Do you have the Audacity?

"The tragedy of our time is that we've taken what was meant to be ordinary and made it exceptional. We've declared audacity off limits." Stephen Furtick/Sun Stand Still

Some of you have heard me talk about this book. Here is an excerpt: 

"From every angle this story showcases the kind of audacity we're after.  And it all hinges on a preposterous prayer.  As the chapter opens, we read that five opposing Amorite armies were planning to attack. Having decided to strike first, Joshua led his entire army toward the Amorites on an all-night march.  Sometime during that march, God spoke to Joshua.  He told him 'Do not be afraid of them; I have given them into your hand.  Not one of them will be able to withstand you.'

At dawn, the Israelites unleashed a surprise attack, and right from the beginning the battle went well.  When the enemy lines broke, and the Amorites started to flee into the valley, Joshua's men chased them down.  And God got personally involved.  'As they fled before Israel,' the account reads, 'the Lord hurled large hailstones down on them from the sky.'  Then, as the sun sank toward the horizon, Joshua faced a decision.  The victory wasn't complete, and once it got dark, the rest of the Amorites would slip away.  But Joshua was determined to fight on.  Perhaps he realized that if he didn't destroy the enemy now, Israel's conquest of Canaan would grind to a halt.  Maybe he knew that anything less than total victory would conceal God's presence and glory.  Besides, he remembered God's promise in the night.  

Most of us would have called it a day.  I've done all I can do.  I've exhausted every option.  I've given it all I've got.  But Joshua wasn't most people.  He refused to go out like that. That wasn't the way it was supposed to end.  This was where his audacious faith began.  Joshua sized up the situation, summoned all his available courage, and delivered one of the most gloriously unorthodox prayers in the entire Bible: " O sun, stand still over Gibeon, O moon, over the Valley of Aijalon." (verse 12)

Joshua had the audacity to ask God to make the sun stop in the sky.  To freeze time on behalf of His people.  According to scripture, God gave Joshua exactly what he ordered.  Just when the Amorites were hanging on for the cover of darkness, darkness never came.  Just when they thought the curtains were about to drop on their day from hell, God came out for an encore.  

"The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day.  There has never been a day like before or since...surely the Lord was fighting for Israel!" (verses 13-14)

If you know me then you know I am pretty skeptical person. I would say that I am a realist although my husband would just say that I am not very optimistic. This passage of scripture always gets me. The thing is, I do believe in the power of prayer. I believe the Bible when it says we have not because we ask not.  I just don't know how to get it from my head to my heart!

When I read scripture I see example after example of people who prayed prayers and seas were parted, people were healed, dead were raised, teenagers took out giants with pebbles. What I see in scripture is that "radical, audacious" prayers were not the exception, they were the norm. Today I received a daily prayer request from Verve. A church that was planted in Las Vegas, NV. A church very near and dear to our hearts. Their prayer request for today was this: Please pray that God inspires someone to give us a building or land for a building on Las Vegas Boulevard. When I first read it I thought, WOW. That was bold. audacious even, then I remembered this story about Joshua and and all the other stories like his and realized how small I can make God sometimes.

When I look at the broken world around us, the magitude of the problems and issues can seem huge and impenetrable, but here's the deal. God didn't just put us here to survive. He put us here to transform the world around us. That transformation comes when we come to trust and believe in the very nature of who God is. It compels us to walk in deeper faith, praying audacious prayers, and expecting God to show up and do what He says he is going to do. Joshua was nothing special. He just knew and trusted in who God was.

So there is a lot of work for us to do. We are going to pray bold, risky audaciouis prayers and we know that God is going to do what he says He will do. We will be sending out regular prayer requests again starting tomorrow. If you want to get on board praying with us. You can sign up at remerge@hotmail.com

More to come tomorrow!