This was a special conference for me as I got to speak along three very special men. God has used David Landrith, Chris Stephens and Michael Hyatt to shape me in so many different ways. I’m thankful for their friendship and the way God has used them.

Each one of them inspired and challenged me once again yesterday. David asked a question during his talk that I haven’t been able to shake. He asked,

Are you talking about God more than you’re talking to God?

That’s a huge temptation in my life these days. When you’re speaking and writing as much as I currently am it’s easy to start thinking that since you’re always talking about God that you’re talking to God.

But that’s not necessarily true. In fact, they are two very different things.

It’s possible to talk about God and not be transformed. However talking with God always leads to transformation.

It’s possible to talk about God and become exhausted doing so. However talking with God breathes life into the most exhausted parts of your soul.

How about you?

Are you spending more time talking about God or talking with God?

I’ll be blogging along the way when I can, but would ask you guys to join me in praying for a couple things on this trip:

-  I’ve made two trips to India in the past couple years and both times I’ve been violently ill. Sure would be nice to make it there and back without getting sick this time. I know it’s selfish, but it’s hard to get a lot accomplished if you’re unable to move, flat on your back in the bed.

-I’ll be visiting a slum that I’m praying a church will step up to support soon. $500 a month can start a school and feeding center there. Any takers?  If you’re interested, shoot me an email at pete@crosspoint.tv.

-I’ve got a group of fifteen or so from Cross Point with me. None of them have ever been to India and most of them have never been on a mission trip. Praying this week will blow their mind and open their heart and that everyone will be safe.

-Pray for my family. This is the beginning of a 19 day trip away from them that includes India, Atlanta, and LA. By far the longest time I’ve been away from them and I can’t stand it.

-Please pray for my time with Bishal. I met this kid a year ago while in India. He and his family are the only Christians currently living in the Khalpar slum where we have our school and feeding center. He’s a special kid and God is going to use his life in powerful ways one day in India.

God let me make a difference for you that is utterly disproportionate to who I am.

So that’s my prayer today.

How about you? What are you praying today?

One of several resources which was very helpful to me was a book entitled Confessions of a Prayer Slacker by my friend Diane Moody. Diane has been a part of Cross Point pretty much from the start and is a regular reader and commentor here on the blog. Man, she did a fantastic job with this book, which releases this week.

She says early on in the book that her goal is to “Help you find the joy of meeting God every single day, one-on-one, heart-to-heart, until you reach a point where you can’t even imagine starting your day without Him.”

I love that and I so desire that for my own prayer life!

So here’s the deal. Let me know on a scale of 1-10 (10 being absolutely amazing) how your prayer life is these days. Tomorrow I’ll choose 5 random winners and send you a copy of Diane’s new book.

I always learn such incredible spiritual lessons from my kids. My 6 year-old, Gage, spent the afternoon yesterday with his Nonni planting tomato plants. I heard he prayed for each plant after putting it in the ground.

So I asked him, “Gage, why did you pray for the tomato plants?” He said, “Well, Dad, that’s how they grow.”

My son sees what I sometimes forget. Nothing happens apart from the power of God.

At the end of day 2 of flood relief I’m tired. Our team is tired. The constant adrenaline of being on the front lines of ministry can simply drain you. The more tired I get the more I start to question….

Have we taken on too much?

Do we have a clue what we’re doing?

How are we going to keep up this pace?

Can we really make a difference with all this devastation?

We’re now being told this is a one thousand year flood. This is quite possibly the biggest tragedy Cross Point, or Nashville for that matter, will face in our lifetime. God has positioned us and called us to be a bright light in the midst of the darkness.

As I drifted to sleep last night I was simply praying, “God empower us. God equips us. God fill us with your unfathomable grace, love and hope.”

Why?

Because this is how we grow. Nothing happens apart from the power of God.

How can we pray for you today?

One of my biggest struggles with prayer is my inability to stay focused. I find my mind running in all kinds of directions no matter how much I try to concentrate. I can’t tell you how guilty I’ve felt about this over the years.

I’m finishing up John Ortbergs latest book The Me I Want to Be and he’s got a great chapter on prayer. He says this,

When I pray, I end up praying about things I think I should be concerned about: missionaries, world peace and global warming. But my mind keeps wandering toward stuff I am genuinely concerned about. The way to let my talking flow into praying is this: I must pray what is in me, not what I wish were in me.

I love that. I might have discovered a prayer breakthrough.

How’s your prayer life?

Now I’m not saying I don’t pray or I don’t enjoy prayer. I’m not saying I don’t understand it or I need help understanding why we pray. I’m just saying I stink at prayer and my prayer life is not where I want it to be.

The painful thing is what my weak prayer life says about me. Here’s the ugly truth. My lack of prayer proves…

I underestimate the power of prayer and overestimate my own ability.

I’m not really as hungry for the intimacy with God I so regularly publicly declare as a desire of my heart.

While I would like to know God’s will for my life I’m clearly more committed to my will, my plans and my agenda.

I’ve bought into the illusion that there are more important things to do than spending time with the creator of the universe.

I’ve reduced prayer to a list of things I think I want or need and I currently don’t need to “use” God for anything.

So how’s your prayer life? What does your prayer life or lack of prayer life say about you?

This week is proving to be tougher than I thought. The main question is “Does Prayer Really Change Anything?” I spent the better half of my day yesterday in a intense, but healthy discussion with several staff members about this topic. Clearly we did not agree.

So I want to know what you think.

Why do you pray?

Do you think prayer really changes anything or does it mainly change us?

If God has already made up his mind should I even bother?

And before you jump in I want you to read the original question left on THIS POST which spurred this topic on to become week 3 of the Q series. Imagine sitting across from this family before you throw out your cliche religious phrases.

Yesterday morning, my cousin’s four-year-old son died from a brain tumor. He was diagnosed just 55 days ago, went into a coma ten days ago, and passed away yesterday. The family was on their last day of a Make A Wish trip to Disney World when Josiah slipped into a coma. This family’s life has turned upside down in less than two months.

The most obvious question is what is God’s purpose in this…in allowing a little child like that to die from such a detestable disease? But, more than that, why does God’s timing and answers to prayer sometimes seem so random? Thousands of people were praying for little Josiah, and thousands more have prayed for other kids with tumors, cancer, etc…some get healed, some not.

Is it a prayer contest? Does it come down to who prays more passionately? And if not, how does prayer factor in at all…is God going to allow what He’s going to allow and there’s not much we can do about it? I know that God answers prayers. I believe that. But sometimes there doesn’t seem to be much rhyme or reason to it.