Regaining Balance: 91 Days of Prayer and Praise

By Randy Sawyer

Regaining Balance is a devotional journal designed to guide its readers through a season of spiritual revival. Each day of the 91-day journal encourages involvement in a handful of spiritual disciplines in order to help the reader focus and balance in every aspect of life. This study is divided into three sections: Get Fit for Life, Journey with Jesus; and Praying the Psalms. As the reader progresses through the study, the dailiy activities will include some of these key spiritual disciplines: solitude, prayer, meditation, Bible reading and memorization, fasting, worship, accountability, and service.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Randall House
• Release date: Jul 1, 2005
• ISBN: 9781614840312

Randy Sawyer

Dr. Randy Sawyer has been in ministry since 1977, serving in numerous capacities including pastor and college professor. He has published several books including "Regaining Balance" and "Regaining Strength." He has conducted over 400 revivals and numerous Bible and evangelism conferences. Randy Sawyer graduated from Free Will Baptist Bible College, Nashville, TN in 1978. He received his M.Div from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, NC in 1995. He received his D.Min. in 2001 from Reformed Theological Seminary in Charlotte, NC.

Book preview

Regaining

BALANCE

by RANDY SAWYER

91 DAYS OF

prayer and praise

Regaining

BALANCE

by RANDY SAWYER

91 DAYS OF

prayer and praise

pub

Regaining Balance: 91 Days of Prayer and Praise

By Randy Sawyer

Published by Randall House Publications

114 Bush Road

Nashville, Tennessee 37217

© Copyright 2005

Randall House Publications

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other—except for brief quotations in critical reviews, without the prior permissions of the publisher.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright © 2000; 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America

ISBN 0892655186

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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Foreword by

ROBERT J. MORGAN

Preface

RANDY SAWYER

SPECIAL THANKS

Section One

GET FIT FOR LIFE

Section Two

JOURNEY WITH JESUS

Section Three

PRAYING THE PSALMS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

NOTE TO LEADERS

To my loving wife, whose spiritual

discipline serves as a constant challenge to

my own growth in grace

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I had coffee this week with Dr. Ed Dobson of Grand Rapids, who is suffering from Lou Gehrig’s disease. Dr. Dobson, a nationally-known pastor, had just resigned his church due to the debilitating effects of his illness. When I walked into the coffee shop, I spotted him sitting at a table in the sunshine, painfully thin and utterly weak. But spread before him were his Hebrew text, his Greek grammar, an open Bible, and a notepad. He was using every moment to pore into God’s Word—and there was a smile on his face.

Our ability to meet with the Lord at a moment’s notice is our greatest joy and the secret of our greatest strength. The Psalmist said, Praise be to you, O Lord; teach me Your decrees . . . I meditate on Your precepts and consider Your ways . . . I will not neglect Your Word (Psalm 119:12-16, NKJV).

The heart and soul of this daily walk with the Lord is our closet time. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus told His followers to go into their closets and meet with the Father in secret. The result would be open blessings (Matthew 6:6).

To me, this is the Christian’s most vital habit. It’s more important than church attendance, tithing, soul-winning, or sowing seeds of kindness—for all these other habits flow out of the vitality of our daily relationship with Jesus, which is encapsulated in our quiet time. Encapsulated, but not contained. Our quiet time is not the totality of our communion with Christ, but it sets the stage for it all day long.

Our daily interaction with the Bible is the most important thing about us. The written Word represents the Living Word, and the Living Word represents the Living God who in His grace desires our constant companionship and offers His own to us. As we let the Scriptures dwell in us richly, we’re restoring divine balance to our lives and replenishing spiritual energy on a continual basis.

Yet many Christians don’t know the secrets or techniques of meeting with the Lord every day. They haven’t ever spread out their Bibles and notepads or prayer lists on a table at Starbucks, let alone in their innermost closets. At least, not in a consistent, daily manner. They’ve never been taught to do so.

And remarkably, some of those who do seek a daily time with the Lord find the experience . . . well, boring.

Regaining Balance is a shot in the arm for those wanting to learn the secrets of walking with the Lord. It’s a guidebook for those trying to balance out the conflicting demands of life and find some solitude, silence, and quiet time.

The words in this book flow from the private journal of a godly man and spread a feast for the rest of us. In the process we can discover or rediscover the wealth of that secret half-hour in which, closeted alone with the Almighty, we stand in the Lord’s council to be strengthened with power in the inner man.

For nearly a hundred days, this book will provide training wheels for learning the lessons and developing the disciplines of solitude, prayer, meditation, fasting, and worship—out of which flow the issues of life.

This isn’t a book to be scanned, but savored. Nor is it a replacement for your own Bible study, but rather a sanctified supplement, a daily venue for deeper blessing. May God use it to help us attain, regain, sustain, and maintain the blessed balances of a holy life.

