prayer – Peter Gowesky

In Spiritual Growth

Puddles and Perspective

March 27, 2012 No Comments

As many of you know, my life is in the midst of a major transition. Recently I have resigned from my position as youth pastor at First Baptist Church in Doylestown and I have accepted an associate pastor position at Liquid Church in Morristown NJ. My life meets the pre-req’s for the term transitional to apply. I am living in one state, and working in another. Our front yard is decorated with a large “for sale” sign. The attic is ready to explode with the amount of boxes that are shoved up in there.

Our life is in the midst of a transition.

Transitions are crazy right? If you’ve been through one, then you know what I am talking about. Some of you may have moved, changed jobs, or added children to your family–all of these things create a massive disruption to your version of normal. I was on the phone this morning and I said, “I can’t wait to get back to a version of normal”. See, normal is relative. Right now is anything but normal. That is okay–because it is a time of transition. Right now, I can say to myself, NORMAL WILL RETURN!

But, during this time of transition, life is crazy! I am driving more now than I have ever driven before. I am learning a whole new language, a new organization, and a new work culture. I am farther from home more often than ever before. Things do not feel normal.

In the midst of this transition there are several things that are constant. I am still a dad to my three kids, and I am still a husband. This has not changed, nor will it ever change. The hard part is trying to figure out how to balance being the best daddy to these three precious children and being the best husband to my wife all while living in the midst of crazy amounts of commotion.

Starting last week our church kicked off a Wednesday night worship and prayer service as a part of our Revive Series. It will run up until the week before Easter. The idea is that on Wednesday we would fast and pray and end our day with corporate prayer and worship. (Aussie Dave blogged about it here.) Last week was my first week at Liquid, and my first week participating in the church wide fast. We were challenged by Pastor Tim to pray about what we should fast and bring before God. I knew quickly what I was fasting for. It was clear, and obvious. I was to be fasting for my wife and my kids. I specifically was asking God to watch over and protect my family. I was asking God to meet their needs since I couldn’t. Simply put, it was me asking God to do what I couldn’t.

That Wednesday afternoon I had to walk to the store to get some ice for the evening, and I was praying for Grace, my 5 year old. She was having a particularly hard day emotionally. I was on my way back from the 7-11, awkwardly carrying three bags of ice when I noticed several common sparrows flitting about on the ground ahead of me. I paused to watch them for just a few brief moments and then I noticed what they were doing.

Birds on the Sidewalk The sparrows were dancing around a small puddle that had formed in the low area of the sidewalk, and they were drinking from this pool. I watched one sparrow in particular crane its neck forward in order to swallow up a small amount of water. I was reminded in that moment how much God cared for these sparrows. Those sparrows were being taken care of by God through that puddle. I thought of my daughter, Grace, and how much I wanted God to take care of her emotions. I thought of my wife, Tiffany, and how much I wanted God to give her strength. I thought of my son, Noah, and how much I wanted God to protect him and watch over him. I thought of my 1 year old daughter, Leah, and how much I wanted her to know that her daddy loves her.

And then I thought of how much God takes care of these sparrows. I was reminded of what Jesus says in Matthew 10:29-31,

“Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.”

It was in that moment that God comforted me and reminded me that they are really his children, and He’s got it all under control. Even when I don’t feel it! Tiffany is His daughter whom He values more than I ever could.

It still feels crazy. But I am thankful that God is a God who handles all of the transitions.

~Peter

In Spiritual Growth

Revive

March 22, 2012 No Comments

Last night was one of the first events that I was apart of in my time here with Liquid Church. We had the first of three prayer and worship nights, which we are calling Revive. The goal of the evening was simple:

Gather together to worship God, and call on His name in prayer.

Being new here, I had no idea what to expect. I didn’t know how many people would show up, or how the evening would go. At 7:30 people were streaming in and the line wasn’t stopping. We ran out of programs and we were adding chairs to the room till it hit capacity!

The truth of Hebrews 4:14-16 was declared, and realized by many.

Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are–yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

Hebrews 4:14-16

I am excited to come before my Lord and ask Him in confidence for the things on my heart. What about you?

~Peter

In Spiritual Growth

Dangerous Tools…

March 3, 2012 No Comments

I have a lot of tools in my garage. There are countless tools. I have tools to fix cars, tools to work the ground, tools to fix plumbing, tools to work with wood, and tools to fix electric and tools to do a ton of other tasks.

Several of these tools are ridiculously dangerous. I’ll never forget the time when I saved my dad’s pointer finger from being severed on a table saw. (That story later) I have another friend who nearly lost his finger to a table saw. Every time I operate a table saw I think about lopping my finger off. I have a chainsaw that loves to rip through wood. This thing is mean. Since I heat my house with wood, I have spent a lot of time cutting up trees with this saw. I have heard horror stories of people who have done incredible damage to themselves with their chainsaws. Those thoughts run through my mind every time that thing rips!

