Prayer has been a huge part of my life since 2003. I have sought God, trusted God, cried my heart out to Him and believed Him for things way beyond my understanding. I have seen and been blessed by answers to prayer that were absolute miracles and could never have been completed or accomplished by man. God has supplied and provided so abundantly at times and in the most divine way that my husband and I just had to laugh out loud with joy.
At a financial turning point in our lives, God started sending us checks for gas well rent on property we hadn't owned in 12 years. The IRS suddenly owed us money from past tax returns. Someone decided to just increase the rent they were paying us on land they farmed because they suddenly thought they weren't paying us enough.
We witnessed God's hand fill our gas tanks, cause household supplies to last longer, utility bills to decrease and a multitude of other provisions.
God changed the hearts of family members, took away addictions and strongholds, opened doors for jobs, sold houses in record time in a bottomed-out market. You get the picture. Those are just a few of the hundreds of answers we have received.
Before you get the idea that I think God is just some "name it and claim it" genie in a bottle - you are wrong. I have also cried and cried hard to God about some matters that I am still crying out to him about yet today. I have witnessed healings and untimely deaths. I know full well that God is sovereign and that His ways and thoughts are higher and greater than mine.
But something that occurred to me yet again is how often do we really take "everything to God in prayer"? I do mean everything. Finances, marriages, children, utility bills, car repairs, grocery expenses, health, strongholds - just to name a few. How often do I personally figure I can just handle this one on my own? Or take it to God in prayer, only to try and fix things myself when God isn't doing it right away or the way I thought would be best? I then have a V-8 moment when I smack myself in the head and remember that every single time God has answered my various seem-impossible requests, it has always been in a way far greater than anything I could have ever thought to even consider.
I have learned to pray about everything. I have learned and am still learning that prayer truly does change things. And so I leave you with these verses:
Luke 18:1 Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.
1 Thessalonians 5:17: Pray continually.
Matthew 7:8 Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you.
Be persistent and trust that God hears and knows - always.
3 comments:
Mostly I have an ongoing conversation with God. Prayer if you will--but often not in the formal sense. I can be very talkative and sometimes(like always)need to be reminded there are two in a conversation and the other person gets a chance to say something.
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 is on the back of our headstone...words to live by.
"Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours." Mark 11:24 NIV
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