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Friday, December 22, 2006

28 Day Prayer Journey To Passion 07 - Day 19

Day 19. Open wide.

It’s pouring in Atlanta today. Not so great for the holiday spirit and the Christmas shoppers, but a reminder that many of you will reach Passion 07 with sand in your mouths and shriveled-up hearts in your chest. Trust me...I get it. I've been there many, many times.

It’s not that you don’t believe in Jesus, you do. You’re singing the songs and nodding along. But while others around you seem to have a vibrant love affair going on it feels like you have dried up on the inside. The stream has become a trickle, the flame a flicker.

You’re excited about Passion 07, but what you really want is for the floodgates to open again... for a river to run in your heart, to rediscover the intimacy with God you’ve known in the past (or heard about, yet never tasted). The problem is you’re not sure how it happened in the first place, and lost as to where to find it again.

If that’s you—cracked, wasting, waning, wanting, dry—I want to encourage you to look up today, and open your mouth. God still makes streams flow in the desert and is able to make water gush from a rock. Turn your parched soul up toward Him and stand there. Ask. Look. Long. Wait. His promise is that He will fill it with what is good.

God, I know there is no formula for finding You. So I am waiting today for Your flood to find me. I still believe, but I want the never-ending fountain that is Jesus to soak my weary heart. External stuff is not enough. So Jesus I’m looking and longing for You. Please come again, Amen.

I am the LORD your God, who brought you up out of Egypt. Open wide your mouth and I will fill it. Psalm 81:10

posted by 268gen at 9:54 AM

22 Comments:

  • Man, Louie, how do you manage to hit the nail on the head. I've read comments like this one in the past and wondered what the person had read that I did not. Now I understand. I thought the 'sand in the mouth' bit was a tad heavy, but on further though I realise that is exactly where I am. I have been working in a ministry environment for 3 years and it has completely become a job to me. I have lost the joy.

    I honestly feel intimidated by comming to Passion07 because I know that my passion for God has become head and not heart. I lay awake the other night thinking about all the people who have had visas denied when mine went through without a hitch and I kinda felt like I was going to come 'by default'.

    Your post today has realy made me sit up. I know what I have to do over the next few days. I am praying that God would help me tend the garden in my heart, to help me pull the weeds and plough the soil and be ready for the rain that he will bring, today, tomorrow or next week or year. I will be ready.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12/22/2006 10:40 AM  

  • I agree, I am so excited about Passion because it has pushed me to dig deep into my heart and really admit that my passion, my joy, my love is gone... I don't know how I let it get away but I did and the past few weeks I have been praying for exactly what this post said. I will be at Passion and my heart is ready to hear God speak!
    -Megan
    North Georgia College and State University

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12/22/2006 11:03 AM  

  • hey passion posters, i'm absolutely so pumped about DO SOMETHING NOW. i think it's going to be incredible. the Lord has been speaking to my heart to give, even weeks before i heard of DSN, and here is where i put what i've heard into action. He's blessed me with not only a storehouse but one that is overflowing. here is to giving beyond the local church

    ya'll really pray and seek God on this. i believe He wants to fulfill the goal over and above but our hearts and our wells fargo accounts have to be His. i'll be real honest, i was fearful on seeking the Lord about giving. i was scared that He would automatically say give it all. first of all that's fear and selfishness...not from God and secondly he is God and can say something like that. i can't tell ya'll where my savings account will stand on jan 5 but i'm trusting God.

    only a few more days!

    anonymous @ 1040- get ready, He'll fill you up!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12/22/2006 11:19 AM  

  • so thirsty.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12/22/2006 11:32 AM  

  • Good grief! Lord, you must be reading my mind, or something... :) You are amazing, my King! Thank you for promising to lead us through the desert to a place where our souls will find extravagant refreshment. Don't let me miss all the miracles you are doing around me while I wait, though! :)

    By Blogger Taylor, at 12/22/2006 12:15 PM  

  • It's raining up North too.

    Thanks Louie for the great post. You have said almost exactly what I'm looking for.

    We are hungry, we are hungry, we are hungry for more of you; we are thirsty, oh Jesus, we are thirsty for more of you.
    We lift our holy hands up, we want to touch you, we lift our voices higher, and higher and higher to you...

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12/22/2006 1:29 PM  

  • I was just thinking yesterday that I am ready to approach all my friends in humility and say, I am so tired of trying to force myself to be satisfied in Jesus alone. I am still dissatisfied, I don't know what to do, I cannot MAKE this happen. Today I will accept this, but also recall God's faithfulness and be ready for that outpouring.

    By Blogger Lindsay Rae, at 12/22/2006 1:36 PM  

  • That first comment explains exactly how I am alot of times. I know God loves me, and that He'd do anything for me. And i'm a believer in Christ, it's just my head has been in the way of my heart for so long, and i'm realizing that He will give me the joy that I once had in my heart if I just let Him. His love is amazing, i'm starting to realize that more and more. Thank you Louie.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12/22/2006 1:53 PM  

  • Thanks for that reminder of truth and much needed encouragement...

