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Why I’ve Tried Stop to Saying “I’ll Pray for You”

5th Grade, Devotional, Elementary, Parents, prayer, Preschool, Volunteers No Responses »

May 162013

I know many people have “one word” they are focusing on for the year. While I have not been entirely focused on this concept, I have felt God calling me to a specific area of focus this year. For me, that word is obedience.

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Obedience: to follow. No matter what.

Yes, I made up that definition. But truly, I feel like God has been reminding me in ways, big and small, my only job is to follow him. To be obedient.

We know we’re supposed to obey God, right? I mean, it sounds simple. And it’s all over the Bible, the command to obey.

Here are some examples in God’s word (emphasis is mine):

“Do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” James 1:22

“Jesus replied, ‘Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My father will love them and we will come to them and make our home with them.” John 14:23

“And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.” 1 John 1:6

So what does this look like in real life? Just because it’s stated over and over again doesn’t mean it’s easy to actually live out.

For me, God has been speaking in many ways. I could give you lots of ways God has spoken to me about obedience. Today, though, we’ll just go with one. One of the ways it’s been clear I need to be more obedient is in prayer. Let me give you an example:

Have you ever had someone tell you something and asked you to pray for it and then you walk away and realize 3 days later you haven’t spent any time actually praying for that request? I know I have. And I always have the best of intention. Well, in my intent to be obedient this year, I don’t ever want to forget to pray when someone asks me to. When I tell someone I will pray for something, I want keep my commitment to them and to God. I want to be obedient to God’s call to lift up each other in prayer.

Because of this, I’ve stopped saying “I will pray for you” and I’ve started saying “Can I pray for you right now?”

I may have the best of intentions. I may actually do it later. But in order to be obedient to the call of prayer, I’ve started just praying. Right then. Here’s what I’ve found:

*It allows the two of us praying together to share a moment that neither of us would have if we would have prayed separately.

*It often gives immediate peace to the person being prayed over.

* It means I really DO pray for whatever focus needs my prayers and I don’t get swept away in the rest of the day’s task.

*Later in the day, it actually brings that moment to my mind and makes me more likely to pray for the event in the future, even days beyond the initial prayers.

This works with kids, with friends, with fellow ministry volunteers. What I’ve found is that most people really appreciate being prayed over, right then and there. In fact, no one (that I already knew to be a believer) has ever told me no.

So I encourage you: stop telling people you’ll pray for them and start praying WITH them. I think you’ll find we are a more connected body of Christ and we’ll be more connected TO Christ.

Motherhood and Fear

Devotional, Parents, prayer, Reflection No Responses »

May 072013

Most mothers (including myself) have had to deal with fears when it comes to our children. It is a very common emotion from the very moment you find out you are pregnant and especially when you first hold your baby in your arms. Our fear comes in all shapes and sizes and can hit us in any place or moment. I remember right after my oldest was born, I struggled with some of the worst fears I had ever experienced in my life. I couldn’t stop thinking about what “could” happen to him. I find that now my fears come when I wake in the middle of the night and start to think about something going on in one of my children’s lives. It is a real downward spiral from there if I don’t stop and do something about it quickly.

The only way I have found to combat these fears is to pray and to meditate on scripture that helps me fight this battle against fear. A few verses that I find myself running to are:

“In the night I remember your name, O Lord.” Psalm 119:55

“For I am the LORD, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you.” Isaiah 41:13

“The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?” Hebrews 13:6

Fear is defined as “a distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, pain, etc., whether the threat is real or imagined; the feeling or condition of being afraid.” Most of the things I fear are of the imagined kind but the emotions I feel are no less real than if there was a true danger about to occur.

Then sometimes our fears are realized and we are faced with the reality that we live in a sin stained world. I’ve faced fear when losing a child in a crowded Disney World at closing time, fear at losing a toddler at a park near a lake, finding out my child has type 1 diabetes that will affect her the rest of her life, fears when my teenagers drive around in the car late at night and many others. Life is full of times when we face fear straight on and need to trust Jesus with them.

