My hope during the month of October is that this blog might be a place for others to share some thoughts about prayer. Prayer is very personal and therefore each of our prayer lives will be unique. What is valuable in my prayer life, may not work for you. At the same time, something in your prayer life might really improve my prayer life. So I would love it if each person who read this would give some input from their experience.
First topic is why you pray? What leads you to pray?
For me, as I said yesterday, my prayer life has been up and down. There have been times prayer has been important and other times it was something I purposefully did not do. I felt I was wasting my time and maybe God's time with my prayers. God already knew everything I was telling Him and He would do what He wanted anyway. Looking back, maybe I just told myself that so I would not feel guilty for not praying.
Now I am drawn into prayer by two things. First, is my desire to build my relationship with God. I want to get closer to God. I want to learn to understand and love God as best I can and one way to build that love relationship with God is through prayer. Second, I am draw to prayer because of my need for God's wisdom and strength. I realize more each day how my strength and wisdom is not enough for all of God's work. Only by connecting to God will I be able to follow the call He has in my life. Without prayer I know I will not be able to do what God has called me to do.
So, why do you pray? What makes prayer important to you?
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My attempt to connect each day with God and his people.
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About Me
- Pastor James
- I am married to the beautiful and talented Helen. We have two wonderful children that keep us on our toes. Together we pastor St. Paul's UMC in Williamsburg, Iowa, a congregation that is growing and following God's great adventure.
3 comments:
I'm trying to make a new habit of praying right then and there when issues come up. I believe my mom talked about this once here on the blog. Now instead of saying, I'll be praying for you. I either mentally say a prayer right then and there or say it out loud with the person or when an issues comes up.
My issue/concern at the moment is "where is the congegation?"
Dear God, please lead St. Paul's people back to worship for every one of them is missed dearly! In Jesus name... Amen!
I love you all and miss your smiling faces!
Jamie Muse
Oh Jamie, I think they are still there, they are just spread out more. This is one of the things that happens when a church grows and expands its worship opportunities. I think that another thing that happens is that we lose some of that connectiveness (is that a word?). I mean, we maybe do not pass the peace as well as we used to because we don't see as many familiar faces and we are less prone to introduce ourselves with "are you new to this church?" with the fear that maybe they have been coming for a long time but just not to the service we are familar to. Know what I mean? But that's not what the subject at hand is, is it. James has asked why we pray. As many of you know, I have had extreme amounts of stress in my life the past few years. Illness, death, financial difficulties, divorce, not divorced, etc. have all visited our doorstep recently. Not to mention the ongoing issues of ADD in nearly every member of our family. (I'm holding out for Jagger!) So the reason I pray is to alleviate all that stress that follows me around every minute of every day. When I take a few moments and thank God for the many blessings I have been given, ask forgiveness for the evil things I have been thinking and the sharp things I have said that may have been hurtful or mean, and plead for strength and courage to get through all the crap and come out on the other side, I feel immediate relief. It's like a Rolaids for the soul. There's a calm that comes over me and I can keep on keeping on. Sometimes I have to send up a prayer every coupe of minutes or very nearly continously through the day, but at the end of each "conversation" with God, I feel better. When my sister was sick with cancer, a friend of hers asked me how we could still be laughing and smiling through this terrible time of preparing for her death. Without even thinking about it, I replied that it was our faith and prayer that allowed us to enjoy each and every second we had left together. When she would fall and hit her head, we would get her cleaned up, back in bed and say a prayer thanking Him for keeping her from breaking any bones and for giving us another day together. And then we would laugh about where in the world was she going at 3AM without her walker?? So I guess the reason why I pray is to truly give it up to Him so I can continue doing His work as best I can. Okay, I'll shut up now and let someone else talk. Bye!
I don't think I have ever heard of prayer as "Rolaids for the soul." But I like it. I may have to use that. Have you copyrighted that yet Jeanie?
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