40 Days of Fasting & Prayer--Day 32

Feb. 3rd-That God’s presence would INVADE my study

(Romans 15:1-22)

I may have not been a terrible student as I was growing up but I certainly wasn’t a good one.  I was distracted, lazy, bored and undisciplined.  I probably shouldn’t bother speaking in past tense as far as that goes either.  I remember that I would have much rather been watching girls, watching TV or watching the ball.  Studying only happened when I didn’t have these options available.  My idea of the three R’s was Romping, Rat Patrol, and Racquel.

College proved that the die had been cast.  I started off with good intentions but the only difference was that my three R’s had matured to Racquetball, Remington Steele, and Locklear (I know, but it ends with it…and you’ve no idea how long I tried coming up with a fit).  I simply wasn’t serious about my time in college and I constantly kick myself over this now.  I wasted a lot of time and money.  I look back and cringe at what little I have to show for the huge school bill that I departed with.  In addition to that, I left college with an underdeveloped level of discipline as it relates to study.  I did only what I needed to get by…not a very marketable skill or something to admit on a job application.

In large part, when we become adults we cease to be students.  We tend to stop actively learning because we aren’t getting graded.  There is no motivation to push ourselves unless there is a deadline or other pressure forcing the issue.  We become stagnant and resort to our own renditions of the 3 R’s.

As a pastor, I don’t get a report card but I am being watched and “graded”.  Every Sunday, people rate the sermon…fortunately we haven’t digressed to judge’s score cards (not a bad idea since I think more people would stay awake just to participate).  The fact that I am expected to deliver depth and quality every week is motivating yet exhausting.  The greater the pressure there is to perform, the greater the exhaustion.  I am confronted weekly with a choice to cheat.  I can choose to be lazy and reconstitute what some other speaker did or I can study.

In school, the pressure to perform could drive some people to cheat.  I have no memory that I ever cheated in school but perhaps I didn’t have the same pressure that others did.  Why do people cheat?  Students and adults alike will cheat in life because they don’t or won’t do the work of studying and will instead take the shortcut to the grade.

Now for the point…do we cheat by counting on someone else to do the work for us?  Instead of getting into the Word of God, do we just allow someone else to break it down for us?  Do we rely on a well written book that expounds on a pet topic of ours instead of going to the source of truth?  I have a large library so obviously I’m not discrediting the importance of writing but it does beg the question…Do I have a pattern of just relying on what someone else says about God instead of taking the time to go to God and His Word myself?

“Father, I want to introduce You to my world, but I know that I must first KNOW You.  As I study Your Word, I pray that You would uncover the volumes of the truth of Your love to my heart.  Invade me as I read and meditate on it!”