The last two months I have really been rocked by the power and importance of prayer. It started when we were going door-to-door in Uganda. God just started really melting my heart for the people that we’d meet, and when they brought their struggles to us for prayer, I would honestly plead with God to heal, protect, and bless their lives abundantly. The end of the week often left me emotionally and spiritually drained, as I was not able to see the fruits of most of these encounters. I just felt like I was praying and praying…annoying God with my laundry list of prayer requests.
As I was workin
g through all these emotions, Erin read me this challenge from a book she was reading: Instead of asking God to keep us safe, ask Him to do WHATEVER IT TAKES to bring us closer to Him. Naturally, we quickly decided that was very scary and should not be spoken out loud. Ever.
Well, that’s one side of my personality. Later that week, my impulsive side took over, and I dared God to do WHATEVER IT TAKES to bring me closer to Him.
Shortly after this I got Malaria. Coincidence? Probably, but during that week of lying in bed, often in excruciating pain, I will tell you that The Lord and I had many conversations that drew me closer to Him. I remember specifically one night, when my stomach was on the verge of “throwing and running” as pastor would call it. I was a bit panicky because at night we were not allowed to use the bathroom (the latrine that sat just across the courtyard) for safety reasons. Instead, Pastor had provided us with the infamous “red bucket” they kept inside the house for emergency situations. There was no way I was getting sick in that bucket. I prayed “Jesus you are bigger than my body. Help me keep it together until the morning!” Just like that the waves of nausea subsided and I was able to make it through the night. TMI? I apologize, but here’s the point: I’m learning that prayer is a conversation that our Father wants to have with us, in real time. All He wants is for us to share our heart and trust in Him to carry us through. And He does. Every time.
So, my malaria experience only amped up my accelerating prayer-life, and for 
better or worse I keep praying “the prayer”. As I do this, God continually pushes me to lean on Him for dependence. Like this 10k we did a few weeks ago. At first I just asked God to get me through the race. Then I took it a step further (Why…I have no idea.) and asked Him to use this race to bring me closer to Him. Well, I get to the starting line and realize my iPod is cashed – almost zero battery. I barely made it to the halfway point before my device shut off. The second half I filled the silence in my head by inaudibly singing worship songs to The Lord (does anyone else ever do that?) and praying. It was a sweet time, even though my pace slowed up a bit.
Now the joke on our team is that whenever something bad happens, it means that someone prayed “the prayer”. It’s funny because it can feel like God brings tragedy upon us when we ask to be closer to Him, but really it’s often only during times of tragedy that we FINALLY turn to God for help. The Bible says when we draw near to God he will draw near to us. Maybe, if I could pursue God BEFORE stuff hits the fan He wouldn’t have to turn the fan on to get my attention.
Okay so now I’m in Thailand, and starting to really enjoy chatting with The Lord. But all of a sudden I cannot focus worth a darn, and every time I close my eyes to pray my mind goes a million other places – everywhere but up. I was really frustrated, and shared this with my team. Then, at church this morning, I read this quote by Samuel Chadwick in the bulletin:
“The one concern of the devil is to keep Christians from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work and prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil, mocks at our wisdom, but trembles when we pray”.
So now I’m ticked off that it’s potentially not just my ADD kicking in, but possibly the devil interfering with my bonding time. Consequently, this has given me new determination to stay on track. Nobody likes to be messed with.
The moral of the stories are that our prayers are powerful, and God wants to talk with us. He’s just waiting for us strike up a convo. My prayer for YOU is that you learn from my mistakes, and seek this out before life gets messy. That way, when things do go awry, you are already in a good place to handle whatever life throws your way.
