Single-minded

Single-Minded

Everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my LORD. Philippians 3:8

PERHAPS YOUR PRAYER LIFE FEELS SCATTERED—an attempt to cover each member of your family, church, and workplace; your health and finances; the upcoming items on your to-do list; the ministries and missionaries serving around the world; the nations that need a profound move of God; the victims of tragedies in the day’s headlines; and more. These are good prayers, and they are all part of our lives and world that God is concerned with too. But in the overwhelming lists and categories, amid all the items you can probably never get to on a normal day, remember where your life is anchored. Remember the overarching category. See your life and your concerns as a single entity—a mission to know Jesus and see his Kingdom come in increasing measure.

That does not remove any of the above items from your prayer list, but it does bring them under one all-embracing concern. The life of prayer is a single-minded pursuit, not a to-do list. It begins and ends in relationship with God; everything else flows from that relationship. A Kingdom mind learns to see family, work, health, finances, ministry, and daily needs and concerns as part of an overall mission in this world that can be summed up in a single prayer: “Lord, your Kingdom come, your will be done here, now, on earth, just as it is in heaven.” In reality, you are praying heaven’s truths, values, power, and love into your situations on earth. There is nothing greater you can pray. It is all-inclusive; everything else is just a more specific detail.

Summary prayers can keep us focused. When we pray them because we are too busy or lazy to get specific, they are weak. When we pray them because we are fully aware that God’s mission in this world through us is ultimately a single pursuit, they are powerful. The difference is in the relationship. When our single-minded pursuit is to know God, we begin to pray the things on his heart. When we pray the things on his heart, his heart is moved. His Kingdom comes through those who seek him above all.

The seed is choked in our souls whenever Christ is not our all in all.