Pray Every Day

'Devote yourselves to prayer...' Colossians 4:2 NAS
Good Morning,
This week we begin our week of prayer. This focused prayer time is set aside once a year for our church body to come together and pray for the needs of our church, community, and nation. Many of you signed up to pray for an hour a day and I pray that you will keep that commitment. Each night this week the church will be open for corporate prayer @7pm. On Thursday we will have a special prayer walk set-up for personal interspection. I hope that you can take sometime from your busy schedules to be a part of this incredible time. The bible tells us "to devote ourselves to Prayer". How do we do that?

One little girl threw one of her shoes under the bed before going to sleep. When her mom asked why, she replied, 'My Sunday school teacher said if I have to get down by my bed in the morning and look for my shoe, it'll remind me to say my prayers while I'm there.' If it helps, throw your shoe's under the bed! Prayer is the life force that sustains us spiritually. David wrote and we sang this song Sunday: 'As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for You...My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?' (Psalm 42:1-2 NIV) In his book, The Power and Blessing, Pastor Jack Hayford writes: 'I had gone on vacation, and I needed it! It was delightful to get to the beach. But about the fourth day...I found I was feeling empty inside. Then it occurred to me that for four days I hadn't read a word of Scripture, prayed a prayer or sung a song of praise. It was just kind of 'Let's get away from it all.' We were so involved with church that we didn't want to do anything 'godly' for a while. But suddenly I was called back by the inner hollowness I felt. Through that experience I learned that I can't recover at a physical or emotional level, if I neglect the spiritual level.' The Bible says: 'Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving.' Only when you've spent time in God's presence and drawn strength from Him, will you be equal to the challenges you face on any given day.