November 1, 2016

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30 Days to Pray Replay … What God Has Been Teaching Me about Prayer
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I knew that 2016 was going to be different. When the verse the Lord gave me on the first Sunday of the new year was Isaiah 41:10 (Fear not for I am with you…) I knew that God was going to shake things up a bit. The things He asked me to do were quite outside of my comfort zone and prayer was going to be an integral part of my survival.

Don’t get me wrong, I pray. I’ve always prayed, but not with this type of persistence and fervency. It seems that I’ve spent a lot of time this year in our Warren Prayer Room on my knees. I’ve spent time on my back porch in the wee hours of the morning in prayer. I’ve led and participated in multiple prayer challenges, online prayer groups, and journaled countless prayers this year. It’s been wonderful!

And do you know what I’ve learned?

I’ve learned that prayer isn’t so much about me speaking my prayers to God and Him hearing and answering. No, God already know my needs. Prayer is much more about me connecting with God moment-by-moment, communing with Him in the everyday things of life.

The fact is that God knows our needs and our thoughts, but as we verbalized our needs to the Lord our perspectives change. In prayer we are overwhelmed with His peace, we find contentment in His presence, we receive His grace and power in times of need, and we experience His lavish love as we sit at His feet and worship Him.

Why?  Because coming to God with everything shows Him how very much we love Him, depend on Him, surrender to Him, and desire to be secured by Him.

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. –Ephesians 3:14-21

So as we embark on this 30 Days to Pray Replay, I want to challenge you to take multiple times throughout your day to pray. You don’t even need to say a whole lot in your prayer time with the Lord. Simply surrender your heart to Him often. Speak to Him reverently as talking to a friend. Commune with the Father and discover the beautiful blessing of sitting in the presence of the Almighty.

Keep praying!

Jacqueline

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