DOP

What a blessing and gift prayer is to the believer. To be able to present our deepest affections and worries to the living God in confidence that he hears us and actually cares... Moody held a day of prayer last week for all students and falculty. The student body was given multiple opportunities to be intentional about prayer with different small groups, and it was such a healthy dose of Christ-centered perspective. To quiet your heart before the Lord in humility, to praise his character and existence, to repent of what separates you from him, to intercede on behalf of others and to make requests and petitions before him...these are the blessings of prayer. Together they allow us to take a step back and to say "wow! It's not about me."

There are so many other things going on in this world, so many people suffering, so many people growing, so many being won over for the Lord..daily. To remember these things and the bigger picture that they fit into defines just a small portion of the grace of God. It's so freeing isn't it? The ability to take your focus off of self? My self is sinful to the core, and it's imprisoning. Yet, in prayer I see these things let go, expressed, communicated to a Father who remembers them not. Surely the command "Pray without ceasing" is a blessing in itself! What is more, we should see it less as an order and more as a key to live in peace and joy, regardless of the circumstance.

"In prayer all my worldly cares, fears, anxieties disappear,
and are of as little significance as a puff of wind.
In prayer my soul inwardly exults with lively thoughts
at what thou art doing for thy church,
and I long that thou shouldest get thyself a great name
from sinners returning to Zion.
In prayer I can place  all my concerns in thy hands,
to be entirely at thy disposal,
having no will or interest of my own.
In prayer I can intercede for my friends, ministers,
sinners, the church, thy kingdom to come,
with greatest freedom, ardent hopes,
as a son to his father,
as a lover to the beloved.
Help me to be all prayer and never to cease praying."

These beautiful words come from The Valley of Vision's "In Prayer"