Prayer's Power

Why have we been asked to pray? What is the point, and is there really any power with prayer?
Philippians 4:6-9, " Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all He has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. ...Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Keep putting into practice all you learned and received..."

I have been sitting here this morning, thinking about my personal prayer life and what I have seen as I have observed others. I had a very large request here recently. I went in front of the church, I called on the elders to pray for my healing with my MS. I was seeing one thing, while God was working on another. My physical healing is coming. I am slowly regaining the use of my hands, I see it while things are coming together as I type. Its not perfect yet, but getting better. During this time another kind of healing has been taking place. The broken, still open wounds from my past have been addressed as I have had to rely more upon my husband. We have come together in prayer more during this time than any other. An intimacy between the two of us has been reached that has never before been breached in my life. Healing has been happening, that we were blind to until we opened ourselves up together, to God.

The power of prayer... Does God intervene? In my personal experience, I have to say, yes. Does He act, answer, heal in the way that I expect? I have to say, not usually. My healing time with my husband has been better than I could have ever imagined. How thankful I am to God, that He knows better. This time of prayer has strengthened our marriage. It has helped us to give our worries to Him. It has eased our minds and directed our thoughts to what is pure, lovely, and true. It has brought us together more physically and more intimately than one can imagine. It forced us to give up our inhibitions and to truly place ourselves in a more vulnerable position, in front of our all seeing Lord.

At times, when I watch others do their daily rituals with prayer, I want to say, "You are missing it!" It is not about praying before a meal, or before you go to sleep at night. It is about your true walk with your Savior. What is your walk saying about your heart? Honestly, I don't usually pray before I eat. I have never gone hungry, so my heart is not really thanking God for the food on the table. Don't get me wrong, I am thankful, but in everything I am constantly praying. When friends are over or our family is gathered together, then we pray. But it is not only for the food, but for the blessings of getting to share life with those we love. My prayer life starts when I wake in the morning. I gather my thoughts and focus on Jesus, for just a few short hours. Then my prayer walk that day starts, all day. They key for me, is to start my day thinking about my Lord. Then I can better walk with Him that day. My ritual starts in the morning. I get up, focus my thoughts, and start walking. I am just thankful that God saw, my most recent prayer, was better answered with Jason and me walking together in this prayer journey, with our King.

Oswald Chambers, "When we pray, asking God to sanctify us, are we prepared to measure up to what that really means?...The cost will be a deep restriction of all our earthly concerns, and an extensive cultivation of all our godly concerns. Sanctification means to be intensely focused on God’s point of view. It means to secure and to keep all the strength of our body, soul, and spirit for God’s purpose alone. Are we really prepared for God to perform in us everything for which He separated us?...Are we prepared to be caught up into the full meaning of Paul’s prayer in this verse? Are we prepared to say, 'Lord, make me, a sinner saved by grace, as holy as You can'? Jesus prayed that we might be one with Him, just as He is one with the Father (see John 17:21-23 ). The resounding evidence of the Holy Spirit in a person’s life is the unmistakable family likeness to Jesus Christ, and the freedom from everything which is not like Him. Are we prepared to set ourselves apart for the Holy Spirit’s work in us"

http://www.rbc.org/devotionals/my-utmost-for-his-highest/02/08/devotion.aspx?year=2010