I recently ran across a few short blogs on Girltalk and thought I would share a few with you. All of them deal with the fears we face as mothers. And all of them spoke to my heart and encouraged me to listen to Jesus’ words “Do not be afraid.” John 14:27

Sparrows and Sovereignty

Doing Battle Through Prayer

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Mar 072013

I love being in vocational ministry. That sounds really uptight. I love that my job each day is to go work for a church and spend my time figuring out how to bless volunteers and teach kids that the best friend they could ever, ever have is Jesus. But one thing I have noticed since I officially became a part of the ministry is that I feel more under attack. You may not believe in spiritual attack. I am not trying to convince you it’s real. I am telling you I have felt more mental attacks in my life since I dedicated it to facilitating relationships between Jesus and the little ones.

What does this look like? I am sure each person has seen spiritual attacks in different ways. For me, it has come in the form of mental lies. These are truths I have believed in for years, that I haven’t struggled with at all, that are now sneaking their way into my brain. I don’t know how they get there (actually yes, yes I do) but I’ve had tough days of struggling in real ways with the truths of God. I know it’s not cool and spiritual to say that. But I sometimes feel we need to hear the uncool to know that we are not alone in our trials (because honestly, aside from lies, evil’s other tactic is alienation and making people feel alone.).

A couple of weeks ago, I went to San Diego for a ministry conference. I came away with some great ideas for ministry and renewal in so many ways. Particularly, though, I had a true moment of renewal I want to share.

On the last evening of the conference, we were being led in worship and those lies I mentioned started back in my head. I was so, so sick of it that I did what I should have done in the first place. I stopped praising and in my head (and maybe out loud whispering) I said, “Jesus, I pray that only truth would live in me and you would clear my mind of anything that isn’t true and that isn’t from you. I believe in your truth and I know when I ask you to dwell in my mind, you will. Please clear out any lies.” I felt pretty instantly better. I was able to praise and I didn’t feel all this conflict in my mind.

The topic this particular night was on praying for the international children’s ministries. Larry Fowler gave a great message on prayer and I am feeling his passion. I am in it. Scribbling notes as fast as my bright pink, felt tip pen will write.

We get to the end and he says that a message on prayer wouldn’t be complete without praying. Great! I love prayer! So he asks all those in ministry outside the states to stand up so we can gather round and pray for them. I see one of my favorite speakers standing next to me. A bunch of international pastors are near me and Beth Guckenberger, a missionary I admire, is near me with her team from Mexico. I am thinking, “this is sweet! I get to end this day by praying for Beth and her team! Awesome! She’s on my prayer list and to think I can pray over her in person. So cool!”

Well, the guy leading prayers looks around, decides there aren’t enough people standing so he says, “I am going to add one more category of people so we can all pray over some more in our midst. If you have been in children’s ministry…”

In my head, he’s about to say something about people who have been in ministry a long time and I am getting pumped to pray for those in our midst who maybe are feeling burnout and my mind is racing. I’m excited. That’s not what he says.

“…for less than nine months. If you have been in ministry nine months or less, please stand so we can pray over you.” I start counting on my hands. Eight and a half. I look at my coworker. She prompts me to stand.

I don’t want to stand. I don’t want to be humbled in front of all these people and admit I need help. I want to go pray for Beth. Or someone who might really need it. Or anyone really. But that’s not what was supposed to happen. I stood and mumbled something about barely making the cutoff. Before I can get all the way out of my seat, I am completely surrounded by people. All sides. My coworker is to my right and lays her hands on me. I have hands all over me and the woman right in front of me introduces herself and asks if she can pray for me. Sure. That’s why we’re here, right? No backing out now.

She starts to pray for me. I can’t tell you all she asked. But what I do remember is she asked God to strengthen me. To provide me with young people to stand next to me and support me. To provide me with older, wiser people to mentor me and lead me. And to give me courage and strength to keep going. And I am crying just writing this. But to live it, I felt the tears falling onto the ugly conference room carpet at my feet. I felt so humbled, so vulnerable, and so filled.

It’s as if, at that moment, God was saying to me, “You asked me to comfort and fill you. You needed prayer. And I am your Father and give you all good things. So instead of just holding you close on my own, I am giving you dozens of people to come pray on your behalf.” I would say it was too much but really it was just enough. We concluded and I was swarmed with hugs and hand clasps as I tried to not look like a human waterfall. God had answered my prayers. He was just waiting for me to ask.

