POWER OF PRAYER

One of the main lessons to come out of last year for me was the desperate need for us to pray more - it covers us and helps our faith to grow. More and more the LORD keeps putting it on my heart to pray and pray.

So I have been studying prayer a lot. Reading an excellent prayer book at the moment by John Maxwell. I have always talked to the LORD, even when I was more lost than found, talking to him about the big and small things in my life...listening to him so I can make wise choices.

In everything that is happening around me I'm even more aware of how much I need the LORD. We get so busy with life that it's easy to take our eyes off the LORD and say: OK, if I just sort this out then I can give you time....or if i just get thru this busy month then I can devote time to you...or in my case last year: if I am doing God stuff than it must be ok to be so busy I have no energy to spend on relationships...BUT THESE ARE ALL LIES OF SATAN.

Satan wants us to be busy with ourselves, busy with our 'own lives', and giving the LORD leftovers because then our world is ALL ABOUT US. The LORD is our lives. If we want to live our lives we can't separate it from the LORD and put him back in his box and pull him out when ever we FEEL like it or need him...or on Sundays when we go to church.

I know I can't live without the LORD in my every day life. I know and believe without a doubt that my LORD will never leave me nor forsake me. That when he forgives, my sins are not ONLY wiped away but forgotten. I know the character of my God and it has never changed. He's not trying to hurt me, but to teach me and to help me grow. I can say this without doubt because I have experienced evil, loss, mourning, a broken-heart, and struggle.

The LORD is an all consuming fire. He's not interested in being given a tiny little room waaay in the back of our hearts behind our plans, our calling, our gifts, our religious practices, our relationships, our jobs. HE belongs in EVERY SINGLE ROOM. We, who call ourselves his children, know that unless the LORD builds the house we labour in vain. The LORD is not obliged to bless anything he didn't direct you to build.

We always want the easy solution, the quick fix, but the LORD knows we will learn nothing from getting everything our way. So he makes us wait and sometimes we even have to struggle. Our pastor spoke about what it means to WAIT in the bible. It's not a passive word but a doing word. I wholeheartedly agreed with him.

When the LORD says WAIT on him, to me, it means to WAIT EXPECTANTLY...to be ready to spring into action any second, so as not to be caught napping like the disciples when Jesus prayed before being arrested....but to be on our guard, to stay active and alert, in case like a thief in the night the LORD knocks on our door and we are not ready.

Waiting for me looks like this: do what I know to do, seek the LORD's counsel using all the resources he has given me, abide in him continuing to believe and not give up, making the most of what is in my hand right now. Sometimes all I have in my hand are what Paul talks about in Corinthians - FAITH, HOPE AND LOVE.

When I pray I wait expectantly for the LORD to answer....it can take years...It took the LORD 14 yrs to answer my prayer to save my husband...but in that time he changed me, knocked the foundation out from under myles, and brought our marriage out into the light. Every time there was an alter call, I waited expectantly for Myles to raise his hand. But he never did. Did it stop me believing? No, because I was sure of what I hoped for and certain of what I couldn't see.

I waited expectantly for some good news last week about a young woman at church who had a lump removed from her chest, fearing it was cancer. The LORD answered, she is doing fine and the lump was all clear and she is recovering with little bruising. That's answered prayer.

Last night I waited expectantly for some good news about my Uncle. I still am. My mum came home with a glimmer of hope, his voice was stronger last night, he seemed more positive. Answered prayer. And I wait again for more good news.

I waited expectantly for small things like warm weather for one spot in Sydney where we would be lying on a beach. The LORD answered.

Today, I am waiting to hear good news about being pregnant. It's 5 years since I started this prayer. Over those 5 years my life has changed dramatically. I lost a baby, a fallopian tube, part of my ovary and I lost my Dad. Today I wait expectantly to hear not so much from the nurse, but from my LORD to answer.

What if the answer is NO? Then I try again. If at the end of this year I have exhausted all these options to have a child, then I will adopt. If that doesn't work then I know my LORD's answer. I am meant to be an Aunty and not a Mum.

But until that day comes, I will fight the good fight, I will choose to believe in the goodness of my LORD and I will not go quietly into the night.