2012 Election

I'm not as much into politics as my family is, though I do have certain opinions about our government that I'm choosing not to discuss here on my blog, but I came across this the other day.  It appealed to the geek in me. :D

Admission

I went to the Well again yesterday and heard the man preach about prayer again.  It was better the second time around.  He said something this time that I didn't catch last time: prayer is the admission to God that you can't handle it on your own.  Wow.  That's the first time I've heard soemthing like that and it makes complete sense to me.

It makes sense because I've had a hard time praying all my life and now I know it's because I didn't want to admit that I couldn't do it on my own.  I wnated to be the one to do it all.  I wanted to do God's job, and that is pride.  That puts me in the same position as Lucifer before he fell.  That's a frightening thought and if it weren't for God's incredible love and grace, that would be my fate.

So now I'm all about prayer.  I can't do it on my own.  I need God to get through every day, one day at a time.  He's got to the the one to do it.  Even something so simple as asking Him to wake me up so I can spend time with Him to how He provides for our needs here and then some - He's got it covered and I need to rely on Him.

Sweet Aroma

So this weekend has been a good one for learning about worship (acts of…) and sacraments, but the biggie for me was on Saturday night at The Well Church when a man spoke on prayer.

He said that prayer was very important and he broke it down into four things, two of which stood out to me.  The first is that prayers are stored up in bowls as incense to God and are a sweet aroma to Him.  Wow.  I love that picture and it puts a new perspective on prayer for ne.  A positive one that makes me want to pray.  I have a very hard time praying I’ve had moments where I’ve felt the connection to God as I pray but for the most part, though I believe that He hears me, I feel like I’m talking to myself.  This tells me that I’ve not just talking to myself, but it’s a sweet aroma to Him.

The second thing that he said was that a house that doesn’t pray is not a church.  Basically, what I got from that was that prayer draws people together and to God.  This man had story after story about how prayer, just prayer, brought people to God, even those who didn’t believe.  And he also had stories of churches that fell apart because their members refused to pray together.

At the end of his message, he challenged was all to set aside a time to pray, and he wasn’t talking about a five-minute prayer before we go to sleep. But he said to start with a purposeful half an hour.  While that thought intimidates me, at the same time I’m encouraged because I’ve been wanting to develop my prayer life.  God is telling me that He’s making a ways for me to do that.