationship with our Maker.

Nobody modeled this better than Jesus. At the most tense time in his life, the night before he would be crucified, Jesus went out to have a quiet time in the Garden of Gethsemane. Listen to part of his prayer time:

“Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. –

· Time with God drains me of my own weakness and fills me with God’s strength.

· Time with God drains me of my own will and fills me with God’s will.

· Time with God drains me of me and fills me with God.

So we are going to get really practical on how to overcome Spiritual A.D.D. by letting God speak to you through his Word and experiencing powerful times of prayer.

In , it says, “Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.”

We are promised that if we will really meditate on what is written in the Bible and do our best to apply to our lives what we read, God will make us prosperous and successful.

New Hope Christian Fellowship in Hawaii created a very simple acronym that is a great place to start with Bible reading. Before we even dive into it, I want to encourage you to get a couple tools that will greatly help you in your quiet time with God.

1) A pen

2) A notebook

The difference between reading the Bible and studying the Bible is that you write something down. Joshua tells us to meditate on His Word. Studies show we remember far more when we write down what we’re learning than when we just hope it stays in our brain.

3) A Bible reading plan

I talk to so many people that love to just close their eyes and randomly open the Bible to a page and start writing. While there’s definitely nothing inherently wrong with this approach, it’s also not the best. Notice

Joshua says we are called to do “everything written in it.” If we just skip around, we will miss much of what God wants to say to us.

Use the acronym S.O.A.P to help you get started. As you begin your quiet time, write the date at the top of the page, and then under it write an S. The S stands for Scripture. Write down the passage of Scripture you are going to read that day. For example, you might write down .

Then write the letter O. The O stands for Observation. As you read the passage, just write down anything that you observe. The observations don’t need to be deep; just include stuff that sticks out to you.

For example, says we were ALL at one time dead in our transgressions. Write that down. It says in verse 5 that God made us alive in Christ. Write that down, too. There is no rule as to how many observations you make—some days there could be ten, others two—just write down what you observe.

After you’ve written some observations down, write the letter A. The A stands for Application, which simply means, “So what are you going to do about it?” The Bible is not just for our information but for our

transformation. It’s not so much about going through but about going through you.

For example, you could write, “Because Christ raised me from death to life spiritually, I’m going to 1) thank God for doing that or 2) tell someone what I learned today or 3) pray for a friend I know who has not been saved by Christ yet.” The more specific you are, the better. If it’s not something you can honestly know whether you did or not, it’s probably not a good one. Don’t write, “I’m going to be more loving.” While that’s nice, it’s so general you probably won’t ever do anything with it.

After you have written down an application, write down the letter P. The P stands for Prayer. We want to respond to what we just learned from God by talking about it to him. It’s interesting that the disciples never said to Jesus, “Teach us how to do a miracle” or “Teach us how to share our faith,” but they did ask, “Teach us how to pray.” Here is his response.

Listen to .

“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”

Several of Jesus’ statements start with “and when you pray, DO NOT…” There are ways to pray poorly. God wants us to approach prayer with the right attitude. He wants us to be real with him and to be relaxed.

: “This, then, is how you should pray…”

Jesus doesn’t say what you should pray. I don’t think it was ever God’s intention to give us a script of the exact words he wants us to say to him. That would go against what He had just said before. Instead, he is giving us a model to follow to help us truly connect with God when we pray.

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.”

It’s important to start our prayer time with PRAISE. There are two primary ways we can praise God: 1) Adoration, praising God for who he is, and 2) Thanksgiving, praising God for what He has done.

If God is really the one on the throne, then shouldn’t your conversation with him start with him … not you? Think through your past 24 hours and thank him for all the blessings he sent your way. If you’ve just read some Scripture, praise God for what it said about Him. Start your time with raising him up.

“Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

Next, commit yourself to doing God’s will. Place your focus on God’s PURPOSES and not your own. This is a

great time to pray for God’s will to be done in your family, in your church, at your work, in your neighborhood and in your city, nation and world. Although we never say it out loud, it’s really easy to live life like “MY

kingdom come” instead of “THY kingdom come.” This is a time where you remind God (and yourself) that it’s not about Him joining you, but you joining Him.

Notice in the first two verses the word “your” is mentioned three times while the word “my” is not mentioned once. God cares deeply about your needs and wants you to pray about them, but it’s important to start with our focus on Him.

“Give us today our daily bread.”

