Am I taking responsibility for my life? Really?!

I was encouraged by a friend to check out Andy Stanley from North Point Church in Atlanta. He's currently preaching a series whose title is the same as this post...and frankly, I wish I'd never heard of it. Stanley is a phenomenal preacher and he has a real knack for putting the gospel in your face in a way that is not threatening at all, but certainly asks for a response.

Tonight's message was about realizing that taking responsibility is more than about just praying for change. In fact, in some cases, God may not want our prayers at all but action instead. Am I hiding behind a prayer for change, when that change is completely within my control right now. A great quote was, "If you're behavior has led to a bad situation, then prayer is not going to help until you stop that behavior" (or something like that). In other words, if you are in financial difficulty, with growing credit card debt, God is probably not going to relieve your balances if you continue to charge up the debt...No matter how hard we pray about it. In the same way, if an irresponsible behavior has put you in a bad situation in your relationships, the first thing God requires is that we stop the behavior.  Prayer can be part of the healing, but the healing will not begin until the behavior stops. He also covered the need to address other people's irresponsibility since it inevitably affects all of us.

This really does get back to what the guys and I have been talking about in Man Time...Faith without works...Sometimes, the action we need to take is prayer, but other times, God requires us to get off of our knees and face the difficulties of this life, difficulties that are often brought on by our own hand anyway.  And proclaiming faith and praying through the situation may just ignore the responsibility we have to change our behavior.

You know, some of what I have been going through over the last 10 days or so is an example of this. I've been on my knees more lately than I have at any other time in my life. But maybe it is not prayer that God is looking for. Maybe it is a behavioral change...taking responsibility for things in all areas of my life. Work, home, everywhere. Taking responsibility for letting God into the closed off areas of my life...and for allowing Him to facilitate the change that is needed.

What a wonderful time this has been to experience God this way...even as difficult as it may be to take the responsibility that He may require of me. After all, He's perfect in His request for change...And even more so in His provision to see me through it.