Many Christians today think that learning to be like Jesus is optional. Perhaps later they'll get more serious with God. We may believe in Christ yet have whole areas of our life he's not part of.
This was true for me in my late thirties. I was keeping my feet in two worlds: God's kingdom and my kingdom. I had lost the passion for Christ that I had as a young adult. I realized this one weekend in 2002 when Kristi and I were at John Eldredge's "Journey of Desire" conference. The Lord got hold of my heart and I began praying earnestly for Jesus to be my First Love again.
To stay close to the holy fire, I practiced disciplines like those that are featured in this book. Also, I met regularly with Ray Ortlund for spiritual mentoring and prayer over a number of years. I became a student of Dallas Willard, gleaning from his spiritual formation books and seminars and then meeting with him as I had done with Ray.
I wanted to learn from Jesus how to live my whole life in the Kingdom of God. I re-submitted and re-dedicated my life to Christ. I determined to live by Ray's heart-throbbing prayer: "Be all and only for Jesus!" I determined to be a "true apprentice" to Christ (Matthew 10:42, MSG).
At the epicenter of this earth-shaking change was my prayer
of devotion to Jesus that my friend Pastor Bucky Dennis dubbed
"The Apprentice Prayer."4 Most every morning for the first eight
years of my renewal I offered this prayer from my heart. (My morning prayers to this day still draw on these themes.) I invite you to pray with me: Jesus, I love you! Father, I adore you. Holy Spirit, I rely
on you.
Lord Jesus, I seek to live as your apprentice in all that I do today. My life is your school for teaching me. I relinquish my agenda for this day and I submit myself to you and your kingdom purposes. In all things today I pray, "Your will, your way, your time."
Dear Father, I ask you to ordain the events of this day and use them to make me more like Jesus. I trust you, Sovereign Lord, that you won't let anything happen to my family or me today, except that it passes through your loving hands. So no matter what problems, hardships, or injustices I face today help me not to worry or get frustrated, but instead to relax in the yoke of your providence. Yes, today I will rejoice because I am in your eternal kingdom, you love me, and you are teaching me!
My Lord, I devote my whole self to you. I want to be all and only for you, Jesus! Today, I seek to love you with all my heart, all my soul, all my mind, all my strength, and all my relationships.5
Today, I depend on you, Holy Spirit, not my own resources. Help me to keep in step with you.
Today, I look to love others as you love me, dear God, blessing everyone I meet, even those who mistreat me. Today, I'm ready to lead people to follow you, Jesus.
Amen.
Thousands of people, even whole churches, have prayed this prayer with me. Many have put it on their bathroom mirror, beside their bed, in their pocket, or in their Bible. They've prayed it every day for a year or more. With enthusiasm they've told me that God has used it to help them experience their own spiritual renewal.
I hope you'll join us in offering The Apprentice Prayer each morning. The upcoming chapters will provide further insight and application to it, helping you learn to do all that you do in the easy yoke of apprenticeship to Christ.
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