YOU HAVE NOT BECAUSE YOU ASK NOT…
Happy Friday Everyone!
I’ll be honest. One of my biggest struggles as a young Christian revolved around the issue of prayer. Specifically, I had a hard time believing that it really had much of an impact on my life or my circumstances. It seemed like the things I prayed about rarely turned out the way I wanted… or if they did, I could easily explain it away and convince myself that it wasn’t God who did it. After all, if my prayer wasn’t answered with a bolt of lightning or a burning bush, it could hardly be supernatural, right?
I would still pray about things… small things… big things. But it often felt more like buying a lottery ticket than asking my dad for help. The odds of a divine intervention felt very slim.
With time came maturity, and with maturity came perspective. I started to learn some things about how prayer worked. One of the early lessons I learned had to do with writing my prayers down. Some Christian brothers and sisters I looked up to would often talk about journaling their prayers. They said that we routinely ask God for things and soon forget what we asked Him. Then, when He answers we don’t even notice. Even though writing in a prayer journal sounded a lot like doing homework, I decided to give it a try.
THEY WERE RIGHT!
When I was able to keep track of my requests, I could see that God was faithfully working and answering me. It was exciting.
It’s STILL exciting.
The idea that God is moved by our prayers is astounding. He has given us an incredible weapon to impact our world and our circumstances. He definitely doesn’t rubber stamp every request we make (and thank God He doesn’t!), but if we are paying attention we see that He is regularly answering our prayers and working on our behalf. He is doing things bigger than we can imagine.
This weekend marks week 4 in our Follow Along series. We will be taking a look at a story from Elijah’s life. It is a dramatic and iconic picture of the power of prayer. For those of you who want a sneak peek, we’ll be in 1 Kings 18:41- 46 (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Kings+18:41-46&version=ESV). I’m praying that your faith will be stirred and your heart inspired to dig deeper in your prayer life.
Looking forward to seeing you this weekend!
Pastor Dustin
I’ll be honest. One of my biggest struggles as a young Christian revolved around the issue of prayer. Specifically, I had a hard time believing that it really had much of an impact on my life or my circumstances. It seemed like the things I prayed about rarely turned out the way I wanted… or if they did, I could easily explain it away and convince myself that it wasn’t God who did it. After all, if my prayer wasn’t answered with a bolt of lightning or a burning bush, it could hardly be supernatural, right?
I would still pray about things… small things… big things. But it often felt more like buying a lottery ticket than asking my dad for help. The odds of a divine intervention felt very slim.
With time came maturity, and with maturity came perspective. I started to learn some things about how prayer worked. One of the early lessons I learned had to do with writing my prayers down. Some Christian brothers and sisters I looked up to would often talk about journaling their prayers. They said that we routinely ask God for things and soon forget what we asked Him. Then, when He answers we don’t even notice. Even though writing in a prayer journal sounded a lot like doing homework, I decided to give it a try.
THEY WERE RIGHT!
When I was able to keep track of my requests, I could see that God was faithfully working and answering me. It was exciting.
It’s STILL exciting.
The idea that God is moved by our prayers is astounding. He has given us an incredible weapon to impact our world and our circumstances. He definitely doesn’t rubber stamp every request we make (and thank God He doesn’t!), but if we are paying attention we see that He is regularly answering our prayers and working on our behalf. He is doing things bigger than we can imagine.
This weekend marks week 4 in our Follow Along series. We will be taking a look at a story from Elijah’s life. It is a dramatic and iconic picture of the power of prayer. For those of you who want a sneak peek, we’ll be in 1 Kings 18:41- 46 (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Kings+18:41-46&version=ESV). I’m praying that your faith will be stirred and your heart inspired to dig deeper in your prayer life.
Looking forward to seeing you this weekend!
Pastor Dustin
Posted in Cornerstone Blog
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