KS: Hey everybody and welcome to week five of our "Dangerous Prayers" Online Bible Study.
My name is Kendra and I am the manager of Online Bible Studies but really all the means
is I get to do the study right alongside you, which is one of my favorite parts of my job.
I’m joined by a guy you’ve seen for the past five weeks. He is author and Pastor Craig
Groeschel, author of "Dangerous Prayers". Happy to sit with you Craig.
CG: Hey, thank you Kendra and welcome back for another week.
KS: Yes, we are very excited because we are moving into another prayer that you cover
in "Dangerous Prayers". It is on the topic of “Send Me”.
CG: Yes.
KS: Now before we get into a little bit about me and the prayer that I pray that deals with
that a lot, of people might hear “Send Me” and think if they pray that it’s going to
take them away from their home and maybe to a third-world country or maybe go across America
or wherever they may be. So, what do you say about the prayer “Send Me” if somebody
thinks like that?
CG: I would say if you pray “Send Me” that God could send you to a third world country.
KS: That’s true.
CG: Or something like that. More likely, God will give you eyes to see something right
in front of you or a heart for some people around you. In one of the things, Kendra,
I think is always interesting is sometimes people view their workplace or their profession
as being less spiritual than maybe someone who's a pastor or a worship leader or something.
I always try to tell them that you know not only is that not less spiritual but in many
ways, you have a far bigger opportunity to impact lives all the time. When you pray “send
me”, I would brace yourself because chances are you might end up with a heart for something
that you didn't before. You'll probably find yourself in a place where you feel a little
bit uncomfortable, meaning like I'm not sure I have what it takes to get this message across.
Or I might not feel good enough and I think one of the reasons is because God is going
to put you in a place where you really have to depend on him. You may not have to pack
your bags to wherever He sends you, chances are they'll be something much closer within
reach. But whether you have to pack your bags or you don't, I would get ready to experience
a new level faith and an opportunity to be obedient to calling you may not have realized
otherwise
KS: Yeah, we all have to gear up in case that is the case.
CG: Get ready.
KS: Yes, so my prayer has to deal with send me and as I was thinking about what I could
talk with you about it took me back to when I was twenty-two. I was fresh out of college
and it was 2014. I had a job that I wasn't the best at. I didn't know if I belonged there
per se and every day to and from work I would cry in the car and talk to God about “there's
no way this is what you have for me. This is no way, there's no way I'm supposed to
be here. There's no way I'm supposed to do this. This is not what I thought my life would
look like.” You could say I was having what I consider a quarter life crisis. I want to
talk to anybody right now, God can use you wherever you are no matter what job you have.
I realize that now, looking back at this job, I'm like it prepared me for where I am. So,
I'm very grateful for it. But I remember just crying and I was so confused on why God had
me where He did. You wrote something in your book that really resonated with me and that
is “Send me, Lord. Use me” and that's exactly what I wanted. I desperately wanted
that, and I think I was ready for the send but I don't know what that looked like, but
I wasn't ready for the change in which came with it. I think, like you said, sometimes
it can make you uncomfortable and you need to be ready for whatever that may look like.
That prayer led me to move from Ohio, where I'm originally from, to North Carolina. It
had me move without an offer letter for a job.
CG: Wow.
KS: I wasn't sure if I got the job at Proverbs yet. Not only did I gain a lot from it but
there was a lot of change that came with it. I lost friendships over it. I lost comfort
and familiarity. It removed me from the proximity of family, but it gave me other relationships.
It gave me a new comfort for the city in which I was in. It gave me a newfound purpose, but
sometimes the hardest things require removal.
CG: Yeah.
KS: I think that was the hardest part of it. So in chapter 3.2 you say, “His call usually
requires you to surrender your own plans and preferences and go where He tells you, when
He tells you, how He tells you, to meet who He tells you, and to do what He tells you.”
What I find so interesting about that quote that you put is that you surrender your own
plans that you talked to Melissa about you that you can't necessarily go into it like
this. Essentially you have to be open palm, and that's exactly what I had to do. So, what
do you say to somebody who needs to surrender their own plans or what advice you have for
somebody on how to do that?