There were so many good things at that conference but few things compare to God answering your prayers in an almost audible way.

If you are struggling with something in your mind that you know is not Truth, would you please pray and command God to take it? I am praying for you right now. Evil only has the power we give it. We know who wins. Let’s let him win in our lives as well. We have lots of tools in this life but few as powerful and action-filled as prayer. We don’t think of prayer as action sometimes. But it is. Such a powerful action to surrender and ask our God, our Father, to act on our behalf.

You all should also know that the Crossing Kids team takes time to pray each week for those in our ministry and for each other. If you have anything in your life, your family, or your ministry you’d like us to pray for, please comment or email us. We are called to bear each others’ burdens. We want to do that for you.

Thanks for being the fellow young and old standing next to me. We need each other to fight this battle, no matter what our battle looks like. I am praying for your battle today. We are more than conquerers in Christ Jesus.

The Prayer and Cry of a New Mom

Devotional, Family, Little Ones, Parents, prayer, Reflection No Responses »

Feb 272013

On June 8, 2012 at 3:30 a.m. my husband and I welcomed our first child, David Henry, into the world. We were overwhelmed with joy. His birth didn’t go as planned, but he was healthy and we were thrilled to meet him. You only have to be a parent for an hour or two to realize that nothing really goes as planned. In fact, I can safely say that almost nothing went as planned for the rest of 2012. And I’ll bet that nothing in 2013 will go as planned either. I make schedules. I make plans. But somehow God gave me a baby who doesn’t fit seamlessly into my iCal. Sweet Henry pays no attention to my plans. I remember rocking (and rocking and rocking) Henry to sleep in the wee hours of the morning during the first few months. I was exhausted and clueless. I was experiencing what every parent told me I would experience, but it still seemed so unexpected. I would cry (literally) out to God, “Please! Let Henry sleep. Let me sleep. Let him stop crying, even for 10 minutes. I will take 10 minutes. Please!” And God answered my prayers with continued cries from my newborn and weeks of sleepless nights. At the time it didn’t seem like an answer at all. It seemed so hard and so long. But I kept praying, not necessarily because of my great faith, but because, in those first few months, it seemed like it was all I could do.

So here I am, eight months into motherhood. Henry sleeps more and cries less, and I will never take that for granted! But last week I had one of those situations where you go to change a diaper and it turns into a bath for the baby and a change of clothes for you. I’ll spare you the details, but I will say that it changed the course of my afternoon and kept me from doing a few things I had hoped to do. I was disappointed and exhausted. I texted a close friend and mentor to let her know why I wouldn’t be coming over and her response was, “I have been there. When you find yourself praying through those situations instead of cursing, you’ll know you have arrived. And for the record, I’m not there yet either.” That text got me thinking about how I respond to all situations in my life, in parenting, in my marriage, in my relationships with others, and in my relationship with God. Am I praying through the hard things like I prayed through those sleepless nights? Am I praying through a disagreement with my husband? Am I praying through my finances? I want my heart to be praying through all things as Paul prays for spiritual strength for the Ephesians:

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be the glory in the church and in Chris Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Ephesians 3:14-21

I am not praying through every situation in my life as I should, but I want to cling to God’s promises and take advantage of the privilege of prayer. I want the glory to go to Christ, regardless of the outcome. I am making this my daily prayer for myself, for my husband, and for my son. Just because I am sleeping or just because I have a happy baby does not diminish my need for constant prayer. I am thankful for a God to invites us to come to him with all things, now I must pray for a heart that does.

A Prayer for Our Children from Psalm 23

Parents, prayer No Responses »

Feb 222013

I have been reading though a wonderful book lately. In their book Praying the Bible for Your Children, authors David and Heather Kopp give incredible vision for the importance or praying for our children. They outline how praying through verses in the Bible helps parents pray more specifically and deliberately, which is such a help to me. I often find myself praying the same thoughts over and over for my daughter – which isn’t a bad thing. However, this book has helped me to lift up her precious soul in specific ways – everything from her fears and failures to her character to her future. The bulk of the book is made up of specific prayers to pray through which is a tremendous help to me. Today I was praying through Prayer #40 (page 78) based on Psalm 23, called My Child’s Shepherd. I hope you will find it as helpful in your prayer life for your children as I did for mine.

