Thoughts

This word has been on my mind a lot this week. Perhaps because I am feeling the call to pray more. The Mr. and I began reading or I should say re-reading a book called Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster. It goes through the Christian disciplines that we should be incorporating every day. The first one is meditation...I am no so good at that. My mind can't seem to stay still enough to truly focus, but I am continuing to practice. The second one is prayer. (By the way he splits them into 3 categories: inner, outer, and corporate)

What is prayer and how do we do it?

Prayer (pray) is simple. It is talking to God. We do it by talking to God. I know...complicated. Not really, but for some reason we make it out to be more than it needs to be be. There are so many people who are nervous about praying, but reality is God just wants to spend the time with you. He wants to hear your heart, the good and the bad. He is never surprised by what we think about Him or others so I find it is best to be honest about it from the start.

But back to where I started....I stink at praying....there I said it. In everything I have ever read about people who were the closest to God, the common factor is they spent some quality time with Jesus and a lot of time there as well. I am finding that I struggle spending 5 minutes in prayer. Why is it so hard? I don't really know...I am working that one out. But in the journey to be more like Christ I have been challenging myself to have an attitude of prayer where what I say with my eyes closed or with others is really a prayer to God. That way I am praying all the time.

Then there is another aspect of praying I am working on. Recently, a string of events has come up and I find no other place to go, but to the Lord. He knows my heart and I never have to explain...I just talk, but I am sick of praying for me. My life is so great compared to others and even if others are like me it just feels better to lift my eyes up from my own issues and focus my prayers on others issues. There is something about standing in the gap for someone else, taking their needs to God on behalf of them.

Why do we need to pray though?

Prayer changes things. It either changes me and my heart or the situation. It does things that in my own strength I could not. But I am weak and forgetful (like some people I know in the Bible), I think that somehow I can do it. No, I cannot. I have seen God work miracles in my life and the lives of other so I know that prayer works.

Hopefully, I can learn how to place myself continually at the feet of the cross and talk to the One who loves me more than I can ever imagine.

Image borrowed from here

To help me practice why don't you leave a request for me. If it is specific we might see God move in an amazing way. If you want to share, but are worried about sharing over the Internet e-mail me.