Showing Faith Before the Show

The Lord desires for us to develop an attitude of confidence in Him through our prayer life.  In 1st John chapter 5, we can read:
14Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.15And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.
Prayer is a practice in which God calls each of us to engage.  And, there are enormous benefits for the believer who will develop a committed prayer life.  We gain a sense of walking with the Father as we communicate with Him, and allow Him to speak to our hearts.  We grow in our faith as we participate in prayers and see His anwers.  We can see God do incredible things through our lives and in the lives of other people as we call upon Him.  Our confidence in the Lord grows as we dare to pray consistently and fervently.
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In 1st Thessalonians 5, we read several brief words of encouragement that can inspire us in our devotion to Christ:
16Rejoice always,17pray without ceasing,18in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

The stage was set in College Station, Texas over the weekend - the A&M Aggies, fresh off an upset victory of the Auburn Tigers were set to square off against those pesky Missouri Tigers, who will win the SEC East if they defeat my beloved Tennessee Volunteers and Arkansas to finish the season.

Mizzou was victorious, but there's an emerging story, I would say an emerging photo that has received quite a bit of attention.  It apparently was taken by a photographer for a publication called Aggieland Illustrated.   I don't know where it went next, but it was picked up by Christian musical artist Tanner Clark, who posted it on Facebook, and it has received well over 100,000 shares and a host of comments.  Independent Journalism Review did a story on it.

Have you seen it?

(from Tanner Clark's Facebook page)

Yes, there are the 4 hosts of the SEC Nation program on the SEC Network, Joe Tessitore, Tim Tebow, Marcus Spears, and Paul Finebaum - with bowed heads and joined hands.  And, of course, you know who is credited with leading the prayer.   Tanner wrote:

Tim Tebow leading prayer on set at the SEC channel yesterday. Let us all always remember to Be The Light! Photo courtesy of Rob Havens, Aggieland Illustrated.

I really, really like this picture.  Now, I don't know what the faith perspective is of the other team members.  But, you have to hand it to Tim, he was not reluctant to ask the Lord's blessing on their work that day.   I do wonder what the producers at the SEC Network might say about such a blatant expression of faith, but that is a conversation for another day.  The IJR writer said, "Judging by the amount of support this single image has received, it appears as though people are thrilled that Tebow is unafraid and unapologetic for sharing his faith at every opportunity – on or off camera."

So, what can we take away from this image (and I do encourage you to check it out through The Meeting House social media)?  First of all, Tebow's just being Tebow - I don't believe it's a show for him.  And, I think it we can rely on the Lord to empower us to act in a manner that is consistent with our faith. Day in and day out, we can strive to be known for who we are and Whose we are.

And, a word now about what I would call, "on-the-spot praying."  How often are we asked to pray for someone, and we say that we'll do it, and perhaps we do and perhaps we don't.  I wrote that piece for Journey a while back, in which I quoted a piece from Converge magazine, which said:

...We use journals, spending hours writing and rewriting prayers. We use Post-it notes until our desks are covered. We create prayer lists, prayer chains, and still, there’s a 99 percent chance we’ll forget to actually pray.

I would say, don't put it off - if there's a prayer need that is staring you in the face, why not pray in that moment?

Finally, the Faith Radio team prays together each weekday, and we do cherish the opportunity to pray for our listeners.  But, if I didn't work for a Christian radio network, I have to wonder if I would take the time to join together with my co-workers in prayer, or spend any time interceding for their needs. Would I exhibit such boldness?   I think we can all be challenged to think how we can stand in prayer in our workplaces.   And, please contact us with your prayer needs - go to www.faithradio.org and click on the "Contact Us" tab and send us your request.