As I have a garage full of tools to fix my house, garden, or vehicles, as a follower of Jesus there are certain tools that I have at my disposal. I think that one of the most dangerous tools is prayer.

In the voice of prayer we can diminish others and elevate ourself. Jon Acuff has a pretty funny blog post about the prayer shot block. (quite the funny read) Because we know and believe that prayer is powerful it can be incredibly tempting to use it like one uses a tool to fix their home, car, or yard. Too often I use prayer as a tool to change God.

I can focus a majority of my prayers on changing God instead of praising God. I can spend 80% or more of my time asking God to change this person, or give __________ to that person, or even to help me do __________. It is good and right to be praying for others. But it seems to me that we miss the boat when all we do is direct God to do this that or the other thing.

What about spending time praising God for who He is? What about spending time thanking God for what He’s done in your life and the life of others? What about spending time asking God to forgive you? What about just being silent before God and listening to what He has to say? Must you really hear yourself talk the whole time?

When most of your prayers begin with Dear God, please… there may be a problem.

I might even go out on a limb and say that this is an effort to play god. In a sense to be god over God. Every time I see someone trying to be god it never ends well.

I am afraid that this is the pattern of my prayer life far too often! It’s time to make a change. Anyone else with me?

~Peter

In Spiritual Growth

Wakeup!

January 28, 2011 No Comments

In a few short hours our Senior High youth group will gather together and pack up the church van, load up the bus and head on up to Glen Spey, NY for our winter retreat! It is going to be a really awesome trip. Our theme for this year is: Wake Up. I am super excited about our speaker this year. His name is Clint Ussher. Clint has been given the task of challenging our students to wake up; to wake up to what God has for them! This is going to be an exciting weekend.

Will you pray for us?

Here are a few things that you can pray for…

1. Pray for safety as we travel. We are headed to New York State. You never know what kind of weather you are going to get up there!

2. Pray for the hearts of teenagers. Would you pray that their hearts would be open to hear what God is trying to say to them? Often times it is on a weekend away where there are less distractions that we get a chance to actually hear what God is saying.

3. Pray for no distractions! Distractions can come in all forms. Will you please pray that there would be no distractions this weekend? That means no girl drama, and no smelly guy gas!

4. Pray for fun! One of the other reasons we get away together is to just flat out have fun! Pray that we have fun, and lots of it!

Thanks!

~Peter

In Faith in Real Life

Exciting News

October 19, 2010 No Comments

A while back I shared with you that my sister and her husband are moving their family overseas to Bangladesh to serve the people of Bangladesh and bring the light of Jesus Christ to a very spiritually dark and dimly lit country. Well when I first shared with you about their aspirations and desires they were somewhere around 8% supported. It excites me to share with you today that they are 100% supported! They have received 100% of their travel expenses as well as their monthly support.

It has only been 51 days and they have received all of their financial commitments. THIS IS INCREDIBLE! GOD IS AMAZING! It is exciting for me to watch God provide and take care of them. 51 DAYS! You can follow what they are doing over at their blog, www.thelongfamily.org, I would ask you to subscribe to their blog, or check regularly, pray for them as they head out, join their prayer team. Their is no doubt in my mind that God is going to use them in incredible ways!

Check out their latest blog post here.

To learn more about their ministry there check out this video here.

~Peter

In Uncategorized

What do you do?

October 13, 2010 No Comments

Everyone of us is made up of certain habits and practices… We allow these habits and practices to define who we are and the make up of our personality, character, etc. As this is true in life, the same is true in our relationship with Jesus Christ. We simply cannot pin our mediocrity on the fact that Jesus does not want to know us or be known by us. It comes down to what do we do in order to be connected to the living Christ? Each one of us have some spiritual discipline or another. Today I want to know, what are yours?

~Peter

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In Faith in Real Life

Prayer part 2

September 23, 2010 No Comments

I’ve been thinking a lot since the last time I brought up prayer on this post over here. The question there was is ceasless prayer possible. I would still be interested in hearing your thoughts by the way… I haven’t been able to kick the idea of ceaseless prayer though. Prayer is such a vital part of who we are as those in the Christian faith. Truth be told sometimes I get frustrated with the amount and with the quality of my prayer life.

I was reading the other day an amazing quote by a fourth-century Orthodox monastic writer, Evagrius of Pontus, he says,

“A theologian is one who knows how to pray, and he who prays in spirit and in truth is by that very act a theologian.”

Many of us want to know God and understand the ways and workings of Him. Yet often we don’t dedicate ourselves to prayer. In my desire to understand ceaseless prayer I came up with one thought that may help. I wonder if ceaseless prayer would increase in possibility if we would take our focus off of praying for ourselves and realize/pray for the needs of others.