My Child’s Shepherd: Praying Psalm 23

Lord,

You are my child’s Shepherd. Because her care is your personal concern, she will never really be without anything she needs (v.1).

Please lead her, today and every day, into places and experiences where her soul will be revived and her spiritual passion will be continually restored in You (vv. 2-3).

When daily life weighs her down or the fear of death somehow casts a shadow over her spirit, make Your loving presence known to her. By Your own hand carry her along, comfort her, and nudge her toward maturity (v. 4).

In her times of crisis, surrounded perhaps by those who want and expect her to fail, come through for her God. Display Your lavish affection for Her. Prove to all that she is your chosen one, the apple of your eye, and that You have nothing but overflowing blessings in store for her (v. 5).

Yes, Lord, may Your unfailing goodness and tender mercies surround her all the days of her life, and may she find her true home in Your presence forever (v. 6).

Amen.

Note: This book is out of print, but used copies are available for purchase through Amazon.

My personal prayer

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Feb 192013

“Therefore as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourself with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.” Colossians 3:12 This verse has been my daily prayer for the past six weeks. Let me explain why.

Our small group started a short study in January by reading a book called My One Word by Mike Ashcraft. The book explains the process of picking “one word” to focus on for the year instead of picking new year resolutions that rarely last. The idea is to ask God to help you select a character quality that you would like to see developed more in your life and then commit to focusing on what God wants to teach you through this “one word”.

After a few weeks of making my list and narrowing it down, I selected the word “patience”. It’s a long story on what led me to this word but let me tell you it did involve a few weeks of seeing impatience in my life and relationships. I did a word search in the bible to see where this word was used and then selected Colossians 3:12 as my verse to go along with my word. And then I started praying “God clothe me with patience today as I live, work and serve. Give me patience as a mother and a wife. This is what you want for your chosen people, so please give me patience in all that I do today.”

Not even a week later, God gave me a picture that I won’t quickly forget of what it looks like to NOT be patient. I was meeting with two women about ministry stuff at Kaldi’s. I decided to get hot tea instead of my normal iced tea because it was unusually cold outside. I took off the lid and let it cool a little, then promptly put the lid back on and took a big swig. And… I burned my mouth and tongue very badly. It was so burned that I couldn’t taste food for almost a week. It was awful.

About a day later as I was praying my verse, it hit me that I wouldn’t have burnt my tongue so badly had I been “patient” and waited for the tea to cool down. But an even stronger thought came through after that. When I am impatient with people or with situations, I burn others with my tongue. It leaves a bad taste for others and it lasts much longer than the moment. Just like my taste buds were affected by my impatience, so my relationships are affected by it. This image made a memorable impact on me.

So my personal prayer for 2013 is for God to clothe me with his patience throughout my day with all people and with all situations. It’s for sure not an easy prayer to lift up but one I’m confident that God will answer as my day is filled with the unexpected and filled with people that don’t always do things the way I would.

Ironically, the next two verses in Colossians 3 are about “bearing with one another” and “putting on love” which are related to “patience” and especially to how I should deal with people. I might already have my “one word” for the next two years.

My Favorite Morning Prayer

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Feb 092013

As a mom with three small kids, I often wish that the words that come out of my mouth could promptly be put back into the ugly place they came from. The only way I’ve found to fight my tendency to be impatient with my family is to begin my day in God’s Word and by asking him for help.

The prayer below is something I’ve returned to for years now. It’s from The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions or from this website that has some of those Puritan prayers listed. My favorite line has to be, “May I speak each word as if my last word, and walk each step as my final one. If my life should end today, let this be my best day.”

