Power of Prayer

"God is great, God is good. Let us thank Him for our food. By His hands we all are fed, give us Lord our daily bread. In Jesus, amen."

"Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take. In Jesus name, amen."

The above 2 prayers are probably ones that you used as a child, and possibly passed on to your children.

While these model prayers are great tools to teach children about prayer, they are just that...models.


As we grow up, so should our prayers. The stronger we become in our faith, the stronger our prayer life should be. The more intimate we become with out Savior, the more intimate our conversation should be.

Imagine speaking to you spouse/ best friend now the same way you spoke to them when you first met them.
Your relationship wouldn't last very long would it?

You want to see the power of God poured out on your life?
Then pray.

You to be blessed beyond all measure?
Then pray. 

Recent surveys have given us the following statistics:

• An average Christian prays 3-7 minutes a day (including meal time prayers).
• 37 percent of people say they pray at least once a day.
• 33 percent of Christian adults regularly participate in a prayer group or other meeting that has a focus on prayer
• Average Protestant minister prays for 39 minutes a day; 21% typically spend 15 minutes or less per day.

At first glance the statistics may not trigger any alarms, but take a second look.
Less than half of all the people claiming to be Christians pry at least once a day!
And when they do pray, they spend a TOTAL of 3-7 minutes.

No wonder our nation and our lives are under such great attack! We have given up our most valuable weapon against the enemy and traded it for a little BB gun!!

You may say,
"But I don't have time to pray! I'm a very busy person."

To that argument I once again look to the statistics.

On a typical day, the average American spends:

• 2.7 hours watching Tv
• 25 minutes playing games
• 18 minutes reading
• 38 minutes socializing and communicating with friends

If you ask me, it's not a matter of not enough time....It's a matter of not having a properly established list of priorities!

"Well, I've tried the whole praying thing. It didn't work for me. God doesn't listen to me."

God listens to everyone. If you are His child, He will listen to you and He will answer you.
Sometimes, it all boils down to whether or not you believe He will.

I tell you right now, if you go to Him with the attitude of "He isn't going to answer me, this is pointless, this is  waste of time."....don't expect much back. You need to approach prayer with a genuine and humbled heart.

I don't want to sound all high and mighty, to be honest I've felt the previous way before, I didn't believe it worked for me, He wasn't listening. I quickly can to understand though that He heard me, but my heart wasn't right.

The most powerful prayer warrior I have in my close circle of friends is my best friend Paula. Paula is the woman I go to for everything. If I need prayers, I call her immediately.

She prayed for God to get my attention not to long ago, and boy did He ever answer that prayer!

Just look back to one of my earlier posts, "Modern Day Miracles", and see how God answered her prayers and rescued 7 members of her family for the ocean.

Now, I'm not using this post to brag on her...All though I will admit I love her very much...

What I'm getting at my pointing her out is the fact that God will answer you if you pray with the right heart.

I know her heart is genuine and humbled. I know she deeply loves the Lord and I know those are the reasons why her prayers are so quickly and readily answered.

You may be thinking to yourself now.
"OK Racheal, you have convinced me. I do have the time, and when I did try I didn't go bout it with the right attitude. Please, tell me when and what to pray."

That's an easy one...
When?
All the time! (Luke 18:1, Luke 21:36, Ephesians 6:18, 1 Thessalonians 5:17)
What?
Whatever the Lord my lay on your heart. Pray for lost souls, people who are struggling, you leadership, pray for your family/friends, pray for you enemies, and pray for yourself (no that's not selfish.).

Increase you prayer time and strength and see if you will not be blessed abundantly for it!!

Where there is NO PRAYER, THERE IS NO POWER!

 Failure in prayer is due to fault in the heart.

Any concern too small to be turned into a prayer is too small to be made into a burden.

In prayer it is better to have a heart without words than words without a heart.

Prayer is not an old woman's idle amusement. Properly understood and applied, it is the most potent instrument of action


Live...Laugh...Love
Until Next Time,
Racheal <3

He Will Give You Peace

 It's easy to feel peace when everything is going just the right way, isn't it?

You and your significant other have an amazing relationship.

Work is going great, you even might get that promotion you want.

You kids are getting all A's in every subject.

Your house is spotless and you wallet it full.



It's easy to feel at peace. And BAM all of a sudden are confronted with a huge conflict that you weren't expecting...

You get laid off of work.....you get in a fight with you closest friend...you get hurt and have to make an un-expected trip to the emergency room and wipe out your entire savings....or someone passes on....

We begin to feel like we are at war. We cry out in the midst of the battle, "I give up! I just was some peace!"

I can tell you, I have felt like screaming that a few times over the past few days. It's not worth it...I give up...give me some peace.

I was having a conversation with a friend of mine during my lunch break not too long ago and we got to talking about Christmas. I asked her what she wanted and she kinda chuckled and replied, "Peace."
To which I replied, "No, I mean something I can actually get you."

That conversation lingered in my head for a while.

I wanted to be able to get her whatever she requested, but 'peace'.... that's something I physically wasn't able to give her.

Days have passed and Christmas inches ever so closer.. Christmas music playing 24/7 on the radio, Hymns sung in church and passages from Luke posted in the form of pictures all over social media outlets. Seems like 'peace' was popping up everywhere!

My friend wasn't the only one requesting peace this holiday season.

Everyone stating all I want for Christmas this year is, "Peace on earth and good will to men"

Hymns, scripture, and other songs all referred to 'peace on earth'

Now I could be wrong in the next thing I'm about to say, but what struck me after spending a little time pondering this was that 'peace on earth' is always brought up around Christmas time....the time when Jesus, came to earth.

So maybe it isn't talking about literal peace as in nations ceasing wars and there never being any more conflicts arise. Maybe it was simply annoucing the birth of Peace (Jesus) on earth.

After all He is called the "Prince of Peace" so it makes since.

See, Jesus has come to give the believers peace. Will life be perfect all the time? No. Will we still have conflict and trials? Yes. But in the midst of the trails and conflict we can have a peace even though we may not be able to understand it.

Philippians 4:7
             "And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

I love the way "Echoing Angles" stated it in their song "Give You Peace"
They said:

"He will give you peace, when the walls come crashing down.

He will give you peace through the night

When you've had all you can take

Can't face another day

He will give you peace

He'll give you peace"

Another funny thing I came accross was this definition of peace:
" a state of harmony characterized by the lack of violent conflict and the freedom from fear of violence."

The phrase "freedom from fear" stands out in that to me. It tells me that there may still be some violence (trails, conflict, etc.), but if I have peace then I don't have to FEAR it.

And what is the opposite of fear? faith. So if you have faith then you won't have fear, and if you don't have fear then you can have peace.

Wow!  Even in the darkest days. Even when we don't understand why certain things are happening. Even when people are doing things we don't agree with. Even when our life seems to be going the opposite way than the way we would like it to go...We can still have faith. We can still have peace. Because God is the author of peace and He wants to give it to those who believe in His name.

So this holiday season (CHRISTmas Season)
Remember that true peace is nothing you can find in human offerings.
True peace is not something you can find in circumstances.
And true peace isn't something that only exists in December.

True peace is a gift from Gos that we can claim on a daily basis.
In any situation. In any stage of life.

Have Faith. Have Peace.

No God, No Peace. Know God, Know Peace

Dear God, Please send to me the spirit of Your peace.

Peace is not the absence of conflict, but the ability to cope with it

 

 Live...Laugh...Love

Until Next Time, 

Racheal <3