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Hello everyone, I'm Mark Foley, and this is the journey. Do you remember the Easy Button ad? The advertiser wanted us to know that dealing with their business was as simple as hitting that imaginary button. Well, I've been looking for it, can't find it. This situation feels like someone dumped one of those infernal 2,000-piece jigsaw puzzles in front of me with every one of the parts turned over, and all my fix-it genes kick in, and I'm my inference is I have to assemble that puzzle. So what's the first thing you do? You pick up the box top to look at the picture and get a frame of reference. But when I look at this box top, there's no picture. No reference. Nothing but the words, wash your hands and stay away from people. I don't have a clue what to do with all those pieces, but I sure want to do something, and I expect you're in the same place. And since I can't find the staples easy button, let me talk about Nike's old ad line. Just do it. In the last podcast, I talked about a canopy of prayer. If you've not listened to it, pause this, click over and listen to that one first, then come back. This will make more sense. I talk a lot about the importance of prayer. Now I understand there are some who view prayer as a religious crutch of the weak-minded. Others more generously see it as a passive meditation that may have some personal benefit, but is of little practical value. Still others view prayer as an element of their practice of worship, but allow it no valid place in the practice of living. Here's my view. Prayer is the touch point to the most comprehensive, vibrant, effective, active, tactical, and strategic actions of my life. It leads not to the quiet, passive walk through the church garden, but to the nonstop intentional actions that produce change. And right now, that's what I'm looking for. The model of a canopy of prayer over a city or a region or a nation is found in the Bible, 2 Chronicles 7:14. Let me remind you what it says. If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land. This is one of those if-then promises. So before you rush to the promise of what God said He would do, let me talk about the preconditions of that promise and how those preconditions take us straight to the Nike challenge. Just do it. It's the if part of the promise. I'll go through them briefly, then I'll show you how to get to some broader aspects of doing. There are three pieces in the precondition: humility, prayer, and intentionality. First, humility. Humility and surrender, essential elements of the prayerful approach to God. Any serious exploration of God starts with those two words. You will not come into his presence apart from humility and surrender. Here's my request as I prepare to come to God. Lord, search my heart and see if there's any wicked way in me. Forgive my sin and lead me to forgive those who have sinned against me. Create in me a clean heart and draw me to you. Second, understand prayer as the spiritual conduit of a humble person into the presence of God. It is the medium of communication between your spirit and God's ear. Once I am in his presence on his terms and I remain there, remarkable things begin to happen. And third, intentionality is an exercise of my will, a decision I make to do whatever is necessary to be in God's presence. Generally speaking, that means putting my agenda aside and diligently seeking his. If, and that's a key word, if you are serious about finding God in these very uncertain times, I've just shown you how. Now, suppose you do that. Here's what God said he would do. I will hear their prayer, I will forgive their sins, and I will restore their land. Certainly his restoration will be experienced as otherwise unexplainable action according to his purpose. I won't speculate what the results of his action will look like, but it will be good. There's something else that has been my experience when I am in his presence on his terms. He begins to direct my action through establishment of actionable thought, things that I can do as part of his restoring the land, things that come from him, not from me. Now we're back to Nike. Just do it. Now stay with me, almost done. What if you and I and the people we know and the people they know were willing to submit ourselves to God on his terms asking that simple question, God, what would you have me do? What if elected officials trying to protect their people and the economy under their administration humbly came to God with that same question? What would you have me do? What if medical researchers desperately trying to find chemical combinations to find a way to stop this virus humbly came to God with that question, what would you have me do? And what if those charged with finding supply lines for essential equipment and supplies humbly came before God with that question, what would you have me do? What if business owners trying to find a way to stay open and provide jobs came humbly before God with that question, what would you have me do? And what if school and social service leaders looking for ways to bring some normalcy to children came humbly before God with that question, what would you have me do? You get the point. As God answers the question, and as we are willing to act as he directs, remarkable things happen. One after another, the pieces of the confusing jigsaw puzzle begin to fit together because God showed us how to do it. And what if between now and Easter Sunday, each of us who are willing to rise to that promise of God demonstrated it by attaching a red ribbon to our homes or our cars or our fence posts as a manner of saying, I believe and I am doing. A canopy of prayer, a sea of red ribbon, a promise fulfilled for Resurrection Sunday. Just do it. Thanks for checking in. Be sure to check the website, effective solutions. Up every morning at five o'clock. See you next time on the journey.