I invite you to make this your prayer, too, as you begin your parenting day…

Morning Dedication

Almighty God, as I cross the threshold of this day I commit myself, soul, body, affairs, friends, to Thy care. Watch over, keep, guide, direct, sanctify, bless me. Incline my heart to thy ways. Mould me wholly into the image of Jesus, as a potter forms clay. May my lips be a well-tuned harp to sound Thy praise. Let those around see me living by Thy Spirit, trampling the world underfoot, unconformed to lying vanities, transformed by a renewed mind, clad in the entire armour of God, shining as a never-dimmed light, showing holiness in all my doings. Let no evil this day soil my thoughts, words, hands. May I travel miry paths with a life pure from spot or stain. In needful transactions let my affection be in heaven, and my love soar upwards in flames of fire, my gaze fixed on unseen things, my eyes open to the emptiness, fragility, mockery of earth and its vanities. May I view all things in the mirror of eternity, waiting for the coming of my Lord, listening for the last trumpet call, hastening unto the new heaven and earth. Order this day all my communications according to Thy wisdom, and to the gain of mutual good. Forbid that I should not be profited or made profitable. May I speak each word as if my last word, and walk each step as my final one. If my life should end today, let this be my best day.

The Power of a Praying Parent: My Own Experience

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Feb 072013

As you may have guessed from our previous two blog posts, our February blog focus is on prayer. Throughout this month we hope to provide you with an over arching vision for what prayer is and why it’s important along with practical ideas to encourage you and your family. As I’ve contemplated prayer, my mind has ventured back to some of my early childhood memories, most specifically with my mom.

Growing up I remember hearing the words “shy,” “sensitive, and “old soul” used quite often to describe me. I hated change. I really liked being with my family. New social settings were often times scary and full of anxiety and homesickness was a common occurrence when I found myself in a new environment. While some of this eased as I grew older, it never completely left. As afraid as I often was of new settings, I was equally afraid of drawing attention to myself. I didn’t want to cry in front of other children or cause them to think I was weird. This only led to greater anxiety that I would not be able to keep my emotions in check. Left to my own devices, I’m sure I would have just chosen to avoid those scenarios all together if it weren’t for parents who valued my longterm growth over my immediate comfort. When I walk down our Crossing Kids hallways and see children reluctant to enter/clinging a bit to mom or dad, there is more than a little genuine empathy in my heart. There is also a deep thankfulness for how my own parents responded 20+ years ago.

When I found myself in these situations throughout life, one thing remained constant–my mom’s response. Full of tender compassion, she gently didn’t just tell me what to do when I was afraid she modeled it by praying for and with me. I have distinct memories of her praying for me in the car, in front of a classroom door, before a neighbor’s birthday party, and during nights I struggled to fall asleep. As I grew older, I have even more vivid memories of tearful phone calls from camp and yes, even my first few nights away at college and on a summer long mission trip thousands of miles away. She would listen and talk through what was hard and overwhelming, but her response encouraged something far more powerful than quitting or wallowing.

From my experience, one of the most powerful gifts we can give children in the midst of any type of struggle or suffering is not an immediate “quick fix” or attempt to create an easier circumstance. It’s not a pat answer or a way to boost “self esteem.” The best thing we can do when our children experience weakness is to show them what our own immediate response should be as adults–to pray. Psalm 56:3 says, “When I am afraid, I will trust in you.” We can help even young children grasp this important truth by handling fear or any concern this way.

We can ask God for faith to trust Him. We can ask God for His peace that passes all understanding. We can remind ourselves of His power, His might, His past faithfulness. We can remind ourselves of His promise to never leave or forsake, His promise to be with us even to the very end of the age. Our words don’t have to be perfect, my mom’s weren’t. Romans 8:26 tells us that even when we don’t know how to pray, the Spirit intercedes for us.

What happens when we our first response is to pray with our children? Over time, it becomes their first response too. As Noel Piper writes in her book Treasuring God in Our Traditions,

“Perhaps the greatest value of good traditions is that through them we learn about and recognize and experience the faithfulness of our God who promises, ‘I will not leave you or forsake you’ (Joshua 1:5)…We don’t know exactly what our children’s strongest, lasting memories will be. But we do want to make sure that our daily, weekly, regularly random activities occur in a God-filled context–that we recognize him in all of our life and show him everywhere to our children.”

Creative Family Prayer Idea

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Feb 052013

I was talking with my friend, Tammy Bukowski, recently and she was sharing about a prayer idea she and her husband, Brock, were doing with their kids. I asked her if I could share it with you. This is in her own words:

This year our family started a new tradition. We received many Christmas cards this year celebrating Jesus and family. Generally I look at each card, marvel at how the children in each family have grown and then add it to the card pile that will be moved from space to space until it reaches a drawer for the year.

