Praying Through the TO DO's

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.

Romans 8:26

Do you ever start to pray, but find you do not have the words?

Are all of your thoughts focused on other things than being with God and what to say to Him?

This is a perpetual problem I face nearly every time I sit down to pray. I start and then my mind creates a "To Do" list of all of the other things in my life:

• Check the presentation for work
• Schedule Christmas party for GUMY
• Read new training manual
• Clean the kitchen
• Do I need to make cookies for someone?

The list will keep going and going until I physically stop myself and refocus on talking with God. I can have several rounds of starting and list making before my spirit lets go and I allow God's Spirit to work in me so that I can truly communicate with God. Sometimes, even with the best of intentions, my prayers are weak and broken filled with starts and stops and not a great deal of content.

Prayer is our two way communication with God and just like in our communication with other people we have to be fully present to understand the other person and to be coherent in what we are trying to communicate. When we rush through communication - whether we are giving a speech in class or talking to a friend on the phone - we often do not say exactly what we intend and the other party often misunderstands what we are trying to communicate. Prayer is not different.

When we stop and take time to pray, we must focus our whole being on God and being present with Him. By focusing your mind and your heart on God, your spirit will know how you are to pray and for what you are to pray. With your mind and heart focused, your ears will become tuned to God's still, quiet voice and His direction will become clear.

Prayer is a learned behavior. Just like we expand our vocabulary each week with new spelling words or through reading new books, we grow our ability to communicate with God through intentional practice. Intentional communication with God can be hard in the midst of the bombardment of external voices in the world, but through God's grace and your willingness to try, He will cut through the noise and whisper in your heart.

Prayer is powerful - - and prayer is up to you. You have a choice to communicate openly with God - with anyone - you need to decide if communicating with God is a high priority in your life.

For me, prayer ranks pretty high up on my list....and even in the midst of the crazy "To Do" list - prayer always wins.

Scripture

Romans 8:22-30

Quote of the Day

There is a vast difference between saying prayers and praying.

Unknown

Question of the Day

Where do you pray?





Running the Race...And Watching for Potholes

Where are you looking?

When you start out your day, are you focused on the next task or are you focused on the end of the day? Maybe you wake up focused on tomorrow....or Friday....or next year.

Where are you looking?

We can become so caught up in what comes next, what is two weeks or two years away that we miss out on what is right before us.

A few days ago, my sister was parking her car. She was so focused on the parking spot she wanted that she didn't see the sign posted directly in front of her and she ran into the post. Her car was dented and bruised and the sign post was twisted. She could see the perfect parking spot - but she missed the obstacles in her path.

When we focus solely on what will come, what will be, we run the risk of missing out on the day to day things of life. We become so caught up in achieving a goal like getting an A on a test or graduating high school or marrying the perfect person or buying a bigger house that we cannot see the pitfalls and obstacles which stand in our way; and which will likely stop us from achieving our goals.

Life is like a long distance race. We are on a path and each step moves us closer to the finish line, but we have to focus on each stride, each turn in the road because each step builds on the one before it. Each step is necessary for us to make it to the goal. If we focus only on the finish line, we might miss an important turn or step in a pothole and derail our entire race.

Instead our eyes, our focus, should be centered directly before us - on Jesus. If we keep our focus on Jesus, he will keep us safe on the path and help us to run at the best pace so that we finish our race in his time.

Where are you looking?

Scripture

Hebrews 12:1-3

Quote of the Day

What good is having someone who can walk on water if you don't follow in his footsteps? Unknown

Question of the Day

Have you ever run a race competitively? Tell us a little about the experience?