Power of Words/Power of Prayer

I just finished reading The Yada Yada Prayer Group...great book and can't wait to read the next one in the series! The main character in the book who is managing the prayer egroup realizes how neglectful she is in her prayer life...here she is posting these prayer requests and commenting on them, but she isn't praying. Hmmmm...how many times have I said, "I will pray for you" and don't.

I have the prison ministry prayer book with me this week, and have had it for a week now. I brought it in out of the car and sat down with it this morning with my Bible. (Yes, it has been in my jeep for a week.) I started at the beginning which is weeks worth of prayers and began reading their prayers.

The women in Yada Yada come from a diverse set of circumstances, underprivileged, poor, drug addictions, some having served time in jails, lost their children to child services...and on and on and on...and then the main character who is a white suburban good girl. Granted I am NO white suburban good girl, didn't grow up in a Christian family, wasn't spared my share of trials and temptations which I mostly fell prey to, but I also haven't done any jail time, had a problem with addictions, or lost custody of my kids; however, there is certainly a parallel there.

I am reading through these prayers, heartfelt, honest prayers of these women-real women who have succumbed to a temptation that led right down a path of destruction. My heart grieves for them, and I call out to God for them....and know that they are doing more praying right now than they probably ever have. One said that she "wasn't listening when she was out in the world," and knows God has her there for a reason. She wasn't listening. I can learn from her. I too don't always listen, and find that most people don't. We don't listen to anything but our own voice. We don't hear and we don't know what God has for us.

The power of prayer...stopping to commune with our Heavenly Father-not to just talk, but to listen.

The power of words...it is all about His Word, His Truth...but we make it about us. I make it about me, what I want, when I want it, how I want it. Not listening means I also don't hear and get it all wrong. This morning I was finishing up the book of John. In the last few verses, Jesus is asked a question and He answers with, "...If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow me" (21:22). That message is changed and repeated to something Jesus did not say and the message is corrected, "...yet Jesus said not unto him, He shall not die; but If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?" (21:23). Someone didn't hear and the message was lost...Jesus says it doesn't matter to you, just follow me. Just follow. The disciples didn't get His Words right...they didn't hear what He was saying to them. Hmmm...If I am going to follow, got to get that right, got to listen, got to really hear, and got to follow!

Lord, my heart has always been towards laying aside the busyness of the life I live for the privilege of prayer, but somehow life keeps getting in the way. So many people are in need of hearing You, and having their understanding opened to your will for them. So many people are in need of you intervening in their lives. These roads we get on don't all lead to you. Lord, set my feet on the path you have planned for me to be on. Guide my footsteps, my thoughts, the moments of my day in such a way that I will hear you and just follow! Make me a prayer warrior, Lord Jesus!