Forgetting and the Absolute Power of Absolute Prayer

Isn't summer just that time when you either have NO time to check up on the bloggy realm and we all become drifters in and out of vacations, swimming, biking, hiking... living summer....... OR...... we become the immovable object in front of the computer screen wondering why others aren't checking into the bloggy sphere and thinking 'Shouldn't summer equate more time to catch up?'

I know, I have been both these types.

This summer has been a curious episode.  Kids growing older, my roll in their lives changing, and, as of a few weeks ago, HOUSE HUNTING.  It is hard to believe I have hit my 40s and never had serious opportunity to purchase a house.  Oh, we have considered, but our rentals have usually been so nice.  Our last one we were in for TWELVE years, brought home 2 newborn babies and raised all 4 kids there until God called us into missions.  It was an amazing HOME at a steal of a deal... locked in before the town became a tourist trap.  Why buy?

But this summer that all changed.  We felt this Tug.... this Pull saying it was time.  We bathed the process in prayer.  Our finances haven't had the best history what with a business that went under in the recession and 4 years of NO credit on account of field work.  But God saw fit to stamp approval and the process has begun.

So many details.

What I can share is, in this roller coaster ride I call summer 2015, God is working in big (and small) ways both in my heart and through people around me.  Just when I think I can maintain control... just when I think I have learned all there is to learn about my faith... just when I think I know what is going on (or have had my fill wondering what is going on).... God moves.

And now we are moving too!!!

It is a big story still unfolding and I look forward to articulating the whole tale when it finishes playing out.  One highlight I want to pause to share today is this:

The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.

James 5:16b-18

A lesson I apparently needed to RE-learn, louder than any other in this crazy on the blog/off the blog summer navigating the waters and cut-throat field of house hunting and buying, is to pray big prayers, expect big answers.

I spent so much time seeking God's will, I forgot how to pray God's will.  

And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.

1 John 5:14

I forgot to trust, with my whole heart, that if I pray His will ASKING for what I know will glorify Him....

Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

John 14:13

.... then I don't have to worry about bad things being given.  I don't have to wonder if the results of my prayer are really God's best for me.

If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

Matthew 7:11

It is part of the atrophy which halted my growth and ability to truly know peace and live in it.  PRAYER, the most powerful part of our faith and our hot-line to heaven.  Somewhere in the last two years I forgot how to pray!  I got stuck wandering.

I think, as the dust settles from this summer, I will have to ask the hardest question and face the truth of it's answer:  what started this decline? What caused me to forget?  If I want to avoid a relapse; finding, facing and dealing with the answer will be key.

I would challenge you, along side myself, to take this summer 2015, whether busy to the bust or lulling you to sleep, and do a soul search.  Seek out the corners and recesses of your heart and mind for anywhere your faith is in danger of (or actually currently in) atrophy.  The body of Christ is meant to be moving, breathing, very active.  

This self-search for me hasn't been easy,  but it has been wonderful.  I see it as part of my One Word experience this year as well.... the Balance of Faith and how to NOT let worldly faith (i.e. "religiousness") over-ride the true and balanced faith found in the Bible and simply trusting Jesus Christ.

I pray you know (or find) a balance of faith and prayer and trust in God's plan for all the big/small, quiet/busy moments of your life!  REMEMBER true faith and the absolute power of absolute prayer!

Blessings,

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