October 17th

October 17th

I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. Ask God to help them; intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them. Pray this way for kings and all who are in authority so that we can live peaceful and quiet lives marked by godliness and dignity. This is good and pleases God our Savior, who wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth. For, There is one God and one Mediator who can reconcile God and humanity—the man Christ Jesus. He gave his life to purchase freedom for everyone. This is the message God gave to the world at just the right time.
In every place of worship, I want men to pray with holy hands lifted up to God, free from anger and controversy. (‭1 Timothy‬ ‭2‬:‭1-6, 8‬ NLT)

I find it interesting that Paul's first instruction that he gives his disciple Timothy in this letter is: Pray. Not that I am surprised by this. But this, I believe, shows us how important prayer needs to be in our everyday lives. And Paul goes on to list all people and then specifies to pray for those in authority. This past 40 plus days has been a great challenge for me. Reading through the book "draw the circle" has encouraged me, but most of all, it has helped me to start a prayer-routine. I have never been good at spending time in prayer. Reading and studying the word was always easier for me to do. But in the last year I have begun to really see the importance of praying. In January, in both Heidi's and Kim's situations, the air was thick with the prayers of the people of God. I really believe that Heidi would not have gotten a heart, and Kim would not have come out of her coma or revived from that sickness, without the prayers of God's people at work. And we praise God for His miracles! But I believe that the lesson that God is trying to teach us, or at least me, goes much further than praying in times of trouble. The lesson is that we need to lean on our Savior for every aspect of our lives. God is not only there in times of trouble. Even in the good times, he is right there with us. I think that God wants us to share our lives with Him, not just come to Him for rescue! And I believe that prayer is key to that relationship. Yes, we need to read the Word of God to hear what He is saying to us, but we also need to communicate with Him in prayer. One thing that I have started doing this past 40 days is praying out loud. It has really helped me to keep my focus when I am talking to my best friend! I pray that every person who is reading this will understand the power that prayer has in our lives. The power that asking God for our needs and our dreams and desires, when in line with His will, really has. We started out this year with two miracles, let's continue to pray Big!

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