When You are Walking in the Valley

If you were to read the social media feed of your friends you might be inclined to believe that they go from mountain top to mountain top. Don’t blame your “friends” that is the nature of the social media feed. But it can make your personal valley feel a little more intense. One of the key words in valleys is loneliness. This means that one of the key words of healing during time in the valley is “presence”.

When I am in the valley I want to feel like I am not alone. Job’s friends had it right, before they started talking, by simply being with Job. God knows how to help us when we are going through the valley. “Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil for you are with me.” (Psalm 23:4)

One of the things that I am learning right now about prayer is a powerful element of the journey is simply acknowledging that He is with me. Simply being silent and enjoying His company is prayer. This can be powerful in the valley. If I don’t know what to say just sitting there and being with Him can bring healing to my heart. I am not alone.

[tweetthis]Simply being silent and enjoying His company is prayer.[/tweetthis]

Although not the point of this post let me end this with a song to encourage you that if you are in a hard spot it is not forever. Tunnel by Third Day

 

 

3 Trends in Prayer in the Church

One of the members of my advisory council is Dick Eastman, who is a member of the US National Prayer Committee and the head of Every Home for Christ. While sitting down with him once I asked him what he sees as trends in the prayer movement around the world. He shared with me two of them and I would like to add a third that I have seen as well.

Twenty-four hour a day prayer: Although the most famous in this trend is IHOP and 24-7 Prayer the idea of continual prayer is popping up all over the place. Even those churches that can’t do an ongoing 24-7 time will do seasons (maybe a weekend) or place (a prayer room) to facilitate long term prayer. Dick even showed me signup sheets from the church in China that is getting in on this trend.

Children and Prayer: Prayer is not just for adults. Engaging kids from a young age in the life of prayer can make a difference for the rest of their lives. Not too long ago I got an email from a Sunday School teacher in an African country who was online looking for resources to teach children on prayer. This leads to my observation on a trend in prayer.

Technology and prayer: I don’t believe we have even close to capitalized on the power that can be harnessed in the prayer movement. We are beginning to see glimpses of this with blogs like this one, apps for personal prayer and prayer request entry points. I think this is only a beginning. Every move of God has been helped by its latest technology. We have yet to see the full power of a Twitter/YouTube prayer movement.

What things are you see that is happening in the movement of prayer?

[tweetthis] We have yet to see the full power of a Twitter/YouTube prayer movement.[/tweetthis]

2 Helpful Things So That You Can Pray

I see a lot of people who say that they struggle to pray. There are various reasons but here are 2 areas that you can quickly do something about today. 1 Peter 4:7 says, “The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray.” (Emphasis mine) Peter gives us two things that will help us pray.

First he encourages them to be clear minded. Many translations use the word “sober” for “clear minded”. He is not only highlighting the dangers of getting drunk but an even broader danger of disconnecting from life. I talk before about the danger of not being engaged in life. The context of this passage is that time is coming to an end so now is the time to let distractions go and focus on the important things.

Second, he challenges them to be self controlled. This could also be a challenge to be disciplined. Rather than looking at this from the negative standpoint of “I am not disciplined enough so I don’t pray” lets flip it around. We can build our prayer life by building habits. The easiest way I know to build a prayer life that is fun and enjoyable is to have a time that you are free to pray. If you did nothing else but give yourself enough margin for “prayer time” you would have a great start to building a powerful life of prayer.

Let’s be a people who are clear minded and self controlled so we can pray!