One of the many ways that I get to serve is as a prayer host. Each Sunday I join a prayer team virtually and offer prayer to people around the world. Monday-Friday I join another team and we take phone calls from people around the world. We have had the joy of serving within and outside of our United States...Yes. We have served South Africa, Ghana, Philippines. Canada, Hawaii...and so many other continents. It is a privilege and an honor to serve the world. I laugh to myself sometimes because I can remember an Elder saying to me that God would use me to speak to thousands. I think that at that time I limited the idea of being on a stage...I love how God takes the limits off.
Last week I found myself having a conversation with a fellow prayer host and I wondered...When people join the zoom prayer on Sunday morning and/or call in Monday thru Friday what are they doing to activate their prayer? I wondered if they were satisfied with connecting with another person to pray with them? I wondered if they left the call believing that their prayer was heard....and would be answered?
Activation of Prayer?????
Matthew chapter 6 teaches us to pray...The Lord's prayer. I call him Father because that is how I see him. I choose to worship Him in spirit and truth because of who He is and not what He can do. Seeking His will requires me to accept yes and no...open and closed. Am I always willing to accept a response from Him that is not what I prayed? SELAH...I am learning to be in the moment so asking for daily bread is what I can manage. Lately, I have been reminded that forgiveness is not for others, but it is for me; so that I can be free. So, I ask God in prayer to forgive me, my sins I have committed knowingly and unknowingly, and to help me forgive others. Temptation is always lurking. Romans 7:15-20 (CSB) "For I do not understand what I am doing, because I do not practice what I want to do, but I do what I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want to do, I agree with the law that it is good. 17 So now I am no longer the one doing it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For the desire to do what is good is with me, but there is no ability to do it. 19 For I do not do the good that I want to do, but I practice the evil that I do not want to do. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, I am no longer the one that does it, but it is the sin that lives in me."
I wonder what part do we play in activating prayer?
James teaches us in chapter 2 that faith and works are partners. I do my part by coming to the ONE that is not surprised ...the ONE that knows before I ask...the ONE that makes every crooked path straight...the ONE that grows HIS desires in my heart so that I want them...HMMMM.
Activation happens when I choose to obey.
Activation happens when I am honest.
Activation happens when like David in Psalm 27 I call out and ask that He graciously hear me...when I affirm that HE is my source of confidence...when I pursue intimacy with HIM...when He strengthens me and then I pay it forward by encouraging others.
Activate your PRAYERS!
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