{"id":12468,"date":"2016-09-21T16:15:26","date_gmt":"2016-09-21T20:15:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/?p=12468"},"modified":"2016-12-27T12:56:51","modified_gmt":"2016-12-27T16:56:51","slug":"prayer-steering-wheel-or-spare-tire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/?p=12468","title":{"rendered":"Prayer: Steering Wheel or Spare Tire???"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Setpember 21 2016, the following message was posted on our church signboard:<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
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PRAYER IS A STEERING WHEEL, <\/span><\/p>\n

NOT A SPARE TIRE!<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \"signboard-2016-09-21-prayer-steering-wheel-_img_3756\"<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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Car Habits<\/span><\/h3>\n

The next time you get into your car, notice what you do.\u00a0 It’s all habit so you probably haven’t even thought about it.\u00a0 But chances are, you sit down, buckle up, and then you start the engine.\u00a0 But before you go, what’s the first part of the car you touch?\u00a0 Or put it this way… do you start out by touching the Steering Wheel or do you instantly go to the Spare Tire?<\/p>\n

The Spare Tire is probably the last thing you think about when you get into your car.\u00a0 In fact, when’s the last time you even saw your spare tire?\u00a0 Have you checked its pressure recently?\u00a0 Is it flat?\u00a0 Would it even help you if you got stuck on the road with a flat tire?\u00a0 And how about that jack?\u00a0 Does it work???<\/p>\n

No, you don’t think about the spare tire.\u00a0 Your immediate focus is backing out of the driveway or parking spot, and your hands immediately go to the steering wheel.<\/p>\n

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Good Morning!<\/span><\/h3>\n

What happens when you get up in the morning?\u00a0 When you get in your car, your foot hits the brake and you reach for the steering wheel; when you get up in the morning, your foot hits the floor… what do your reach for?\u00a0 Where’s your attention run to?<\/p>\n\n\t\t

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\tCoffee…\n\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t
\n\t\t\tThings you need to say today…\n\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t
\n\t\t\tThings you shouldn’t have said yesterday…\n\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t
\n\t\t\tThe mess you left in the kitchen sink…\n\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t
\n\t\t\tThe computer that was downloading updates when you went to bed…\n\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t
\n\t\t\tThe report you have to make today…\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div> \n\t\t\n

What does the Bible tell us to reach for first?\u00a0 In Matthew 6, Jesus tells us:<\/p>\n

25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?\u00a0 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?\u00a0 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?<\/span><\/p>\n

31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’\u00a0 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.\u00a0 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span> NIV<\/p>\n

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Your Morning Steering Wheel<\/span><\/h3>\n

The first thing we’re supposed to reach for is The Kingdom.\u00a0 We do that by putting our day’s initial thoughts on God.\u00a0 We thank Him for another day of life.\u00a0 We thank Him for giving us a bed and for putting a roof over our heads.\u00a0 We seek the Kingdom by connecting with God.\u00a0 To do that, our first “touch” of the day should be with God through prayer.<\/p>\n

Prayer is our Steering Wheel.\u00a0 It’s our first priority.<\/p>\n

Then why do our thoughts immediately jump to the things that God already has covered?\u00a0 Wouldn’t it be better if the first thing we did in the morning is to make a connection with God (the source of all your solutions) through prayer?\u00a0 Instead, many of us relegate prayer to the back of the car.\u00a0 We give prayer as much thought as we do about our spare tire… until we run into a problem.<\/p>\n

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Your Steering Wheel Throughout the Day<\/span><\/h3>\n

Paul told us to keep on praying throughout the day.\u00a0 Always be in a state of prayer.\u00a0 Here’s what he wrote to the church in Thessalonica (1 Thess. 5:16-18)…<\/p>\n

16 Be joyful always;\u00a0 pray continually;\u00a0 give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.<\/span> <\/em>
\nNIV<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So does that mean that we’re supposed to close our eyes and fold our hands all day???\u00a0 No, but it does mean that we should always be looking for God in every circumstance.<\/p>\n

The opposite of these verses might say…<\/p>\n

Be happy when you finish your commute;\u00a0 pray when something goes wrong; be thankful when something good happens…<\/span><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Is that what we do?\u00a0 If prayer is the first thing we touch in the day- if it’s our steering wheel- God will be our guide throughout the day.\u00a0 But if we only pray when we run into trouble, then prayer is only a spare tire.<\/p>\n

Let prayer be your guiding steering wheel; your first priority.\u00a0 Don’t let it get lost in the trunk.<\/p>\n

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+\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 +\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 +\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 +\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 +\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 +\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 +<\/span><\/p>\n

For more Signboard Messages, click this button:\u00a0 Signboard<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

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The next time you get into your car, notice what you do. It’s all habit so you probably haven’t even thought about it. But chances are, you sit down, buckle up, and then you start the engine. But before you go, what’s the first part of the car you touch? Or put it this way… do you start out by touching the Steering Wheel or do you instantly go to the Spare Tire?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12469,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[107,136],"class_list":["post-12468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-signboard","tag-prayer","tag-priority"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12468"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12468\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12480,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12468\/revisions\/12480"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}