Latest / Time with God with John North / When God Gets Your Attention Pt. 5
Transcript
- 0:05Speaker 1: Good morning. As we start our day, we're going to
- 0:08Speaker 1: start it by taking some time with God together.
- 0:12Speaker 1: Have you learned yet to make time with God, uh,
- 0:16Speaker 1: the key thing in your day?
- 0:20Speaker 1: If you truly believe that God is who He says
- 0:24Speaker 1: He is, that God is sovereign, that He's in control
- 0:30Speaker 1: of the circumstances of your life, that He loves you
- 0:33Speaker 1: and wants to respond to your prayers, that He wants
- 0:37Speaker 1: you to know Him better, that He has communicated His
- 0:42Speaker 1: outlook on life, the key ways for your life to
- 0:46Speaker 1: move ahead.
- 0:47Speaker 1: In wholeness and meaning in the Bible. Well then, why
- 0:52Speaker 1: in the world wouldn't you spend time with God? Of
- 0:55Speaker 1: course you would. And so if you want to grow
- 0:59Speaker 1: in these ways, learn to make your time with God
- 1:03Speaker 1: the number one thing in your life.
- 1:07Speaker 1: We're talking this week about the theme when God gets
- 1:11Speaker 1: our attention. We've seen that sometimes He uses other people
- 1:15Speaker 1: to get our attention. Sometimes he uses difficult circumstances to
- 1:21Speaker 1: get our attention. CS Lewis once said, God whispers to
- 1:26Speaker 1: us in our pleasures.
- 1:28Speaker 1: Speaks in our conscience but shouts in our pains. It
- 1:34Speaker 1: is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.
- 1:39Speaker 1: Well, today I want to take you to the book
- 1:42Speaker 1: of Job, chapter 30, and in this book, Job is speaking,
- 1:49Speaker 1: and he says, I cry out to you for help.
- 1:52Speaker 1: But you do not answer me. I stand up and
- 1:56Speaker 1: you turn your attention against me.
- 2:00Speaker 1: Well, one of the ways God can try to get
- 2:04Speaker 1: our attention is through unanswered prayer.
- 2:10Speaker 1: In James chapter 4 verse 3, James says to the
- 2:15Speaker 1: Christians he's writing to, You ask, that is in prayer,
- 2:19Speaker 1: you ask and do not receive because you ask with
- 2:23Speaker 1: wrong motives so that you may spend it on your
- 2:26Speaker 1: own pleasures.
- 2:28Speaker 1: Well, unanswered prayer, uh, it can be a clue. It
- 2:33Speaker 1: can be a message from God that things are not
- 2:36Speaker 1: right in our spiritual lives and that we need to
- 2:40Speaker 1: get our focus back on God and His purposes for us,
- 2:44Speaker 1: get off the track of just trying to get God
- 2:48Speaker 1: to make us the centre of His world and get
- 2:50Speaker 1: back on the track that God is at the centre
- 2:53Speaker 1: of everything, and we need to build our lives around Him.
- 2:58Speaker 1: Unanswered prayer. God can be trying to get your attention,
- 3:02Speaker 1: trying to get your focus back on Him, trying to
- 3:05Speaker 1: get you to once again build your prayer life and
- 3:09Speaker 1: your whole life around what He wants to do in
- 3:13Speaker 1: this world and in your life.
- 3:16Speaker 1: What about your prayer life? Are you focused on the
- 3:20Speaker 1: things of God? Are you asking God, Lord, would you
- 3:23Speaker 1: lead my prayers to pray the things you want to accomplish?
- 3:26Speaker 1: Because I know if you lead me and I'm praying
- 3:30Speaker 1: the things that are on your heart, then there's no
- 3:33Speaker 1: question that you'll do them.
- 3:35Speaker 1: And as long as I'm just praying what I want,
- 3:38Speaker 1: then I have no idea whether it's what you want
- 3:40Speaker 1: to do or not. So teach me to listen, teach
- 3:44Speaker 1: me to pray in your will, guide my heart and mind.
- 3:48Speaker 1: I want to be focused on you. I want my
- 3:50Speaker 1: life and my prayer life to be building your kingdom
- 3:55Speaker 1: in this world and to be responding to you in
- 3:58Speaker 1: my own life. And when you pray a prayer like that.
- 4:03Speaker 1: God has gotten your attention, and He begins to work
- 4:06Speaker 1: powerfully once again through you and your prayers. I'm John North.