prayer

I have been sitting here trying to figure out what to write on the blog… I write a few lines and then I delete it thinking that isn’t what I should be writing and then I write again and delete again.  Tonight my mind is racing wondering what God wants me to do, what the purpose is of this life, if I make a difference.  For whatever reason I always get this way when I have something that I really want prayer for but I don’t know who or how to share it? 

See I learned with Zach’s illness and his death that I am an extremely private person…  I learned that I don’t like exposing myself to others or asking for help.  I am very much the one that others come to and I am very much the one that helps others, so being able to share and to allow others to help me is extremely hard.  So I sit here… thinking about prayer.  What is prayer?

Prayer the simple act of thinking or saying words to God, having a conversation with God, often not hearing or knowing a response sometimes it is script of words that are always the same and sometimes it is literally the cry of our hearts.  Prayer is interesting because you can always pray for a person, sometimes we pray when someone comes to mind but doesn’t have to be because we know something or because we know of a situation.  It simply can be because the person came to mind.  I often pray for the people that I work with, parents of children, friends at church, and friends that I want to be closer with.  I often stop and ask God to put His tender and loving arms around a close friend because it might look a tad weird to just hug and be in tears.  Prayer presenting our requests, desires, and hopes before God.

Prayer is often something you can ask for and know that without spilling your guts someone will lift you up to God and ask for His arms to be around you.  I often don’t put myself out there but there are times when being picked up by God and placed on His lap with His AMAZING arms around you is what you need.  Tonight I asked a friend to pray because I was too embarrassed to say anything else… her response was “ok that is the great thing about prayer, I can be across the world and I don’t need to know all the details and I can help, I can show you I care by praying”

That comment got me thinking… do I pray for my friends? I do but do I really pray? Do I lift every detail of their life up? Do I pray for children, spouses, work, and all the intimate details? All the details that no one would be willing to share but that God knows… without telling us, GOD KNOWS!!!  My goal is to be a better friend, to pray more and to life them up to God more.