Today my heart is heavy with the requests from friends to PRAY! Some requests come from sudden crisis, and some from long painful journeys taking yet another toll.  Today, I will be praying for every single thing the Holy Spirit put on my heart, whether He does it through people emailing me, text messages, through my thoughts, or a news story.  Some people have said that you must pray, that it is your ‘responsibility’, your duty.  What I have come to learn now is that my only responsibility to pray today is my ‘ability to respond’.  And I choose to respond to any and all of His promptings in me.  For me, that is the beauty of prayer.

I grew up being told what prayer was and wasn’t, and I was still confused.  Over the years, I’ve found that there is mystery in prayer, as well as adventure.  In order to experience the adventure, one does need to debunk the false understanding of what prayer is and is not.  To begin that journey, here is a list of what prayer is not.

PRAYER IS NOT…..

• A duty
• A magic genie in an oil lamp
• A formula
• Method to manipulate God
• You do, but something HE does
• What someone else does better
• A ritual
• King James language
• Father lord, just, just father, lord, oh God, just just…wordy-ness

Instead, I’ve found prayer to be the most natural thing we have been created to do!  It begins with believing who God is and that He does hear our prayers….all of them.  It begins with knowing who Jesus is, and that HE in fact is the one who inspires and prays for and through us.

Jesus Christ in his own self-oblation to the father IS our worship and prayer in an acutely personalised form, so that it is only through him and with him that we may draw near to God with the hands of our faith filled with no other offering but that which he has made on our behalf and in our place once and for all. – unknown

Prayer is first and foremost something that Christ does on our behalf in his life and in his death, but also as our ascended Lord and High priest who intercedes for us in the presence of God the father.  The holy spirit sent by the risen Lord unites us with Christ, mediating Christ and his intercession to us in such a way that Christ’s prayer echoes in our hearts. – unknown

Prayer is about attitude:

Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul. It is daily admission of one’s weakness. It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart. – Mahatma Gandhi

Today, you may not know ‘how to pray’, but let me assure you that your prayers are being heard.  There is prayer flowing from you right to Christ, who lives in you.  We pray Spirit to Spirit, and there is no disconnection….ever!

He will take every groan, moan, ache, cry, frustrating emotional roller-coaster and convert it into a rich understandable prayer of hope and love.  Read today’s verse of the day, and know that he prays for us, even when we don’t know what to pray.

Mike Zenker

Questions For The Day

1. Do you ever feel God can’t hear your prayers?  What does it make you feel like?
2. What things prevent you from praying?  (could it be a misunderstanding of what prayer actually is?)
3. What is prayer to you?
4. What do you think ‘Jesus is praying your prayers’ means?
5. Is prayer to be a formal daily duty, or is it to be a relational activity we engage in out of desire?

Verse Of The Day

Romans 8 (The Message)  ^26-28 Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.

Video Of The Day

How He Loves Us – Kim Walker-Smith https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoC1ec-lYps

Prayer

Heavenly Papa, for all those who have requested prayer, may today be a special day for my friend to ‘experience your indwelling presence’ as they walk through this painful time.  We pray in TREMENDOUS HOPE that the end result will encourage all who are connected……hear our prayer, hear our groans