Get Lost: Love FeastSample

Gain heart focus by praying Scripture out loud: You know the plans of my life, Lord. I choose to believe You when You say that those plans are for good and not evil and that they promise a future and a hope. I call upon You. I come to You today and I pray believing that You have promised to hear me. I am seeking You, believing that I can find You. I’m going to put my whole heart into it. I want to find You. Please restore those things that were taken from me. Bring me back to a place where I can be close to You. (Adapted from Jer. 29:11–14.) Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. Psalm 73:25 Evan Roberts was twenty-six years old when God overtook his desires. The Holy Spirit pursued him in a way he’d never before experienced, and the young man yielded to God’s wooing. In one of those rare and precious outpourings of the Spirit, Roberts wept profoundly at an awareness of God’s love. In that moment, he was made aware of God’s desires. That led him to prayer. Roberts did not ask for money or for one of his appetites to be quieted. He did not request power or fame. He did not seek a visible gift of the Spirit. His request was one that could spring only from a deep friendship with God: “Bend me, bend me, bend me; Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh!” Roberts didn’t fully realize what he was asking when those words first came out of his mouth, but in the minutes to follow he gained understanding. He explained it this way: What came to mind after this was the bending in the day of judgment. Then I was filled with sympathy for the people who will have to bend in judgment day, and I wept. Afterwards the salvation of souls weighed heavily on me. I felt on fire for going through the whole of Wales to tell the people about the Saviour. In case you didn’t notice, Roberts was getting over himself and getting lost in God. His prayer was fueled by agape, a self-sacrificing love. Fast-forward to 1904 when Evan Roberts preached a simple sermon in the plain and uninviting Moriah Chapel in Loughor, Wales. Only a handful of people attended that first meeting, but the friendship Roberts had with God was contagious. They too felt the presence of the Holy Spirit and began to pray in accordance with His desires. Within a year an estimated one hundred thousand people had come to know Christ’s love. All because one man became His friend. True Friendship with God “Bring me a husband.” “Heal my headache.” “I want to pass my final.” “Help me find a job.” How often do our conversations with God consist of such demands? God is not a genie. He is almighty God, a King to be lifted up. You would approach a friendship with the president of the United States with respect and an awareness that, although he’s in a position to act powerfully on your behalf, a true friend is not there to be used. He’s there to be in relationship with you. Yet we often treat God as some sort of vending machine. Our prayers primarily comprise a to-do list, complete with deadlines and details. It’s not that He doesn’t want to hear about our needs, or that He won’t listen and respond to them. It’s just that rarely do we get in touch with His desires enough to pray something like “Bend me.” Why not? I think it’s because we aren’t in deep friendship with Him. But Evan Roberts was. Watch this! (I’m so excited about what I’m about to show you.) A friend shares secret hopes, dreams, and joys with you. If you are a true friend, you get excited about those hopes and dreams. You delight not only in your friend but in the things that mean the most to your friend. Consider for a moment Psalm 73:25, where the writer declares such depth of friendship with these words: “Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you.” Do you know what it means to delight in Him? The Hebrew word hepes (desire) means “to bend down.” Oh yes! It does. (See what I mean about Roberts?) Bending toward God is a natural outcome of delighting in Him. Remember that Roberts didn’t even understand what he was praying, yet somehow his heart knew God’s desire. The prayer was just him speaking it back to his Savior. I don’t think you can choose this. It happens only as a product of close friendship, of knowing each other, of intimacy. This brings us back to the purpose of getting lost: to be so lost in friendship with God that you leave behind your own self-driven desires and are directed by His desires and His dreams. To return to our initial definition of “getting lost,” it means you are “absent of” your desires and present to His. Getting lost leads to an authentic, vibrant prayer life because you know what His desires are and you delight in being part of them. It is possible to be a child of God without being a friend of God. Abraham, however, is clearly identified in James 2:23 as “a friend of God.” Why? I think he was a man who didn’t mind bending. In fact, I’d say he was a bit of a contortionist. We read in Genesis 12 that God shows up in Abraham’s life with a rather tall order. Leave home. Follow Me. Don’t ask where we’re going. Can you imagine? What if you sensed God telling you that, rather than heading to college after high school, He wanted you to leave home and go wherever He led you day by day? People would say you were crazy. You might be labeled lazy, foolish, unmotivated, irresponsible. The world, with its emphasis on drive and success, scorns the value of a nomad who follows the voice of God. It would not surprise me if you hesitated to obey such an unusual directive. Most of us question and argue with God when He asks us to change, sacrifice, move, or act outside the norm. Abraham didn’t do that. Where we might expect to find a suspense-filled pause while he grappled with a decision, the Bible simply reads, “So [Abraham] went, as the Lord had told him” (Genesis 12:4a). He was quick to demonstrate his trust in God. I have to offer some color commentary here. In my mind, Abraham is the strong, silent type. He listened to God’s big, life-altering desire, and without a single question crossing his lips, he nodded in trusting agreement. One of the key factors in following God’s desire is the knowledge that you can trust it. We may not know with certainty what God is up to when He reveals His desire. Evan Roberts didn’t know God would use him to start a revival—or what it would cost him—but he knew God wanted him to bend. Abraham didn’t know where God was taking him—or all that he’d sacrifice along the way—but he knew God wanted him to go. A true friend trusts another friend’s desire. Write Your Story Do you have a decision to make—small or large—that impacts your future? Please ask God what His desire is for you. I encourage you to do whatever it is that connects you to Him. Take a long walk. Sit in candlelight and listen to worship songs. Soak in a bubble bath. During this intimate time with Him, simply say over and over again: “Lord, I want to hear Your desire for me. Is it to ___________? I want to delight in it. Bend me.” Once you have heard Him clearly, take time to write about your experience in your journal or below.