Faith Venture

If the feeling of powerlessness pervades so many people in a country that the rest of the world looks to as powerful, how can people tap into the power of God? Preachers try to infuse the power of God through stirring, emotional sermons. This is not unlike the motivational speakers who tour the country speaking for up to high five figures for a talk. All of us who listen to any of these speakers–religious or secular–know that 99% of the time the feeling wears off before we get home. We all have heard of the unfortunate situations where charismatic leaders actually try to keep followers feeling powerless in order to enhance their own needs for power.

I have long thought that the problem with Christian churches is that we talk about things, but we don’t train on how to do things. Take prayer. There are many ways to pray. If you read the Bible closely (maybe even not that closely), you see where people went off by themselves to pray. Is there an instruction about what they did when they went off? No. Dallas Willard, when writing about Paul and his use of athletic training terms for following a spiritual life, feels that people who heard Paul speak knew what he was talking about. Two thousand years later, maybe we’re not so sure.

About ten years ago someone recommended Richard Foster and his Renovare Institute. Then I finally read Dallas Willard after hearing so much about him for years. Here are people who actually teach the way. They don’t speak about prayer and other disciplines, they teach them. The key is to know the spiritual disciplines and begin incorporating them in your life. Some of the disciplines include study, prayer, meditation, contemplation, fasting, worship, celebration.

It’s your focus and attention that matter. If you start the day with a time of focus and attention on God through study (read from the Bible or from spiritual writers) and prayer, then you will start to tap into the power that is there for you. Sorry, just like losing weight or quitting smoking, it involves work. God is there for you, but you must be there for God.

So, how do we change the world? By teaching one person at a time where to put their focus and attention and help them pursue the disciplines.

This entry was posted on February 4, 2010 at 12:29 pm and is filed under Christianity, Living. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.