The Miracle of Prayer

Amazed would be the word. I'm so excited about what God is teaching me and confirming to me through these Miracle Mondays. I had half this post written before going to our Sunday night service. At the end of the service, we put in action what God has put on my heart for this post. I am overjoyed and humbled by how God cares for each of us!

Now to the topic at hand. Next week is the National Day of Prayer. The mission of the National Day of Prayer Task Force is such:

The National Day of Prayer Task Force's mission is to communicate with every individual the need for personal repentance and prayer, mobilizing the Christian community to intercede for America and its leadership in the seven centers of power: Government, Military, Media, Business, Education, Church and Family.

This year marks the 58th year that it will be observed.

I am grateful for the freedom to pray, but I am most grateful for the ability to pray. See, prayer in itself is a miracle. One of my favorite parts of the Easter story is this:

50And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. 51At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split.

Do you know what the curtain (veil) being torn represented? Simply put, direct access to God. We have this miraculous gift of being to speak with our Creator any time we wish. We don't have to go through another human; we enter His presence through Jesus Christ. I just think that is amazing, and yet I fear we don't recognize, or sometimes just don't take advantage of that opportunity. Our Creator, the Creator of all living things, wants to talk with us. He wants us to share our feelings with Him, share our hurts, our triumphs. He wants to bless us through prayer if we will just let Him!

Prayer can do amazing things. Now, I'm not saying God's going to do everything you ask. And He may even provide His answer in a way you were not expecting. He certainly has in my life. But He wants to hear from us, and He wants to speak to us, if we'll be still enough to listen. God wants to teach us through prayer; He wants to widen our perspective. He wants to open our eyes to what He is doing around us and show us who we can touch and bless. We can only know these things if we are having daily, ongoing conversations with Him.

My sweet sister is definitely an example of what prayer can do. She has been through an incredibly hard journey the past year. I believe she would agree with me that she could have in no way withstood this situation without prayer. It has blessed me so to see the impact prayer has had on her, both those interceding on her behalf, as well as her own prayer time.

My heart was broken this weekend as we saw some neighbors this weekend. They have a real and desperate need for prayer for a situation. We would have never known had our paths not crossed. It has me wondering how often we share our needs with others. How many people do you come in contact with daily? How many of those people are you praying for? Each of us have prayer needs, some big, some small, depending on the timing. I think one of the ways we fail people is neglecting to pray for them. An essential part of the Christian faith is interceding for one another. Sharing each other's burdens.

Now for the fun part! Go to the comments section under this post, list a prayer request, and I will pray for you this week. You can leave your name or you can post it anonymously. It doesn't matter to me. God knows who you are. What matters is that you'll have one more person praying for that need this week. I'm serious about this -so please post some comments so I'll have some extra people to pray for this week!

Have a Miraculous Monday!


National Day of Prayer