Thankful for Prayers

The other day my Grandpa was talking to me about last weeks blog's post about God's plans for our lives. He said that when he was growing up his family was quite poor but his parents always made sure there was enough money to send the kids to church camp. One summer, I think Grandpa was in junior high, the speaker at the camp told them to take out a piece of paper and sign their names at the bottom. The paper was blank. The speaker told them that was their contract with God. When they gave their lives to Him they signed the contract, now He got to fill in the details. From that time on Grandpa knew that he was going to be a pastor. He built his life on that knowledge and straight from high school he headed into Bible college. God always had a plan for His life and although his years of ministry have been anything but easy He trusted in that plan and lived his life for the Lord.

However just living your life day by day with a vague plan in mind is exhausting. Sure there's a goal and a vague reason for your decisions but what happens when life gets hard? When you get a curveball thrown at you? You need something to rejuvenate you, to remind you of why you're living your life for the Lord. A vague concept of "because God has called me to this" isn't going to be enough for most people. It certainly wouldn't be for me.

That's why this week what I'm grateful for is what takes us from living out a set of guidelines or rules and makes our faith a relationship. Prayer. The ability and gift and commandment to communicate and commune with our Lord and Savior.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 says "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you."

Prayer is one of the greatest tools we have in helping us live our lives for Christ. It's one of the best weapons we have in fighting against the enemy. It's the greatest medicine we can ask for in asking for healing for ourselves or others. 

We don't always get the answer we want when we pray. Sometimes it's no, or wait, or I'm going to give you what you want but not in the way you expected, or I'm going to give you what you need but not what you want, or sometimes it's just yes. 

Prayers is not a method of accessing God like a vending machine. We can't just send up a prayer like we would put in some cash and then expect God to drop down whatever we've asked for like a bag of Cheez-It's. Prayer is about communication. We use prayer to talk to God, to share with Him our fears and concerns and burdens. To thank Him for all He's given us. To rejoice about what He's doing and praise Him for His many wonderous blessings and for all of creation. We pray on behalf of others and intercede for them because God wants to hear from us. We pray because prayer has power and the more we pray and our faith is strengthened the less power the enemy has. We pray so we can hear what God has to say to us. And we pray because we are His children and talking to our loving Father is something we should delight in as much as He delights in hearing from us.

Prayer is a very mysterious thing to me most of the time. It's also very simple. We pray to talk to God. And we pray to hear from Him. Prayer is powerful. I may not understand how it all works but I've seen the effects. 

My great-grandparents prayed for their children to love the Lord. Four of their six children went into full time ministry. They prayed to have the money to provide for those kids and God always gave them enough to send their kids to camp. My grandpa prayed that God would use him and he spent over 60 years as a pastor. God answers prayers. Not always in the way we want or expect but He does answer. And our faith is strengthened by spending time with Him. 

I don't know what your praying for today but when you take time to speak to the Lord today I encourage you to thank Him for the power and the blessing of prayer. It's something we all have reason to be incredibly thankful for.