More than a Mumble

Articles

0

There is no Plan B.

Most of us are working out our Plan A and if all else fails….there’s always Plan B.

What if there was no Plan B?

What if you only had Plan A?

Well when it comes to relying on God to get you through something.  Friends…there’s only Plan A – Relying on God.

Now don’t get me wrong.  We have to do our part.  We have to commit to prayer…commit to working hard…yet when it all boils down to it, we have to rely that God will get you through it.

I recently heard a sermon from James MacDonald (yes, he is a writer in our magazine…see his article on page 10 on Worship:  The Most Powerful Thing We Can Do) on crying out to God in your prayers.

He shared a fun fact on the number of words we speak in a day.  Did you know we speak about half a book a day?  Now I’m not talking a Dr. Seuss book, I’m talking full-on novel.  If we took the words we spoke in a day we could almost fill an entire novel.  I thought that was crazy!!  I thought, he must not even be talking about the number of words women speak!  Haha…Just kidding!  J

He posed the question:  How many of those words we speak are toward God?  Half a book?  A few chapters?  One Chaper?  Paragraphs?  Even a sentence?

It captured my attention in thinking that …well, I pray to God often.  In the car, meals, when I wake up…I thought check—I’m good with this one!

James 5:16 states, “The fervent prayer of a righteous man results in much.”

Isaiah 40:9 says, “Lift up your voice with strength…lift it up, fear not.”

I thought of the times throughout the day that I do pray to God.  How many times were they really fervent….how many times did I actually speak out my prayers.  Other than the dinner table with my kids…. I basically said them in my head or mumbled them a few decibels louder than a whisper.

Recently I was dealing with a situation where my plan and abilities were not working (of course…should I have expected anything else).  That’s when I remembered Isaiah 40:9 and out it came.  Just like the words from the song from Plumb “God, I need you…”

You know what?  It felt different.  Not just mumbling my prayer to God but actually crying out to Him.  Letting Him know that I do need him.  Not just in a bad circumstance but all the time.

Sometimes we need to let God know that we need him more than a whisper.  More than a mumble.  More than a passing thought.

Know this, there is a time and place for quietness with God.  There is a time and a place for you to think your prayers or whisper your prayers but sometimes the time and place is calling for you to cry out to God with a loud voice.  Show Him how serious you are.  Do more than a whisper or a mumble. Life Up your Voice.