What I love about God is that when you truly seek Him, you will find him!
So within 24 hours of my post about prayer, I saw God answer prayers in HUGE ways! It started with our student leadership development meeting Sunday afternoon. I had come up with basically a whole program together for the spiritual growth side of things, and I was so excited about it! I was also really nervouse; what if it sucks? What if none of the other leaders like it? What if I completely missed the spirit of what we were trying to accomplish. You can guess that I had been praying a lot about it, and when we brought everything together Sunday afternoon, it was incredible! Everyone really liked what I had come up with, and it fit perfectly into what Colt had done for the leadership side of things. Like I am talking God perfect, here! So cool!
Well, later on Sunday, I was starting to get a really bad headache that was threatening to become a migraine at any moment. This was bad because I had to serve at Church, and once I get a migraine, I cannot do ANYTHING. Before we walked into the church, Isaac prayed that God would help me through it and that the headache wouldn't hinder me from serving with excellence. Pretty soon my head started to feel better, and within 10 minutes the headache was almost completely gone, and stayed gone for the rest of the evening. I honestly do not think I have ever had a headache go away without Advil and sleep before! It was awesome!
And then, at the end of the service, I was just really into the worship. Once Cody started talking and giving the invitation, I just felt lead to pray, and I started praying so hard for everyone in the room. I mean, I haven't prayed that hard in a really long time, and I just couldn't stop. After Cody gave the invitation, literally like 8 people immediately raised their hands to accept Christ. IT WAS AWESOME!
That is all just to say, GOD IS AMAZING! And if you write a blog post about not being sure of what prayer is or how it works... God might just show up with some answers! :)
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Prayer
I learned this song in Sunday School when I was little. I'm sure you did too. It goes, "Read your Bible and pray every day, pray every day, pray every day. Read your Bible and pray every day, and you'll grow, grow, grow." While I think having a personal relationship with the Creator and King of the Universe is a little more complex than just that... those really are the basics! And as a follower of Christ, I strive to grow closer to God through the practice of Bible reading and prayer.
To be honest, the Bible reading part comes pretty naturally to me. I mean, I have definitely had times where I struggled to remember to be in the Word daily, or to connect with it, but reading the Bible, for me, is the easiest part of my relationship with God. And this makes a lot of sense, because I am a word person. I love to read. I am crazy about literature. So to me getting to read God's Living Word is a pretty fantastic way to spend time.
Plus I am a natural student. I love learning, and I have been taught my whole life to learn and think critically. Being an English major and taking a zillion lit. classes has just served to increase my critical analysis abilities and my love of studying the written word. So basically I am just passionate about Bible study. It's my favorite.
But that second part of the song, prayer... that's a little more tricky. I've grown up in a household full of prayer. My mother is an incredible prayer warrior, and her example has been a huge blessing in my life. It's not really that I find prayer all that difficult, because I love to talk. If prayer is just talking to God, that's not really too big of a deal, right?
What I struggle with in regards to prayer is insecurity and complacency. I really hate the "grocery list" prayer, because I feel like God deserves so much more than that. On the other hand, he specifically tells us to bring our worries and requests to him. But when I just pray a "God do this, God do that" kind of prayer, it feels stale. And honestly, I feel kind of weird, like I am ordering God around.
I'm pretty sure prayer is a lot more than just bringing our requests to God, but I am having trouble figuring out exactly what that looks like in my life and prayer-time. One of my favorite ways to pray lately is just to spend a lot of time praising God for who he is and what he is done. I just like to tell him everything I can think of about who the Bible says he is, and who I have experienced him to be in my life. I have found that this is absolutely the best way I can find peace and joy when I am having a rough day. When I start to praise God, my focus shifts from myself and my problems to God's love and mercy.
But even so, I feel like there is more to prayer than this. What about being quiet and letting God speak to you? Now that is SCARY to me! Still trying to figure that one out...
What do you think about prayer? How do you pray?
To be honest, the Bible reading part comes pretty naturally to me. I mean, I have definitely had times where I struggled to remember to be in the Word daily, or to connect with it, but reading the Bible, for me, is the easiest part of my relationship with God. And this makes a lot of sense, because I am a word person. I love to read. I am crazy about literature. So to me getting to read God's Living Word is a pretty fantastic way to spend time.
Plus I am a natural student. I love learning, and I have been taught my whole life to learn and think critically. Being an English major and taking a zillion lit. classes has just served to increase my critical analysis abilities and my love of studying the written word. So basically I am just passionate about Bible study. It's my favorite.
But that second part of the song, prayer... that's a little more tricky. I've grown up in a household full of prayer. My mother is an incredible prayer warrior, and her example has been a huge blessing in my life. It's not really that I find prayer all that difficult, because I love to talk. If prayer is just talking to God, that's not really too big of a deal, right?
What I struggle with in regards to prayer is insecurity and complacency. I really hate the "grocery list" prayer, because I feel like God deserves so much more than that. On the other hand, he specifically tells us to bring our worries and requests to him. But when I just pray a "God do this, God do that" kind of prayer, it feels stale. And honestly, I feel kind of weird, like I am ordering God around.
I'm pretty sure prayer is a lot more than just bringing our requests to God, but I am having trouble figuring out exactly what that looks like in my life and prayer-time. One of my favorite ways to pray lately is just to spend a lot of time praising God for who he is and what he is done. I just like to tell him everything I can think of about who the Bible says he is, and who I have experienced him to be in my life. I have found that this is absolutely the best way I can find peace and joy when I am having a rough day. When I start to praise God, my focus shifts from myself and my problems to God's love and mercy.
But even so, I feel like there is more to prayer than this. What about being quiet and letting God speak to you? Now that is SCARY to me! Still trying to figure that one out...
What do you think about prayer? How do you pray?
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