My thing is prayer. Ever since I was a little girl I have felt a pull toward prayer. Our church once had someone praying 24 hours a day for an upcoming revival. Much to their credit they let the young people be a part. I must have been around 12 to 14years old. They let me sign up for 2 15 minute spots. I was so proud to be part of something big like that. I was faithful and did my best.
Jump forward to now. I would call myself a prayer warrior, an intercessor. But my confession is that I didn't really have an exact prayer time each day. OH NO! I'm sort of a laid back kind of person. Not into time or structure. Time challenged might be the word I'm looking for. So, no morning devotion at the same time each day or night. Now don't get me wrong. I pray. I pray in the shower, as I'm falling to sleep, in the middle of the night, on my school bus (don't tell big brother), in my car, while people are talking to me, at the store (no I'm not talking to myself), while I'm waiting, and at church on Friday mornings with my prayer partner Janie. Oh yes, on Sundays during the service too. But it is random, as needed. No set time. I used to feel guilty after years of trying and failing at having a daily set time. But a few years ago I let go of the guilt and just kept praying without beating myself up for not doing it the perfect way. But recently something has happened and
it has been amazing.
A man came to our church and preached. Bob Rogers. He challenged us to have
structure and set aside a specific time to pray with a pattern. The Lord's Prayer. This wasn't a new concept to me. Larry Lea preached this a few years ago. But I could not "tary one hour" back than. Though I gave it my best shot.
But for some reason, maybe a God reason, this time this minister's preahing on this concept captivated me. He took me in. I even thought how I wished our church would pray 24/7 like when I was a kid. Before I knew what happened I was down front with Paul next to me, my mom and Mandi some where in the crowd all down at the altar pledging to pray at a specific time with a specific pattern for the month of March. And I don't know how exactly it happened but they wanted to cover all the hours of the day and asked for us to commit to a time as he went through the hours of the day. And there I was with my hand up for the 3-4 A.M. time slot. Wait a minute! Who pushed my arm up? Oh, that was me, I guess. Well, I'm a little OCD and if I make a commitment I do my best to follow through. So the next day my adventure began. And for 23 days now I have been getting up and meeting with the Lord. I really thought Wow this is going to be great. God is going to change people. WooHoo. I had no idea the person He was going to change would be me. You see Bob Rogers said to expect a breakthrough on the 3rd day and the 7th and the 10th and I spaced out about that time but Paul reassured me there were more breakthrough days mentioned. Guess what happened at the first breakthrough? God healed my wounded heart. I had a relationship in my life that was broken and it is hard to describe but when I was around that person I was in pain and angry and it was a person I love. On the third day God touched me. Yep just like that wonderful old hymn "He
Touched Me, Something happened and now I know, He touched me and made me whole". I am again enjoying a sweet fellowship with this person. No anger, no hurt. I don't know if you believe in miracles but I sure do. It is a miracle. The other person hasn't changed at all. But my reactions and feelings have. When they are unreasonable or annoying it doesn't bother me. We even laugh and have fun together again. Hooray! God is awesome. So I am very excited about this adventure I'm on. This act of obedience is taking me into new uncharted waters. I will share more with you later. Hope I whet your appetite for more.