What does the term Weekend Warrior imply? Isn’t it normally attributed to intense, endurance-challenging exercise? This translation is different. Have you ever felt the intense urge to pray for people you care about and you just can’t stop thinking about them until you’ve spent time with God praying his best for them? What if we applied the tear weekend warrior to prayer? What would happen if we prayed for other people; prayed for ourselves; prayed for our country and prayed for our leaders. What if we prayed for a godly attitude and stronger faith. Could we pray for God to be in the center of every room in our homes and that whatever happened there would be honorable and pleasing to God? I want a heart like the people in Joshua 24:15 “But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” We often think we need to spend an hour in prayer of at least a significant amount of time reading from a list of names so we don’t forget to pray for them? That traditional method is one way of assuring we get our prayer time in, but there’s another way to pray without ceasing like 1 Thessalonians 5:17.
There are benefits to Well first, let me tell you what didn’t happen. Everything on my get-it-done list, all pertaining to some room in my house, didn’t auto-magically get done. Even if I had asked God to complete the tasks for me, he would have reminded me that he is not a magician, he is God. Sorry – the long list of tasks to do are a result of ignoring them all week and they are still all mine. ERGH consequences, huh? I do, however, think my willingness to persevere, and not avoid, was the product of a renewed spirit within me. Maybe a little of Psalm 51:10 seeped in along with my prayers. “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”
Jeremiah 33:3 ‘Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.’ Call to me and I will answer you … I know that promise still operates on God’s time, not mine, but here’s what happened.
As a result, the sadness and discontent that had accompanied me for days, was replaced by a spirit of peace. It’s unexplainable in human words, but I’ve noticed regret and disappointment creeping into my thoughts lately, and that is where all acts start. “Sow a thought, reap an action.” I know that. We all know that. There is a constant battle for my mind, and that’s the first place to make a change. The weekend warrior in me, prayed for miracles to happen. I’ll settle for the miracle of having a steadfast mind. Think right, to do right.
It’s still the weekend. There’s time to be a weekend warrior. I’m continuing with a dose of God’s nurturing spirit in church. I’m not calling it quits after the weekend though. I learned something yesterday. Don’t get stuck in the muck of negative thoughts live as though that’s the pattern and there is no way out. There is hope and there is help, like it says in. Psalm 31:24 “Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the Lord.” And in Isaiah 41:31 “Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”
Because of Grace we Press On