Do the things you once did.

I was listening to a sermon this morning by Mark Driscoll from his new sermon series: Jesus loves His church. now I haven't listened to the whole thing just yet but  one thing that struck me as He was talking.

Driscoll was talking about David and explaining how David was seen as great and still is in many respects but that to understand his greatness you have to know that David was great because of the presence of God and something that has been on my heart recently is that I used to on Sunday nights go and be apart of a prayer meeting. It was a group of people who didn't just sit and say prayer requests but simply prayed and I know that in that time I grew a lot. I'd never been apart of anything that was simply devoted to prayer and it definitely made a difference.

I'm reading a book right now called The Circle Maker by Mark Batterson and it talks a lot about prayer and the power of it. As I've been reading it I've been thinking about that group and wondering why it stopped but that's neither here nor there. What was remarkable to me about Driscoll's comments on David was simply the power that comes from the presence of God. That's what God put on our heart and challenged our group to earnestly pray for. And I did. I prayed that God would just show up. And in some respects I would say that's all you need to pray for. But there is something beautiful about specific prayers in that you actually can tell when God answers them. When your prayers are vague there is no way to see if God answered them or not.

I kept thinking of a verse and I think it's something that God put on my heart. It's something He does with me. He gives me snipets of His word to focus on and this is the thought I keep having

"Do the things you once did."

So I look that up because I have heart that but don't have it memorized.

and then--- i find its Revelation 2:5 - Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.

and I see a verse on the side of that page that says Matthew 5:14 "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden." This idea of a city on a hill has been rocking my world for a few weeks now. I keep trying to figure it out and conceptualize what God is trying to show me with it.

I'm someone who God is really clear with. I think thats because I don't get it unless He is.

Maybe what He is trying to say is that I need to start praying for the presence of God to show up for my church. thats what started our prayers before and we definitely saw God move. Maybe thats what I need to be doing. He has taught me a lot about prayer and its something that I find not to be just a thing I do but a true meeting with God.  I'm not sure. I don't know what He's trying to tell me specifically but what I do know is that He's telling me something.

Or maybe in "Do the things you once did" He means a place? I don't know. Here's what I do know: God has been showing me A TON lately and I'm not sure what it all means but I'm excited to see where He is going to take it.

Praying for you friends. That you would see that the only greatness we can have is with Christ. That if you once had a relationship with Him and have stepped back that you would go back and do the things you once did. That you would commit yourselves to prayer.

In the book it makes this comment about a woman: she "...was more comfortable in the presence of God than in the presence of people." Is that you? If not I encourage you to open yourself up to God because I promise if you do He does AMAZING things!!!