Prayer & Timing & Friends

Read all of this, there is a point, I promise!

 

I've had some people say to me: Why do you pray? God ALREADY knows everything from your thoughts, wants, & desires to what is going to happen. So why do you take time to actually pray about it.

 

Well, I pray because it's what I've been commanded to do. I am not perfect & do not in any way do everything He commands me to do, but I do this! Often times, my prayers follow PRAY:

Praise Him how wonderful He is & my blessings

Repent any sins (& ask Him to open my eyes to what breaks His heart as sin in my life--which is sometimes a tough pill to swallow when He does)

Anyone else in my life (some of my friends I know their prayers so I pray, or I just pray for a person in general, or sometimes they get a text from me asking what I can specifically pray for them about)

Yourself: I pray for anything specifically I need to pray for in my life.

 

Here are some Scriptures & explanations to help explain & back it up:

"Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise" (James 5:13). When I'm happy I praise God & when I'm in trouble, I DEFINITELY pray. Sometimes I say it, sometimes I journal it, sometimes I literally cry out to Him. But I am going to pray. "Therefore confess your sins to each other an pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective" (James 5:16). "He answered their prayers, because they trusted in Him" (1 Chronicles 5:20b).

 

Sometimes I don't pray using PRAY....I just pour my heart out to God. I'm trying to make my relationship with God just that, a relationship where I talk to Him through my songs of praise & my prayers. And He speaks to me! He does this through my devotions & Scriptures I read.

 

"but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint" (Isaiah 40:31).

 

"Be still, and know that I am God" (Psalm 46:10a).

 

He speaks to me through songs by Christian artist. You've seen me blog & Facebook post about songs that speak to me.

 

He speaks to me the words He gives my friends to share with me when I go to them about something. It is awesome when this happens as I have one friend I know prayerfully considers her advice before she gives it to me & she will back it up with Scripture. She may not get back to me immediately...& when she doesn't, I know there is some strong praying going on. But when she does, I know she is giving me God-given, Christ-centered advice.

 

And you know, that waiting is hard....

"Probably one of the hardest things to learn to do is to trust and have patience for God's timing and answers" (Author Unknown).

But I just pray in those times. The wait may be hard, but the timing, God's timing, is perfect.

 

Now you are probably thinking: Okay Tasha....get to your point!

 

Sometimes, I pray & pray & pray, & God's timing is when He decides to answer (which sometimes takes longer than my simple mind can stand). But other times, the timing is immediate for me & that just truly instills in me that God IS there & He does listen to & answer my prayers......case in point, this morning: I woke up in a awful, hateful negative mood & had an attitude....& there was no one awake to have an attitude with. If you're following my blog, you know I'm working on my imperfect progress with my unglued moments. But there was nothing to be unglued about, I was just in a funk!

 

And I knew I did not want to be there all day! I've been there & done that....it's not a fun place to be!!!!!! So I opened my Prayer Journal & asked God what my problem was....& then literally cried out to Him for help. He changed my heart, mood, & attitude within the hour! Later in my morning, I texted the above mentioned friend & asked her to pray for my mood/attitude to stay positive & for me to focus on God & communicate with Him throughout the day.

 

And ya know what, I know she has, cause she said she would.