Prayer

Two things before I start. 1) An apology. I'm going to ramble. 2) A confession. I'm not that good at prayer.

I'm excited about this fall when we as a church take a long, hard look at the practice of prayer as it pertains to us personally, and I hope as a body as a whole. I'm excited, because we have the opportunity to learn from God, and learn from others.

In prayer personally, we have the opportunity to, as Philip Yancey describes it in the study, that instead of inviting God into my day, but instead placing myself into His. God is at work all the time. Not just when I'm at work. God is constantly writing the story of His redemption on the world, and I have the opportunity to join that story. Prayer is my opportunity to hear from God what my part in that story is.

I'm rethinking a lot of what I've always "known" and preconceived about prayer. I've been taught a lot of things about prayer. Some good...some, not so much. One thing I'm learning, and it goes back to placing myself God's day, not the other way around, is that prayer is more my opportunity to understand God's heart in every situation in my life. Is it important at all? Am I making a bigger deal out of it than I should? Should I be making a bigger deal about it than I am? Does God heart break for these people? This situation? What opportunities is God already at work in, that I just need to join Him? What opportunities am I seeing, that really aren't that important to God? Prayer is simply my chance to see God's heart on an everyday basis, and how he is already at work, and what he's at work in.

Another thing I'm excited about is the opportunity to learn from one another. As we pray with one another - in church, in small groups, with just one or two others - we get the opportunity to see other people's connection with the Father. When we pray as a staff each Tuesday, we take turns each week, and get a window into seeing how other people are connecting with the Father. It's beautiful to watch what other people are passionate and compassionate about. It's awesome to hear Tim thank God for his mercies each day. It's moving to hear Jan plead with God to intervene in our planning - whether here at Grace Fellowship, locally in Gary, or globally in India or Africa. And in hearing others we get an even broader glimpse of what story God is writing throughout his entire creation - not just what my tiny mind can comprehend.

In prayer we are connecting with a God who is massively bigger than ourselves. We participate in a story that is bigger than we could ever imagine. In prayer we get a front row seat to the redemptive story that God is writing.