Zoom Out 1/30

Last night we went to Vertical (a.k.a. awesome, contemporary evening service for us non-morning folk) at Biltmore Baptist Church. A new sermon series started this week called iWorship & I'm really excited for the growth potential I see this series having in my life. I also just finished the book The Prayer of Jabez by Bruce Wilkinson and today (March 1, 2010) is the beginning of my 30 day plan outlined in the last chapter of the book to help facilitate a lifelong habit of prayer (specific prayer)...so...
Here is the plan:
1. Pray the Jabez prayer every am, & keep a record of your daily prayer by marking it off (I'm going to do this blog style!)
2. Write out the prayer & tape it somewhere you'll be reminded of your new vision.
3. Reread the Prayer of Jabez book (it's only 92 tiny pages) 1X each week during the next month, asking God to show important insights you might have missed.
4. Tell 1 other person of your commitment to your new prayer habit.
5. Begin to keep a record of changes in your life.
6. Start praying the Jabez prayer for your family, friends, & local church.
And here is the prayer...
Oh, that You would bless me indeed,
& enlarge my territory,
that Your hand would be with me,
& that You would keep me from evil.
This morning I prayed the prayer...very quickly followed by what I seem to do best...worry about s#@*. I know, I'm talking about praying to God & cussing in the same blog, but that's exactly what it is...a bunch of crap that I worry about. Today it was about money...specifically the lack there of. I could literally feel myself cowering into a little ball of self pity and then I started thinking of last night's message at Vertical. One of pastor's points was how we have to "zoom out"...I thought about a manual focus camera that is zoomed in on an object so much so that you can't see the big picture. How often do I do this in my life? All the time! I stay so focused on an issue that I can't see the larger purpose of my life, full of tons of blessings none the less! If I'm going to pray this prayer & ask God for more, I have to zoom out to see how He's answering me!