Prayer

Week Three

Prayer

In what aspect of prayer are you least able to feel confident?

                Foster says, “Listening to the Lord is the first thing, the second thing, and the third thing necessary for successful intercession.”  This is my struggle.  So essentially, my foundation of prayer is all wrong.  I have been praying since before I can remember.  I rarely feel uncomfortable or self-conscious of prayers regardless of the situation.  However, I have been frustrated over and over again feeling like my prayers are useless.  Reading this chapter was eye opening.  How often do I listen first?  Rarely….do I ask God who and what I should prayer for?  Again the answer to this is rarely.  I have heard again and again the importance of praying in accordance with God’s will, but I guess I have never spent the time to understand how one does this.  By God’s grace and mercy I have seen first-hand the power of prayer.  Not just my own prayers, but the prayers of others.  I have been so blessed to grow up in the Vineyard.  I have watched intercessors who have literally for years carried the burdens of our church on their backs spending endless hours on their knees with little to no recognition, and I know they wouldn’t have it any other way.  I have pondered how they do this….how do they seem to know what to pray?  How do they have such patience and obedience?  I am realizing after reading this chapter that much of what they do is listen. 

                So, instead of writing out my list of people and things to pray for, my challenge is to actually ask God what he would have me pray for…what a concept.   I love that Foster tells us to start small.  My prayer request list is full of people with chronic debilitating diseases.  It is full of impossible situations.  I do not by any means think I am supposed to toss these things aside; however, I see the value in starting with small things.  So really once I again God is reminding me to slow down, to make space, to allow Him to move and do the work.  He tends to have to show me things over and over again until I get the concept.  The idea of making more space for Him seems to be yet another part of the puzzle for me.  How profound yet simple this is.  Of course I should be spending time asking God what I should be praying for and who I should be praying for, yet here I am a little perplexed at what this looks like.  I guess it is to square 1 I will go.  Back to the basics with the hope that I can build a foundation that is sturdier, more grounded, and actually constructed on Him.