PRAY IT! Bye Bye Nasty - Romans 7:18-20

Do you ever just feel whiny as you pray? 
Or maybe extremely needy?
Have you ever felt like you were on continual rewind and repeat with God? 

"God... I'm sorry.  I messed up.  Again."
"Hi God... it's me.  I need help."
"Hi God... I thought I said adios to 'the nasty' but apparently it doesn't speak Spanish..."
"God, it's like an annoying puppy... yip, yip, yip... I tell it to go away but it just keeps coming back."

What gives?

In our passage this week, Paul succinctly sums up the battle Christians face and the frustrations that can run through our minds.

God, I want to do good, and I want to please you, but I can't do it on my own. 
God, instead of radiating rays of goodness today, all I did was vomit up more of the same ick. 
God, I really want to do good, and not bad.
But. It's. Just. Not. Happening.

"What should we pray then?" as we continue to make our way through the Romans portion of our two-sermon-sermon series (Bye Bye Nasty/Jesus Move).  Catch up here:  Romans 7:18-20

The answer is really the same as it was last week.  And it'll remain the same long after the series concludes.  We need to pray honestly, consistently, and desperately for more of God and His presence and power. 

I have a potted pepper plant growing on my apartment balcony.  It requires sun.  It requires me to water it.  (And sometimes I do...)  No one says, "Hey, pepper plant, one day you'll be healthy enough to go at it on your own."  No one expects the pepper plant to some day be self-sufficient enough to not need the sun or water. 

The same holds true for us and God.  We're not striving for some kind of warped idea of "Christian maturity" in which we just don't need God anymore because we've been walking with Him so long already.

We cannot (nor is it the expectation) live this life apart from God, with any kind of God-honoring success.  John 15:5 "I am the vine; you are the braches.  Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing."

Dear God,

I want You to move through me.  Therefore, I need Your presence and Your power.  Help me to notice ways in which to include You in my day more and more, never exiting Your presence.  Help me say "bye" to the ick I create when I'm left to my own devices, and hello to the mighty move of Your transforming presence.  Guard me from the habit of self-sufficiency and instead bless me with a child-like need for You.

Amen.

PoC|Coverage is tonight at 6pm.  Come pray with us!  Sometimes, the best way to learn about something is to do it! 

Pastor Celia