The next part of the prayer time is asking God for PROVISION. I love to think through my schedule for the day and lift up everything on my to-do list and every meeting on my calendar. I’ve found that the more specific I make my prayers, the more specifically God answers.

For example, if I just run through my day and pray, “God bless my staff meeting, bless my meeting with Tony, bless my sermon prep…”I believe He will, but I’m not sure I’ll even notice if he does. However, if I really ask the question, “What do I think God wants to accomplish in each of the things I’m involved in today?”, it changes

everything. If I’m meeting with Tony and I’m unsure whether he has a personal relationship with Christ, then I’ll pray for an opportunity to share with him and that he will be responsive. Then, when God answers that prayer, it’s clear that he deserves full credit and praise for it.

If I’m going to be working on my weekend message, I pray for a moment in my preparation where God blows me away with an observation he reveals to me about Scripture. When that happens, I take a moment to praise God for answering that prayer. Pray specifically, and then thank God specifically.

“Forgive us our debts…”

Next, ask God to forgive your sins. We call this part PARDON.

I think through my past 24 hours and ask God to reveal any things I did, said or thought that I need to repent of. A great verse is : Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

Nothing combats pride in my life better than a daily time of confession to God. Just when I begin to think that maybe I have finally arrived and have figured out this whole Christian thing, God reminds me that I still have a ways to go. This practice of confession also makes me a more a patient person. When I realize how patient God is with me as I keep on struggling with the same issues, I find myself showing more grace to others who habitually struggle with the same thing over and over.

“…As we also have forgiven our debtors.”

Next, I pray for other PEOPLE. Have you ever promised to pray for someone and then never followed through? I’ve done that more times than I would like to remember. That’s why it’s really important to make a list of the people you want to pray for: your family members, Christian friends, leaders at your church, friends that you would like to see receive Christ. Once again, this is a great opportunity to pray specifically for what you hope will happen in their lives.

“And lead us not into temptation…”

Finally, I pray for spiritual PROTECTION.

When God wants to build, Satan wants to battle. If you really start spending time in Bible reading and prayer each day, you are going to become more and more of a threat to the enemy. He will do whatever he can to distract you from living out God’s will for your life. He will try and discourage you and make you give up. If he can’t tempt you with something bad, he will trick you with busyness. You need to pray each day for God’s protection on your life and those close to you.

This is obviously not the only way to pray, but it’s one way. What if you, for two weeks, made a commitment to spend 15 minutes a day walking through these six parts of prayer? My guess is you would be amazed how fast the time went by, and prayer would begin to be not something that you endure or something that exhausts you but a conversation that energizes you.

Let me get ultra practical here as we close up today. Here are two things you’ll need to decide right away if you are going to start living out the daily spiritual habits of Bible study and prayer.

1) Select a Time.

The best time to spend with God is when you are at your best. Think about the other areas of your life. You always schedule what is most important. If you just spend time with God when you’re not busy, you will miss most days because let’s be honest … you’re busy. You need to decide on a time. Most examples in Scripture are of people getting up early in the morning, but really what’s most important is when you can give God your best.

2) Select a Place.

In the opening passage, we read about Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. Listen to how it starts: Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him. Underline the words, “as usual.” This was not the first time Jesus had been to this garden to pray. The same principle should be true for us, as well.

Select a room in your house or apartment or an area where you know you can be free from distraction and spend time with God in silence. Just to make sure we are on the same page, your living room with SportsCenter or HGTV in the background is not a good place.

I know we are all coming from different places in our spiritual journeys. For some of you, this is brand new.

You’ve never really spent intentional time with God on your own. There are others for whom this whole message has been a review and I was definitely preaching to the choir. I’m confident there are many in

between who know the struggle we talked about at the beginning of making time with God a consistent part of your life.

Here is my challenge for you today. Would you for the next month test this whole thing out? It says in , “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” If you just went through a Bible reading plan for the next four weeks, I think you’d be blown away with all God would do in and through your life.

Rick Warren shares in his book, The Purpose Driven Life, just a few of the things God’s Word does in your life.

Generates life, creates faith, produces change, frightens the devil, causes miracles, heals hurts, builds character, transforms circumstances, imparts joy, overcomes adversity, defeats temptation, infuses hope, releases power, cleanses your mind.

Nothing else has come close to helping me draw near to God and hear his voice regularly in my life than practicing a daily time with God. As your pastor, if I could get you to add one habit to your life, this would be it. Would you join me this next month in spending time with God daily?

Let’s pray.