Prayer: Tune in To God! Have you ever noticed the way the disciples approached Christ in the Gospels and the way they approached Him in the book of Acts? For good reason, Jesus never acted on what they asked of Him. But when you turn to the book of Acts, you find a completely different focus in their lives and in their prayers. What made the difference? See: Acts 4:7-30 These men had an encounter with the risen victorious Christ. How can you tell that people have had an encounter with God? Their priorities change. The disciples went from being about their own agenda to being about God’s agenda. Their prayers change. They didn’t pray for safety and self advancement, but for boldness… not for their reputation to be vindicated but for Jesus’ renown to increase. They no longer were trying to be gatekeepers of who gets to encounter Jesus. In fact, they prayed for MORE boldness and grace to share Jesus with the whole world. They prayed that God’s purposes would be secured even if they suffered for it. When most of our praying is about our wants, our needs, and our concerns, we will see the working of God in trace amounts. We are so instinctively “me-centered” in our thinking and praying that it will take discipline and alertness to drive it from our prayers. Jas 4:3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. What would it take to change your prayers? We pray safe prayers because we are afraid for God to shake us up. We bring a shopping lists to God of all our fleshly wants and fears. What if, instead, we prayed for a powerful revelation of the risen Christ in our world? We pray for safety and comfort. What if we prayed for strength to stand? We pray for success for our dreams and our plans. What if we prayed that we would not fall short of glorifying God? We often pray for circumstances to be changed… What if instead we prayed to do the will of God, no matter the circumstances? Let’s TUNE IN to God’s agenda. God has much more in store –we all need a fresh encounter with the risen victorious Christ.