Prayer starts with yourself!

Below is a blog post from Mark Batterson. 

I thought it was appropriate based on the study I am currently doing  with my small group around the book "The Circle Maker".

THE ONE THING YOU CANNOT DELEGATE


My session at Catalyst was titled: The ONE thing you cannot delegate. Thought I’d share the cliff notes. The short answer is: prayer. There is no substitute. There is no shortcut. Prayer is spelled potential and potential is spelled prayer. Not only can you NOT delegate prayer. You need to delegate other things so you have a prayer margin. That’s exactly what the Apostles did in Acts 6. The church was blowing up. They had more and more to do in less and less time. That’s when they made a critical decision to delegate so they could focus on prayer and the Word.

Corrie Ten Boom said, “If the enemy can’t make you bad he’ll make you busy.” We’re supposed to be about the Father’s business, but we put a “y” where there should be an “i” and end up being about busyness instead of business. Prayer is the difference between busyness and business.

I love the story of Gypsy Smith. In fact, it’s the inspiration behind Draw the Circle: The 40-Day Prayer Challenge that releases in December. Here’s the short version.

Gypsy Smith was powerfully used of God preaching to millions. Every where he went, it seemed like revival was on his heels. Gypsy revealed his secret to a delegation of revival seekers that asked him how they could make a difference with their lives the way he had with his. His answer was simple yet profound—as timely and timeless now as it was a hundred years ago.

Go home. Lock yourself in your room. Kneel down in the middle of the floor, and with a piece of chalk draw a circle around yourself. There, on your knees, pray fervently and brokenly that God would start a revival within that chalk circle.