MidWeek Wk 46: Moses Complex

Be a Circle Maker: The Solution to 10,000 Problems (Chapter 3. The Solution to Ten Thousand Problems)

Moses Complex

Bill Grove had a big dream.

He also had a self-described Moses complex. His big dream was to be the general manager of the TPC Scottsdale, the PGA’s flagship golf course of the West. But that dream seemed too big for the former golf pro.

Like Moses, Bill had a hard time believing he was qualified to manage what Golfweek magazine called “one of the America’s best courses.”

Bill doubted himself, but he didn’t doubt God.

He circled that dream for more than a decade. The defining moment was the Wednesday evening, after a prayer service at their church, when Bill and his wife, Debbie, and their eight-year-old daughter, Kacey, drove to the TPC Scottsdale and pulled into the parking lot.

They joined hands and circled the clubhouse like it was Jericho. Seven times they circled it. The diners in the clubhouse restaurant gave them a few strange looks, but Bill and Debbie and Kacey kept circling.

They prayed for God’s favor.

They prayed for God’s glory.

They prayed for God’s will.

With each circle, it was like God got bigger and bigger.

With each circle, self-doubt shrunk and a holy confidence grew.

With each circle, a prayer battle was won.

Not long after drawing that prayer circle, Bill got his dream job as general manager of the TPC Scottsdale, and God has been answering Bill’s prayer for the seventeen years he has been in that capacity.

TPC Scottsdale now plays host to the largest PGA tournament in the country, and it has been named one of the top fifty golf resort destinations in the world by Condé Nast Traveler, one of the premier traveling magazines.

And while you would have to discover it on your own because Bill is too humble to mention it, Bill has been recognized for his achievements by the Southwest Section PGA with one of its highest honors: Golf Professional of the Year.

Bill is the first to give God all of the glory for his personal and professional achievements.

They aren’t a testament to Bill Grove; they are a testament to what God can achieve through a humble servant who dares to dream big dreams and pray bold prayers.

A Letter to God

Now let me retrace this circle a little farther back.

Sometimes when you hear answers to prayer that others have experienced, it can be discouraging instead of encouraging because you wonder why God has answered their prayers but not yours.

But let me remind you--that these answers have rarely happened as quickly or easily as they sound.

There is usually a backstory.

So we are quick to celebrate the answer to prayer, but the answer probably didn’t come quickly. I’ve never met a person who didn’t experience some big disappointments on the way to his or her big dream.

Bill would never have gotten his dream job if he hadn’t lost his job of eleven years as the head professional at a private golf club in 1985.

It was a devastating blow to his ego, even though he lost the job for righteous reasons.

When Bill would not agree to an unfair business deal, his plan went out the window, along with his job.

Bill was so afraid and so desperate that he fell on his knees in the shower one night and cried out for mercy.

He prayed the only promise he could remember:

1 Peter 5.7

1 Peter 5:7 (NLT)

7 Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.

“Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.”

Bill said, “I went from walking into a shower feeling like I was carrying five hundred pounds to leaving that shower feeling as though I had the strength to lift five hundred pounds.”

Sometimes the power of prayer is the power to carry on.

It doesn’t always change your circumstances, but it gives you the strength to walk through them.

When you pray through, the burden is taken off of your shoulders and put on the shoulders of Him who carried the cross to Calvary.

After Bill had worked odd jobs as a golf pro for six years, he and Debbie threw up their arms and got back on their knees because they weren’t any closer to their dream than they had been a decade before.

That’s when they decided to write a letter to God. They posted that letter on their refrigerator, and every time they walked by the refrigerator, they praised God, Jericho style, for the job that He was going to provide.

Over the next decade, one job led to another until Bill landed his dream job as general manager at TPC Scottsdale.

It didn’t happen overnight, but it did happen.

Every time they needed to sell an old house or get a new job, Bill and Debbie wrote a letter to God and posted it on their refrigerator.

It was their unique way of circling their situation in prayer.

They didn’t always get what they wanted, when they wanted it.

Sometimes it felt like God was taking His time, and He was. But God never misses His postmark.

After a decade of divine delays and detours, Bill got the dream job he had circled in prayer for more than a decade.

What impossible big dream is God calling you to draw a prayer circle around?

Is your dream too BIG for you?

It better be... because that will force you to pray circles around it.

Num 11.23

Numbers 11:23 (The Message)

23 God answered Moses, “So, do you think I can’t take care of you? You’ll see soon enough whether what I say happens for you or not.”

If you keep circling it in prayer, God will get bigger and bigger until you see your impossible prayer for what it really is:

an easy answer for an almighty God.