This year I wanted to try something different. As each new card came in, I added it to an O ring. After Christmas, instead of retiring the pile to a drawer, we began to get the stack out a dinner and talking about a family. That family became our prayer family for the day.

Many times the kids do not know the family that we are praying for. When that happens, the person with the connection to the family shares what they know about the family. This has brought about many opportunities to talk about different family dynamics. As a family we have prayed for non-Christians to know Jesus, the blessing of adoption, new friendships, old friendships, that families will grow in their love of Christ, and new birth. A politician, Veritas leaders, old preschool buddies, and out of town family promise to be the focus of our discussions next week.

I love to see Christ working through my children’s hearts as they step outside of themselves and excitedly ask who the prayer family of the day is. Bowing our heads together as a family to lift up others, pray for their needs, celebrate their successes brings us closer to Christ. It is so easy to become wrapped up in ourselves and what we have going on. This is one way our family uses to step outside of that.

A Praying Life…

Book Review, Devotional, Elementary, Family, Parents, prayer, Volunteers No Responses »

Jan 312013

Next month, elementary students will begin a new unit on prayer for five weeks. As I spent time preparing and writing for this, I was reminded of just how much I love and appreciate Paul Miller’s words in A Praying Life. Below are just a few examples that I found especially encouraging and challenging. Perhaps you will as well.

“When Jesus describes the intimacy he wants with us, he talks about joining us for dinner. “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me” (Revelation 3:20). A praying life feels like our family mealtimes because prayer is all about relationship.”

“If we love people and have the power to help, then we are going to be busy. Learning to pray doesn’t offer us a less busy life; it offers us a less busy heart. In the midst of outer busyness we can develop an inner quiet. Because we are less hectic on the inside, we have a greater capacity to love…and thus to be busy, which in turn drives us even more into a life of prayer.”

“A needy heart is a praying heart. Dependency is the heartbeat of prayer.”

“Jesus wants us to be without pretense when we come to him in prayer, instead we often try to be something we aren’t…The difficulty of coming just as we are is that we are messy. And prayer makes it worse. When we slow down to pray, we are immediately confronted with how unspiritual we are, with how difficult it is to concentrate on God. We don’t know how bad we are until we try to be good. Nothing exposes our selfishness and spiritual powerlessness like prayer. In contrast, little children never get frozen by their selfishness…this isn’t just a random observation about how parents respond to little children. This is the gospel, the welcoming heart of God. God also cheers when we come to him with our wobbling, unsteady prayers. Jesus does not say, “Come to me, all you who have learned to concentrate in prayer, whose minds no longer wander, and I will give you rest.” No, Jesus opens his arms to his needy children and says, “Come to me all who are weary and heavy-laden and I will give you rest (Matt. 11:28). The criteria for coming to Jesus is weariness. Come overwhelmed with life. Come with your wandering mind. Come messy.”

“What does an unused prayer link look like? Anxiety. Instead of connecting with God, our spirits fly around like severed power lines, destroying everything they touh. Anxiety wants to be God but lacks God’s wisdom, power, or knowledge. A godlike stance without godlike character and ability is pure tension. Because anxiety is self on its own, it tries to get control…Instead of hunting for the perfect spiritual state to lift you above the chaos, pray in the chaos. As your heart or your circumstances generate probles, keep generating prayer. You will find that the chaos lessens…When you stop trying to control your life and instead allow your anxieties and problems to bring you to God in prayer, you shift from worry to watching. You watch God weave his patterns in the story of your life. Instead of trying to be out front, designing your life, you realize you are inside God’s drama. As you wait, you begin to see him work, and your life begins to sparkle with wonder. You are learning to trust again.”

“What do I lose when I have a praying life? Control. Independence. What do I gain? Friendship with God. A quiet heart. The living work of God in the hearts of those I love. The ability to roll back the tide of evil. Essentially, I lose my kingdom and get his. I move from being an independent player to a dependent lover. I move from being an orphan to a child of God.”

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