Tuesday 1-29-08 "Prayer"

Greetings Internet Campus,

2 Chronicles 7:14 Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land.

We continue our look this week at simplifying our spiritual life. Yesterday we looked at knowing out position...today we are focusing on the power....God's power...in our lives.

As a pastor, I meet with a lot of people. Probably many of you that are reading this right now. Some by email...and some face to face. Inevitably, somebody every weekend will come up to me and ask me to pray for them. I love that....truly I do. It's interesting to note, however, that some people tell me "Pastor, I've tried everything else...will you pray for me?"

Tried everything else?

What exactly does that mean? Oh, I know! We've tried to pretend we're God...worried about it...made phone calls...read books...talked to friends... and so on.... And when that didn't help...we turned to prayer. Can I make your spiritual life simpler? Pray first.

Seriously. Pray before doing ANYTHING else! The power that you have from the ability to talk directly to God is supernaturally more than anything else that you can do to solve your problems and challenges. Prayer is such a gift from God! He wants us to talk directly to Him. We aren't worthy...we haven't earned it.... God loves us so much that He makes a point to listen to every request from every open heart that is calling out to Him.

So if we just humble ourselves...let God be God...and pray first when we need His power...our spiritual lives will get more and more effective...and less cluttered.

Write it Down: Answer this question in your journal...Who do you turn to first in times of crisis? A) God B) Your own abilities C) A close friend Why is this?

See you in the morning! I'm praying for you!

Pastor Brian