Just Thinking (about prayer)

Conversation with myself today:

You’re a Christian, right?
How do you spend your time?
How do you use your energy?
What do you think about most?
An idol is something that takes up your time, energy, and thought.
Ouch.
Is God your idol?
Where is your loyalty?
Have you lied to yourself all along, believing that you are living for God when you are really devoted to yourself?

You profess to be for Him, in Him, and of Him.
I wonder if you know Him.
I wonder if you love Him.

Today, I recognize:
God's infinite wisdom - about everything!
His ultimate power - to do anything!
His transformation - so we can do something!
I recognize the desire of God’s heart - to be being loved by His creation.

I proclaim that God is calling every person to play a considerably small and eternally significant role in His grand story.

Nobody can fill your shoes. God only called one person to build the ark, to deliver the Israelites, to draw water from a well. You are called to do something(s) especially, things which nobody else ‘will do.’

Instead of focusing on the sea of regrets and unholy routines that are in your life currently and need to be replaced, just follow the streams flowing into that sea (sea = your life). Construct a single stream to overcome all others, a stream of prayer! Let His love be flowing from His heart into your life, that you may truly be of Him, for Him, in Him, and truly devoted to Him. (Romans 12!)

I agree with Phillip Yancey who said, “Prayer, and only prayer, restores my vision to one that more resembles God’s.” When you pray, you will be given insight from the mind of God as to what you are called to do. Whatever you decide to do with the wisdom you are given determines who/what you are serving.

As for now, pray. For me, prayer is a matter far greater than life or death. William Booth once said something like this: “Work as if everything depended on your work. Pray as if everything depended on your prayer.” Yet another person, I’m still unsure who – I believe he is from Akron Citadel Corps – once said,

“The greatest regret Christians will have when they get to Heaven will be when they realize how powerful prayer really is and how lightly they regarded it while here on earth. They will realize how much more of a difference they could have made, but it will be too late.”

Praise God for the power and wisdom and guidance He gives us through the gift of prayer. I praise Him too, now, for the realization of my slack of a prayer life. I’ve said a prayer for you today, who read this. May you feel the Lord’s tug, call on Him, and reap the tools and peace and guidance He has in store for you by it.

(Stream/Sea illustration was the idea of Phillip Yancey, used in his book "Prayer")