So begins my next series: Two-A-Days. The Gospel Rants are officially dead; I have killed them. Thus, the old has passed away—behold, the new has come!
This will be a blog post explaining the goals and attributes of this new series. If you have any comments, substantial financial gifts (cash, check, and credit are accepted), or sincere professions of love, email me at scott.tipton@campusrenewal.org. Please make your sincere professions of love out to the Campus House of Prayer.
What’s This?
Don’t panic. This is going to be a lot like what The Gospel Rants were (blogs with my comments on major theological issues or Christian practices such as evangelism, prayer, Bible study, etcetera). The major difference in this series is that it will center itself on the twice-daily prayer hours which I’ll be taking from 7-8am and 9-10pm at the Campus House of Prayer every weekday.
Therefore, some of the posts might be stories of unusual things the Lord has done through the hours or in response to prayer, some might be theological exegesis of a passage God has shown me, and some might be me going off about some Christiany thing that I do or don’t (probably don’t) like. I reserve the right to get snarky and passive-aggressive, as well as THE RIGHT TO WRITE IN ALL CAPS TO GET MY POINT ACROSS. See? That’s familiar, right? At least the snarkiness?
Why’s This?
The purpose behind my prayer hours (which has become, in turn, the purpose of this series of blogs) is the development of substantial, working faith in the lives of the believers in the Body of Christ at UT. The Lord brought this cause to my attention gradually, starting with the conviction to pray during my second semester (Spring ’11), in which I began to take what I called the Midnight Prayer Hours: every night from 12-1am, I would go to the CHOP and pray for an hour before I went to bed.
These hours revolutionized my faith. At the end of that semester, my prayers were no longer vague, sometimes-empty Christiany phrases thrown around out of habit; they were living, breathing pleas full of power and passion, absolutely confident in the constant power of God waiting to carry them out.
I had seen God move in response to my prayers often enough to be absolutely certain that I was heard, and I began to notice a snowball effect in my spiritual life—the more I prayed, the bolder I got to pray for goals that seemed impossible; the more I saw God move to make the impossible happen, the bolder I got speaking the Word of God to my friends; the more of my friends who were saved, the more confident I grew in discipleship, and the more the new believers began to pray and evangelize with me; the more my community grew, the more peace, satisfaction, and joy I felt, and the more I noticed my love for God beginning to overpower different areas of stubborn unbelief that I’d held from Him.
The cycle repeated endlessly. It takes a college student four years to get a Bachelor’s degree, and that degree certifies he’s able to understand the basic necessities of one particular field of study, although he will probably require on-the-job training at his first job to become a useful worker—and on top of that, he may require further training later in life to develop or renew his skills. I tell you the truth: God, in four months, can make one of His children infinitely qualified for His work and infinitely effective and useful as a worker—and this work stands unchanged for a lifetime.
But I believe that a major part of that job application is consistent, faithful, do-it-when-you-don’t-want-to prayer. I can’t talk enough about the Midnight Prayer Hours or about the good they caused in my spiritual development. I am convinced that the divisions and problems of the modern church would disappear if every believer was convicted with a solid, functional, potent faith rooted in prayer. Therefore, these blogs will be a collective call to the Body of Christ, particularly the Body at UT, to pray for revival on our campus and to develop times when we personally follow Christ in His practice of going up on the mountainside, away from His friends and audiences, to seek His Father.
I am not advertising only communal prayer hours, although these are great: the main emphasis of my call is extended personal time with God, completely alone but for Him. Personally, to accomplish this in my spiritual life, I prayer walk—this means going out on the street and walking for an hour or so, praying as you go. I also keep a long prayer list on my phone (there’s an app for that—search for PrayerNotes in the App Store for iPhone) so that I can remember who God has put around me.
Other than that, I would encourage you to keep it simple. Don’t worry about ‘prayer strategies’ or checklists or the like. Just like evangelism strategies (the vast majority of which drive me crazy, by the way), these are usually objects of Christian clutter that distract us from the point: God. When you evangelize, talk about Christ. Period. When you pray, talk to God about what’s happening in your life, and ask for big goals in faith. Period. If you have any questions about either of these things, ask God to teach you, and He will. That’s how I learned.
How Do the Blogs Work?
A new Two-A-Days will be uploaded every Friday afternoon. I’ll post them on my Facebook and they’ll be available through the blog on www.reachingcampus.com as well. Happy reading, and God bless y’all!
Lord, thank You for the days that You’ve given us and for our friends. I ask for grace to come to the University of Texas—I pray that You would fill Your Body here with Your Spirit and embolden them to spread the Gospel like never before. I pray for a call to prayer to go up across the campus and for male and female leaders to be called to lead their friends into a lifestyle of prayer, and I ask that these prayers might change the lives of the nonbelieving students on this campus. Please let our lives live out the prayers that we pray, and help us to obey You in everything that we do. We love You, Lord; help us to love You more. In Jesus’ name,
Amen.