Sunday Message: Making it work for me

A while back, I brought up the nine lessons to learn from Peter's mistakes.  I even have them posted at my work station.  But memorizing them isn't easy.  Until one day, God kinda bumped me and said, "Why not make an anagram you can remember?"  So, with His help, I did, and now I use it as an everyday prayer basis.  And it goes like this:

BLEST HOW FAVA

Or, to more easily remember, "Blessed how?  By favor".

It works like this:

B:  Bring it to Jesus first.  This is where Peter told the questioner that, "Sure, we pay the Temple Tax", and then went to Jesus and asked IF they should be paying the Temple Tax.  I use this to try to bring both the day AND troubles along the way to Jesus first.

L: Shut up and LISTEN.  Here's Peter in a nut shell, and myself as well.  God will often be trying to ANSWER a prayer, when we're still going on about the catastrophe the prayer is about.

E: Keep your Eyes on Jesus amidst the storm.  You're running around like the disciples on the boat, saying, "Don't you care we're perishing/", while Jesus remains calm and in control.

S: His Strength, not MY WEAKNESS.  Peter makes it only halfway across the water when his weakness catches up to him and he sinks.  Too often we keep asking for His strength and relying on our weakness to do it.

T: Don't Talk a good game.  Back it up with action.  Like Peter, all too often we say we'll follow him anywhere, and the next thing we know, a rooster's crowing.

H:  Following the example of Humility.  Especially hard when you're in the middle of something at work, and they change the plan on you, to just grab the fresh towel and wash the next dirty feet.

O:  Don't worry about the Other guy.  All you control is YOU.

W:  Leave the old Ways behind.  You have a go-to vice that 'calms your nerves' in a disaster, or just in life?  Time to stop relying on it.  Put on the New Man.

F:  Forgive as you have been forgiven.  Be proactive.  If you ask God if you need to forgive someone, you'll usually get pointed to someone you never even considered.

A:  Be AWAKE in prayer.  Of all of these, this has been the most immediately helpful to me.

V:  God's View, not man's.  Remember, God sees the big picture- the things that are important to you might not be on His agenda at all.

A:  Application, application, application.