I do not believe it is coincidence that our emphasis for this next year at church is prayer. After the last couple years I've been experiencing, it feels like it will be a nice thing to have other people walking this road with me as I relive some parts, and get to stretch into new, uncharted territories and experience new ones. What better way to spend our time than in prayer?
In staff devotions this morning the topic was....you guessed it, prayer, and that sent my mind into a frenzy. We had scripture references from Ephesians 1:16-23 and 3:14-21, John 14, 15, and 15:16. Also mentioned was Colossians 1, 1 Thessalonians 5, and 2 Thessalonians 1.
Here's what came from it:
Why is it that sometimes when we pray we feel like we've touched Heaven and other times it feels like our prayers do not reach past the ceiling? It has nothing to do with God and what He wants to do or provide for us, but rather everything to do with us and our faith that the power God promises is capable of providing for us. Not to say that a lack of faith means our prayers are less likely to reach Heaven, but that our faith is what motivates us to pray even when we feel as though nothing will make a difference. It's exactly at the moments when we believe our prayers are going no further than the ceiling that we need to take hold of the scriptures and pray them, sometimes even verbatim, until we feel the strength to be able to pray our hearts. God cares enough even to hear us when we may only have the ability to groan out to Him. My God is big enough to care about every little minute detail, even up front parking at the mall, is yours? How thankful we should be for such a privilege.