During our family vacation last week I was making it a practice to spend some time each day in prayer for my kids and my wife, as well as my extended family and then onto my church. I’m telling you it took time! It increased my prayer life! I was praying with more fervency and certainly regularity. Now to keep that habit going I have gotten a little black book. A small moleskin and it will be my prayer journal for my immediate family, my extended family, my friends, my church and the world around me. This is not the end all solution, but it is one way that I have found to help me since the last thought.

What about you? Have you found a specific tool or method that has increased your prayer life? Share with the rest of us so we can learn from your wisdom.

~Peter

In Faith in Real Life

It never ends… Or does it?

September 8, 2010 1 Comment

Okay, here’s another ‘true life’ moment. I grew up watching Lamb Chops Play Along with my little sister. I’ll admit it. Shari Lewis would get me everytime with that silly little sock puppet, Lamb Chop. It was a show that hit PBS in the early 90’s and at the end of the show there was always a rendition of this annoying little song. [Youtube has once again shown itself to be an invaluable resource.] Here it is…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNTxr2NJHa0]

The song that doesn’t end. It goes on and on my friend… and the rest of the song is history. Or something like that.

Last night I was involved in a discussion on a verse from 1 Thessalonians 5. It is simple. It is short, and it is memorable. The question is, is it possible?

Here’s 1 Thessalonians 5:17, “Pray without ceasing;” Just like that Shari Lewis, Lamb Chop song… It never ends. It goes on and on…

I want to hear from you… what do you think? Have you ever experienced a time in your life when you extended periods of prayer? Would you qualify any of your prayer times as ceaseless prayer?

This is a difficult thought. What do you do when your sleeping? What about when your on the phone? How can I pray without ceasing? There are several ideas that people have had to try and see this happen in their life. I like what Charles Spurgeon said in his sermon, “Pray without Ceasing” on 1 Thessalonians 5:17:

First, let us labor as much as we can to prevent all sinful interruptions. “Pray without ceasing.” Then if it be impossible to be in the act of prayer always, at least let us be as much as possible in that act; and let us prevent those interruptions which I mentioned in the early part of my discourse, the interruptions occasioned by our own sin. Let us endeavor to keep clear, as far as we can, of anything and everything in ourselves, or round about us, that would prevent our abounding in supplication. And let us also keep clear of interruptions from the sins of others.

While I don’t think that sin prevents you from praying even while you are in the midst of the act of sinning, I do wonder how much more we would pray if sin were further removed from our lives. I wonder what our prayer lives would look like if we allowed our schedule a little breathing room? What if we so valued communication with God that we built it into our schedule? I like how Spurgeon focus’ on removing the prayer interrupters. That may be a great place to start. Figure out what prevents you from praying and remove that from your life.

I am certain that prayer, and my commitment to prayer needs to be priority in my life.

What do you think? Is it possible? What habits have you found/created to help you spend significant times in prayer?

~Peter

In Faith in Real Life

Till 2010

November 25, 2009 No Comments

This past weekend I had the incredible opportunity to take eight of our youth leaders down to the National Youth Workers Convention in Atlanta Georgia. We heard from some great speakers, (Andy Stanley, Francis Chan, Perry Noble, Steven Furtick, Donald Miller and others) all of us were challenged in one way or another. We learned what it looks like to lead in uncertainty, we were challenged to love the Lord with all that we are, we were asked to commit to leading Godly youth ministries focused on Jesus, and challenged to share the greatest story that has ever been told with an unswerving diligence and dedication.

Over the course of this extended weekend I honestly believe that God has stretched me. There were times of heartfelt worship, moments of raw emotion, thoughts of missed opportunities, and words of encouragement. I was challenged to adopt a bigger dream and vision than ever before. There are many details that I need to work out yet before I share with you and my church body what this means and looks like. However, I know that this is exciting! It is big! It is going to rock our worlds and hopefully the worlds of many around us.

So in preparation for this dream right here at the start of seeing God fulfill it I have decided to quit blogging for a little over a month. I will resume blogging here at www.thesaltlick.tv on January 1^st, 2010. My desire is to use this time to really focus on listening to God, and following the leading of His spirit.

Others in the blogging world have called what I am doing a “Blogatical”. That’s a pretty good description… There is a lot that I don’t know about what’s to come over the course of this next month. However, here’s what I do know. I know that God is the God of all things! I know that I want to hear from God. I know that I want to rely solely on His Holy Spirit and be led by Him alone. I know that I want to see God do some amazing things here in this online community as well as the community that I live in.

So until 2010, I’m signing off!

~Peter

In Faith in Real Life

Typhoon Ketsana

October 5, 2009 No Comments

As many of you are aware, there have been several tragedies worldwide lately. A friend of mine, Jeff Davis, put this website together. It is my hope that you would jump over there and spend some time watching the video, but also remember that these just aren’t dramatic pictures, but they are glimpses into the lives of real men and women, boys and girls.

Let’s join together in prayer for each one of these people! Click here to visit the site.

~Peter