CG: Well I think one of our biggest desires is to kind of go to God and have Him do what
we want. So here's my here's my prayer list with you know the fifteen things I want You
to do. I would say God does care about all the details of your life but occasionally
rather than going to Him with your wish list, maybe you go to Him with a blank piece of
paper and say, “What would you like of me?” I think that's one of the dangerous things
about prayer is so often we think it's me talking, talking, and talking, but if I stand
here and we're supposed to have a conversation and I talk the whole time and I don't ever
listen to you, that's not really a conversation. So, I think we need to go before God with
that posture of I want to listen as well as I want to speak. So often we tend to think
we know either what He wants, or we tend to attribute what we want to being His will.
So often He has something totally completely different, like in your case, and it does
go to that new place and have any kind of impact, it does mean often letting go of everything
that is comfortable to you, everything that makes you feel secure, everything that's known,
because to take that step of faith, that is what it is, and it is a step of faith and
without faith it's impossible to please God.
KS: Right, and I think the thing that has shocked me the most as I reflected on that
time preparing for this, is not only did I give things up right away, right as I was
driving down from Ohio to North Carolina, but four years later there are still things
that I'm having to give up in order to fully step into the position at Proverbs or other
relationships that I have. Like I just had to have a friendship break up, if you will,
with one of my nearest and dearest friends of all time and I never thought that friendship
would end, I felt very secure in that friendship, but I saw that it was toxic, and it was part
of who I used to be, and I needed to break it off. But I think that's the hardest part
of “Send Me” is you can step out in faith, but it doesn't mean that God's going to stop
there. There are going to be other things and little steps of obedience to get you to
where you need to go.
CG: Yes, absolutely. Sometimes this “Send Me” you might now actually go anywhere,
like I wish Amy, my wife, could talk to you because she's got so much wisdom, but we raised
- and are still raising six kids together - and in the early years I could tell she
had a real send me heart like I want to go out and do something. Her assignment really
was these children, and so while she had a lot more to offer in her mind, that was her
assignment and so she had to step into it and really embrace it. Once they were a little
bit older suddenly, she had this massive burden for marginalized women, and it was almost
a burden she didn't want. It was like it was so heavy, so strong that she couldn't not
deal with it. So it took her on a real faith journey of doing things she'd never done before:
starting a nonprofit, finding a team, opening up what started out one little home and is
now going to multiple homes and a full blown staff. But it was like in the early years
I wanted to be sent and I'm now raising kids. And the other years, later on, it's like I
wasn't asking for this but now I'm being sent. It led her on this just real journey. I think
the bottom line is when you're obedient to where God's planting you and take that step
of faith, kind of like you, ending a friendship is really difficult. Redefining it but stepping
into, I like what you said, that's not who I am anymore. It’s a part of my past. I
think we can all say that in our current moment - I am different now because I'm being conformed
to the image of Christ
KS: Absolutely, absolutely. Craig thank you so much for speaking into the prayer of “Send
Me”. I know we have another week with all of you
and then next week you're going to be back with Lysa TerKeurst and Melissa.
CG: Thank you for saying yes or you wouldn't be here interviewing. You could be back somewhere
else.
KS: You’re right. We would have never had this opportunity to chat. So look at that.
It worked out.
CG: For you too, don't be afraid...take a step of faith. If there’s a stirring you
might not feel equipped. You're not going to know all the details. I always say this,
if God gave you all the details you’d probably run for the hills. So, you don't need the
details. You just need to take the next obedient step. If you pray “Send Me”, He will.
Get ready. You may have to pack your bags you may not, but you will have to take a step
of faith
KS: That's great, and you have been here to where we ended each video with our tagline.
So do you want to see if you can help?
CG: You start out. Yes.
KS: When you know the truth.
CG: And we live the truth.
Both: It changes everything.
KS: That was great.
CG: Thank you.
KS: Great job. Alright everybody have a wonderful week
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