The Gift of Prayer

This week we are knocking on the door of some serious weather changes heading into fall and winter! At my house we’ve been waking up to build a fire in the stove, and then also cracking a window later in the day when we shed our sweatshirts. The announcement of fall was many weeks back, but the evidence of it is creeping in, still hiding behind sunny afternoons and dinner time sunsets. 

That’s a little how prayer works sometimes. God responds to prayers in one moment, but then we are waiting for the “on earth as it is in heaven” part to actually happen. There seems to be movement in the right direction, but then we stand bewildered when patterns of the past are hanging around like that toasty summer sunshine on the grass which was frozen with fall frost just that same morning. 

Bewildered is a good word to describe the finances this month. It’s October 26 and we are $20k short of our monthly budget. To be clear, this monthly budget is a completely different account than the building project. Living Waters has worked very hard to keep finances organized so earmarked money is used for its intended purposes. Also to be clear, this is the money we need to keep functioning. It is payroll and utilities, the baseline for operational Sunday mornings. 

So we hear God responding to trust him for provision and move forward, then we stand looking at the monthly income and we are…bewildered. 

This is the gift of prayer. Our conversation is not over. God doesn’t say, “I already talked to you about that, quit asking me,” the way a tired parent may respond to a nagging child. He invites us to take whatever this stirs inside us and bring it straight back to him. 

“But God, you said…”

“I don’t get it, we’ve been praying…”

“So now what? Did we miss something?”

“This gets me excited for a miracle! I’m watching and waiting, God!”

“I love when you surprise us with your mystery and power…bring it on!”

No matter what comes up, we are drawn back to conversation and relationship. We want the 10 day forecast, God is inviting us to something more intimate. 

I hope all of you will be attending Sunday morning this week as we take these words and put them to action in our cooperate prayer time. For me, sitting in my living room or taking a walk and praying over Kim is great, rich for its own purposes; but standing on the stage wedged into a hot circle of people who love her, putting my hand on her shoulder and hearing the audible sound of my prayers along side those who love her deeply…that is a variation of prayer necessary to fuel my heart!

Come this Sunday and bring our heart prayers to our family gathering. In preparation, standing in the chill of the morning or the warmth of the afternoon, these are the “not yet but on the way” things we are bringing into conversations with God.

• Monthly giving to cover all of our monthly expenses.
• Gathered prayer time this Sunday and the continual coming together of our family both in the practice of prayer and shared reading, leading to life transformations in our body.
• Trunk or Treat for our community this Sunday afternoon.
• FINAL FACE TO FACE WOMENS CONFERENCE! It is next weekend, and for all women in this group, today is the last day to sign up and it will be incredible. 
• Building project moves to paint phase on Nov. 1, and we need workers between now and then to finish prep.

Love to you all!

Sommer