Finally Writing

I finally have the desire and the time to write for a few minutes. I have been thinking a lot about prayer lately. We saw the second "Transformations" video the other night and I just really began thinking about how we talk to God. A personal communication with GOD--the creator of the universe. We act so casual about it--can we think about I AM listening to our whining and our petitions? We see that Abraham, through prayer, changed the mind of God. He basically nagged God until he got the answer that he wanted.

I am so wrapped up in my own little life and the things I think are important that I rarely remember to pray about the bigger picture. I loved the tenacity and the absolute determination of the heroes in the Bible. David, Jacob, Abraham (just to name a few)--they all demanded from God and they weren't struck down. They all respected the power of God and they all walked with Him intimately.

I didn't agree with some of the stuff that was said on the "Transformations" video but I cannot argue with the results. We visited one city in Guatemala that was in the first in the "Transformations" series (I think it was Almolonga?). There was definitely more wealth than the other parts of the country and the whole city was cleaner--there were actually dumpsters! We still saw a lot of individual poverty and some rich looking churches. Were those people poor because they refused to "accept the riches of God" or were they just too ingrained in their poverty to see anything else? It was distressing to see a man sleeping on the streets and the Mercedes trucks delivering the huge vegetables driving around him. Yes, I cannot dispute the results of the revivals but I often wonder how long they will last before the governments in those places make Christianity the only religion and persecute those who don't believe.

The one thing I really loved about the revivals in all of the videos was that each began with a person within that community. A woman or a man with a desire to see the people of the community have hope would begin to pray. Soon, others would join and within a short amount of time, the community was changed. Not from the outside in but real heart change. Abuse of all sorts, alcolholism, and even suicides became a non problem. They came together with a purpose and changed their communities. The real power of God transformed their lives.

So, that brings me to my thought--if they can pray and be dedicated to changing their community, why can't I? Is prayer a gift for some people but not for others? I know that there have been times when I have prayed and I felt something I can't explain. It felt like a shift, a moving of tectonic plates in the spirit, if you will. I knew that something was happening. There have been other times when I felt fervent and nothing happened. Bryan reminded us on Sunday of the story of Daniel waiting 21 days and then the angel told him that he had to fight for three weeks to get there. Bryan also reminded us that lack of faith and God's will pretty much have nothing to do with our prayers not being answered. God's will is that no man should perish...

I admire my friends like Kelly who pray and pray and have such incredible experiences with God in their prayer lives. To be honest, most of my prayers are whispered thoughts to God, not deep times of kneeling and crying. There are times when that does happen. My favorite times with God are when I am listening to TFK or the old "Jumping in the House of God" stuff--He just meets me and we jump together. (Now that I am 40, it gets a lot harder to jump so long!)

Thanks for listening.