The Gift of Prayer

I just woke up from a dream in which I was praying for a group of ministry leaders.  At the end of my prayer one of them came up to me and told me that she does not have the gift of prayer.  In my dream I told her that prayer is a gift that we all have and in the unwrapping of it, we see it's beauty.  Profound dream. I have been thinking often about prayer in the past few days. I have been wondering how many of us actually engage in it, how many of us actually unwrap the gift of prayer and see God's beauty in it.  I have had people ask me to teach them to pray. I have had people just kind of look at me like I am totally nuts when I pray.   I love to pray. I love to pray because when I pray I feel like God reveals his heart to me. It isn't that I am going to change God with it, but I feel like He changes me by giving me a glimpse of what he is doing and what He is inviting me witness.

For some reason, the prayer that is sticking out in my mind right now is Hannah's prayer when she wept at the Temple for God to heal her baroness. She was a blubbering mess.  The Priest, Eli, thought she was drunk at only 9 in the morning. She wasn't drunk, she was heart broken, and she longed for a son.  Her prayer wasn't eloquent. She didn't stand on those steps and make proclamations about how God was going to give her a son.  She wept, sobbed them out, and with every painful tear that rolled down her face, and with every desperate "please", God heard her.  He gave her a message through Eli that she would have a son.  I know this kind of prayer. I have wept at the altar myself, and with the cries of my heart, God gave me an answer.  He brought comfort.  Go ahead and weep there until he brings peace, tell God you are not leaving until your heart is right.  You aren't leaving that place of weeping prayer until your mind is at peace.  He may not promise you what you are longing for, but He does promise a peace that surpasses all understanding.

Hannah's prayer was very personal but praying for some one else or for the church is also important.  God is inviting you into their journey through prayer. For a moment you get to pick up the mat they sit on and bring them to Jesus, or you get to join them in rejoicing for the miracle God will or has accomplished.  It is an invitation into their story.

James 5:16

The Message (MSG)

 ^16-18Make this your common practice: Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed. The prayer of a person living right with God is something powerful to be reckoned with. Elijah, for instance, human just like us, prayed hard that it wouldn't rain, and it didn't—not a drop for three and a half years. Then he prayed that it would rain, and it did. The showers came and everything started growing again.

Prayer is a very vulnerable thing because we may have little faith that it actually works.  You may be hesitant to pray for someone because you are afraid God is going to lose face.  If you pray this prayer and it doesn't happen then what?  Will this person go into a crisis of belief and run away from God?  Will I?  James 5:16 says we are to pray for others in their needs.  I say go for it!  God can handle his reputation.  I give one piece of advice as you pray:  Listen to God.  God will lead you to pray what He wants you to pray for the one who is hurting.  He knows what they need, He knows what their pain is like, He knows what is broken, He will tell you how to pray. 

Each time I go to pray for someone I feel a little bit vulnerable. I have this thought that if I pray what I believe God is asking me to pray this person will think I am out of my mind.  Last fall I prayed for a new friend. I went at it will all I had, I finally prayed that God would restore her son to her for his senior year of high school.  When I looked up from prayer I realised that she didn't think it possible.  Guess who moved home last week.  She has her son sleeping in his bed in her home for his senior year.  Another time recently I was praying for a sick friend. I knew that God had asked me to join Him in interceding for this friend but it was some thing I felt was out of my league. I yielded and went for it.  I felt like God was laying the word "hypothalamus" on my mind. While I was praying for my friend I was trying to ignore God's voice telling me to pray for her hypothalamus. I finally let go of my fear and prayed the blessings of God on my friend's brain. I didn't know what the hypothalamus did or where it was in her body. I was afraid I would look like an idiot.  When I went to my car, I looked it up on-line and it is a part of the brain that controls many of the systems with which my friend has trouble.  God does that in prayer. He shares His heart so we know what to pray.

I have seen many answers to prayer and I have seen God move in ways He has laid on my heart in prayer.  Please know that I am not just that girl who prays.  You can pray too. You can pray and when you pray listen to God's heart. Each Sunday when Jeff and I get up to pray we ask God to lead us. I don't want to go up there and make clever speeches disguised as prayer. I want to go up there and stand before God's beloved and pray God's heart for her.  I submit to God. I ask Him to do what only He can do. I ask Him to lead us in prayer according to His heart.  He shows up. He moves.  He leads.  When you pray ask God to lead you. Ask Him to show you His heart.

You are a part of a body so don't do all your praying alone.  Pray with your family.  Pray with people who have more practice than you. I have learned so much about prayer through praying in community.  Learn something from your brothers and sisters who pray, and pray, pray, pray. I often wonder what the church and the city would look like if all of God's people were really praying.  The walls of our churches would not be able to contain the fruit of those prayers.

And when you pray, feel free to pray for me too.