This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us---whatever we ask---we know that we have what we asked of him. 1st John 5:14-15

Prayer

This summer I have grown to love prayers. I will admit, at one time it was so hard for me to pray. Some prayers are so long that sometimes I will forget that we are praying. Its awful, I know but it happens. I'm sure if you are honest with yourself, you'll admit that you have done it too.

Sometimes praying is so hard because we do not see the direct answer to our prayer or we don't see the answer that we are expecting. We can't always get what we want. (thats a good song. :D) And that leads me to the verse that is above. If we are approaching God with confidence, anything that we ask for that is according to his will, its ours. ANYTHING! Thats amazing! The hard part is getting aligned with the according to his will part.

I have been reading a book called "The Christian Atheist" by Craig Groeschel. That is where a lot of this blog is drawing from. I'm just regurgetating some of his ideas, so if you've read his book or intend on reading it, this will sound familiar.

Recently I've started praying that I pray with the right motives and that I pray about the things that are aligned with God's will. I don't want my prayers to be long and showy, I just want to talk to my creator. I want to spill my everything with him and I desire to come to him and receive a clean heart. So many times, though, I approach the throne thinking that my heart isn't clean enough. So, I turn away until I think I can get it clean enough to go before the throne. I must think highly of myself if I believe that I can clean my heart better then God can! We use this excuse often, maybe not exactly the way I describe, and we end up just waiting longer and longer because we think we need to fix ourselves and be good when we approach the throne of grace... "hello!! The throne of GRACE! We don't have to be perfect when we give everything up! Jesus came and gave his life for YOU, only he can make your heart clean. Stop trying, you can't do it." I have to remind myself of this so often.

I really recommend ready "The Christian Atheist" by Craig Groeschel. It's a real eye opener. I have realized that sometimes I live my life like a Christian Atheist. I'm striving to not live that way, but its hard not to fall backwards sometimes. One thing I've learned about prayer from this book though, was drawn straight from God himself,

The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. Psalm 34:15

I want my prayers to be powerful and effective, therefore I must become righteous and I must have faith. God responds to our faith. I want childlike faith. That is prayer.

-in Christ,
~ML