Day 5-The Circle Maker Prayer Challenge

We are continuing our 21 day prayer journey based on Mark Batterson’s book, The Circle Maker. Check out the first post in this series to get a daily email in your inbox from National Community Church. I pray that God will continue to bless us all as we Dream Big, Pray Hard, and Think Long and begin to draw prayer circles in our lives.

Welcome to Day Five of the 21-Day Prayer Challenge.

The people God uses the most are the people who spend the most time in His presence.  Why?  Because the more time you spend in God’s presence the moreyou know Him and the more He can trust you. We need to be people of His presence, and prayer is one way you get into the presence of God. For the record, you’ll get further into the presence of God when prayer is combined with worship and fasting.

When I was in college, I was determined to spend as much time in prayer as I possibly could. During my senior year, most lunch hours were spent in a darkened, empty chapel.  I’d pace and pray in the chapel balcony seeking the heart of God.  I was desperate to know God, to be used by God.

The story that inspired me more than any other was Exodus 33:7-11:

Now Moses used to take a tent and pitch it outside the camp some distance away, calling it the “tent of meeting.” Anyone inquiring of the LORD would go to the tent of meeting outside the camp. And whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people rose and stood at the entrances to their tents, watching Moses until he entered the tent. As Moses went into the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and stay at the entrance, while the LORD spoke with Moses. Whenever the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance to the tent, they all stood and worshiped, each at the entrance to their tent.  The LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend. Then Moses would return to the camp, but his young aide Joshua son of Nun did not leave the tent.

Did you catch the last phrase?  Joshua “did not leave the tent.”  Why did God choose Joshua to succeed Moses?  I think it’s because Joshua spent more time with Him than anyone else in Israel.

I wonder if our generation has forgotten how to linger in worship and tarry in prayer.  You can’t just pray. You need to pray through.  Now please don’t misread what I’m writing. It’s not a contest to see who can pray the longest. It’s not like you clock in and clock out logging hours.  But I just don’t think you can have quality time with God if you don’t have quantity time.  And like the Psalmist said: “Better is one day in the courts of the Lord than a thousand elsewhere.”

I believe everyone needs their own tent of meeting.  You need to find a place and find a time where you have a standing meeting with God.  If you need to, add it to your calendar or set an alarm.  After all, it’s the most important meeting of the day hands down!  The goal of the 21-Day prayer challenge isn’t praying for 21 days.  It’s establishing a daily habit for the rest of the year.

*Taken from National Community Church. Day Five.