Robert J. Morgan, pastor of The Donelson Fellowship in Nashville, Tennessee and author of many books including, Then Sings My Soul (volumes 1 & 2), From This Verse, On This Day, and Real Stories for the Soul.

I first wrote this book with my local congregation in mind. We were entering into a prayer revival and the church staff encouraged me to write a quiet time journal that would assist the folks in their daily prayers. After some thought, I consented to take on the project.

We scheduled the prayer revival to last a little more than three months, so I had the daunting task of putting together nearly a hundred daily devotionals. That was, I’m sure you will agree, quite an undertaking for a busy pastor and speaker. Then it dawned on me, I had already written that number and many more over the last several years in my own quiet time journal. It has been my habit for years now to read several chapters from the Scripture daily, along with additional reading material for my spiritual nourishment, and then to write in my journal impressions of what God was teaching me for that day. It seemed easy enough to pull the best ones from my journal, polish them up, and compile them into a prayer guide. Was I ever mistaken!

Writing a private journal, and writing one to benefit others, is quite a different matter indeed. But my labor was rewarded many times over when person after person shared with me how God was blessing them for following the thoughts and instructions in the journal. After a while, numerous folks began to encourage me to consider publishing the material for wider circulation. Not feeling the material worthy of that, I laid it aside for another time.

Somehow the prayer guide found its way into the hands of a pastor friend who requested permission to use it in his local church. Hesitantly I consented, and once more found myself surprised when he told me of the blessing the journal had been to his people. He too encouraged me to consider offering the material for wider publication. So here we are.

This devotional journal is not intended to be read straight through like other pieces of literature. It is a daily guide that should be taken in bite sizes, first consuming the devotional thoughts, and then following the instructions to engage your spiritual life in one or more of the specified spiritual disciplines that will strengthen you for godly living. Most days the activities will take no more than thirty to forty-five minutes. Of course, that will depend upon what God teaches and commands you to do that day. Be open to the leadership of the Spirit.

I am confident that as you commit to follow the activities of this journal, you will make progress in your spiritual life. I commit to undertake this journey with you. So let’s get started with the daily disciplines, and let’s get started living the Christ-life. God Bless!

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Special Thanks

. . . to my supportive staff, whose willingness to shoulder additional burdens has enabled me to put this project in print. Thanks as well to my wonderful church family, without which the ministry would lack much of its joy and sense of fulfillment. Additionally, thanks to Emily White whose editorial labors kept me on track and on time.

Section One

Get Fit for Life

Get Fit for Life

Have you ever known the frustration of spiritual defeat? You wonder why you can’t seem to get it all together. You just can’t manage to bring your spiritual life into balance with the rest of your life. You want to live so that your faith impacts everything you do and everything you are, but you just can’t get it going that way. What’s wrong?

If you can relate, then you are in the majority. Most Christians—at least those who are honest—struggle daily to bring some sort of balance to their lives and wrestle to achieve some sense of spiritual victory. Just when one battle is won, another attack assures them that they are still in a ruthless, never-ending struggle for spiritual survival.

The antagonists in this contest are easy to spot. They are:

• THE DEVIL—the evil prince

• THE WORLD—the evil system

• THE FLESH—the evil traitor

As believers we know this axis-of-evil to be our constant adversary, ever seeking our total destruction. Of this we are certain. The not-so-easy part is how to defeat these antagonists.

The Scripture encourages us that for each member of this evil trio there is an appropriate spiritual weapon. Against the devil we wield determination: Resist the devil, and he will flee from you (James 4:7). Against the world we wield discernment: Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind (Romans 12:2). Against the flesh we wield discipline: Rather train yourself for godliness (1 Timothy 4:7).

But once again we may wonder, How? Where do we get the courage to resist? How do we develop a mind discerning enough to see through the lies and recognize truth? And how can we discipline the flesh against wrong desires?

In order to defeat the antagonists we must bring our physical lives back into balance with our spiritual lives. That is, we must learn to think spiritually about every area of life, whether at home, work, or play. At the same time, we must insulate or even isolate ourselves from that which hinders the development of a balanced life.

In short, victory over the axis-of-evil will not come easily, without cost or without effort. To live out the fullness of our life in Christ, we have to act; we have to do something!

But what must we do to be like Christ? The answer is simple, but not easy. In order to live the Christ-life we must exhibit self-control at all times, under every situation; we must love those who are unlovable; we must exhibit a total lack of desire for illegitimate power, notoriety, or pleasure; we must be willing to lay down our lives for the good of others; we must be intent on serving rather than on being served; we must think pure thoughts; we must speak only that which is useful for the edification of others.

Simple? Yes. Easy? Not at all! When we think back to