    Give me an undying love for You,
    Lord won't You set my heart aflame,
    With passion for Your Name?
    Give me an undying love for You,
    Lord won't You take me to the cross?
    I count it all as loss,
    Please burn away the dross,
    So that nothing else remains...
    But an undying love for You.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12/22/2006 4:03 PM  

  • going along with the weather up here (unusually warm):

    Living water, rain down on me
    Holy Spirit, come and fill me up!

    We are hungry, we are hungry,
    We are hungry for more of You!

    By Blogger Silke, at 12/22/2006 4:25 PM  

  • Why a eternally faithful God would voluntarily choose to have a relationship with a constantly unfaithful sinner is beyond me. What love, what grace! God is the Unchanging One

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12/22/2006 4:43 PM  

  • Our group has ended up with a bunch of extra Passion 07registrations. If your group would like to buy these and transfer them to your group please email me. (It IS at the price break amount)....

    THANKS
    passion07xtras@gmail.com

    By Blogger mstudentz, at 12/22/2006 5:54 PM  

  • First of all to the whole Passion House... I just want to say that your podcast already have re-opened the floodgates for my heart. Thank you for all your hard work and love for Jesus that just is contagious through this medium.

    Lord, You are here. You are good. Let us dwell with you and enjoy You. Let us see how great You really are!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12/22/2006 8:22 PM  

  • Thank you Mr. Giglio for directing us to further satisfaction in Christ through all you do.

    How we need Him! He has given Himself, and He is more than sufficient!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12/22/2006 8:43 PM  

  • God is soo amazing!!! I am going to Passion and I cannot wait till it finally gets here. I have been trying to keep up with each days blog and follow along but I got behind in the beginning and then I have been working all day long and by the time I get home I am so tired that I have forgotten to read the blog for the day. But I was suppose to read the one today. I stated by reading title and nothing really happened, and then i continured throught the post and tears came to my eyes (girly I know) but everything that you wrote in the blog was exactly what i have been struggling with for the past couple months. You hit the nail on the head. I have been praying for God to prepare by heart for Passion 07 becuase i dont not want to miss out on anything that He might have in store for me. But this just confirmed to me what I need to do and showed me how I blieve that God can work, but I have only been blieving half heartedly. I want God to be the center of my life and i want to wake up in the morning and get excited about spending time with him because i know that he will poor into me, but i did not know how to get the river flowing again. Louie, thanks for seeking God with your whole heart and for allowing him to use you to bless me and so many. I cannot wait till passion to see what God is going to do. See you guys in about 2 weeks.

    By Blogger rebekah ball, at 12/22/2006 10:58 PM  

  • As I read the comments and think about what has been going on in my own heart it seems that we have this thing about us that gets used to things in our lives(posessions, relationships, and most of all God) to the point where the heart slips out of the picture and we just know it instead of experiencing it. My prayer is that God will make himself evident and precious in my life. I need to have my heart placed under the overflowing fountain of Christ instead of looking on, knowing its there and knowing what it does, and even trusting it. I want to be submerged in Him forever. God help me.

    By Blogger Kyle, at 12/22/2006 11:52 PM  

  • There is one question/wondering I have.

    I know what you are saying about being thirsty, but I also think that sometimes the Lord lets us face the desert to see if we trust in Him beyond our feelings.

    I know that our hearts can lie to us and I have felt distant from the Lord at times, but I just tell Him... "Lord I know you're still there and I still trust in you even if I can't feel you."

    What do you think about those times as opposed to the times when we actually do something that puts distance between us and God i.e. not seeking Him daily/not reading His word?

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12/23/2006 12:02 AM  

  • I have been feeling kind of empty lately, I knoq God loves me, but I just wish life wasnt so hard at times. Your post today sort of hit home b/c of this reason.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12/23/2006 12:34 AM  

  • I'm preparing for rain! Lord.. open the floodgates of heaven.. rain down your love on us.. wash us in the water of your word.. Revive me!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12/23/2006 1:28 AM  

  • fill us anew we pray...
    more of You
    thank You Lord
    You are so faithful~

    By Blogger Kimmer, at 12/23/2006 2:26 AM  

  • man, i needed that, thank you.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12/23/2006 10:27 AM  

  • amen!! i'm so with you here. i've been reading through this blog, but this one was dead on for me. i have been so busy at school this semester...with class, work, and leading a ministry....i got to a place where i lost the passion. i'm going through the motions. i haven't even gotten any real joy out of church for a while now. praying that passion can bring back the overflowing joy in my heart that i had before!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12/26/2006 12:39 AM  

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