One weekend recently, my husband and I sat on wet metal tables outside Chipotle after an impressive rainstorm, discussing prayer. \u201cI still don\u2019t understand it,\u201d I said, sipping his watermelon mint agua Fresca. Of course, there was a lot more to our conversation that led up to this confession\u2014a whole backstory of dark nights and joyful mornings, of felt connection and moments of distance, of soft hearts and hearts hardened by deferred hopes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Like you perhaps, I have read books on prayer, studied it, been on the receiving end, and pursued God through it. Yet there\u2019s still this great mystery to prayer. It is always different and can feel new with each prayer because you and I are always changing. As our relationship with God transforms, so does our experience with prayer and our awareness of what it truly is\u2014which is so much more than just asking God for things to happen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In his prison epistle to the Colossians, Paul wrote, \u201cAt the same time, pray also for us that God may open a door to us for the word, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains, so that I may make it known as I should\u201d (Colossians 4:3\u20134). Even though God can bring these results without us, Paul believed God wants our partnership through our prayer. Through prayer, God made Paul bold as he shared the gospel and helped him persevere in ministry. Later in the passage, Paul described his fellow prisoners who sent their prayers and greetings to the Colossian church. He mentioned Epaphras, a close friend who founded their faith community and faithfully wrestled in prayer on their behalf so they might continue to mature, despite growing heresy (v.12). I use the word wrestling<\/em> a lot in life because I, too, find that prayer requires a lot from me, spiritually and physically. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Today, if you feel discouraged in your prayer life, be honest with God about it. It\u2019s okay to be a believer and say, \u201cI still don\u2019t understand.\u201d Doubts are a perfect place for God to meet with you and bring you to new levels of faith. But when we, God\u2019s people, make our needs known to each other, we can also join in the ministry of prayer together\u2014which is a great blessing!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" One weekend recently, my husband and I sat on wet metal tables outside Chipotle after an impressive rainstorm, discussing prayer. \u201cI still don\u2019t understand it,\u201d I said, sipping his watermelon mint agua Fresca. Of course, there was a lot more to our conversation that led up to this confession\u2014a whole backstory of dark nights and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":71282,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[289],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-philippiansandcolossians"],"acf":{"hero_background_image":false,"author_name":"","author_bio":"","guest_social_media":false,"related_plans":[71272],"weekly_truth":false,"grace_day":false,"share_text":"#SheReadsTruth","devotional_text":"SPEAKING TO GOD AND OTHERS<\/b> One weekend recently, my husband and I sat on wet metal tables outside Chipotle after an impressive rainstorm, discussing prayer. \u201cI still don\u2019t understand it,\u201d I said, sipping his watermelon mint agua Fresca. Of course, there was a lot more to our conversation that led up to this confession\u2014a whole backstory of dark nights and joyful mornings, of felt connection and moments of distance, of soft hearts and hearts hardened by deferred hopes.<\/p>\u00a0 Like you perhaps, I have read books on prayer, studied it, been on the receiving end, and pursued God through it. Yet there\u2019s still this great mystery to prayer. It is always different and can feel new with each prayer because you and I are always changing. As our relationship with God transforms, so does our experience with prayer and our awareness of what it truly is\u2014which is so much more than just asking God for things to happen.<\/p> In his prison epistle to the Colossians, Paul wrote, \u201cAt the same time, pray also for us that God may open a door to us for the word, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains, so that I may make it known as I should\u201d (Colossians 4:3\u20134). Even though God can bring these results without us, Paul believed God wants our partnership through our prayer. Through prayer, God made Paul bold as he shared the gospel and helped him persevere in ministry. Later in the passage, Paul described his fellow prisoners who sent their prayers and greetings to the Colossian church. He mentioned Epaphras, a close friend who founded their faith community and faithfully wrestled in prayer on their behalf so they might continue to mature, despite growing heresy (v.12). I use the word wrestling a lot in life because I, too, find that prayer requires a lot from me, spiritually and physically.<\/p> Today, if you feel discouraged in your prayer life, be honest with God about it. It\u2019s okay to be a believer and say, \u201cI still don\u2019t understand.\u201d Doubts are a perfect place for God to meet with you and bring you to new levels of faith. But when we, God\u2019s people, make our needs known to each other, we can also join in the ministry of prayer together\u2014which is a great blessing!<\/p>","share_image_height":"640","day_number":"24","scripture":"Colossians 4:2-6, Psalm 100:1-5, John 17:6-8, John 17:20-26, 1 Timothy 2:1-4","available":true,"ad_banner_name":"","ad_banner_image":false,"ad_banner_url":"","songs":"","key_verse":"","key_verse_reference":"","background_image":false,"background_color":"#FBF7F3","scripture_references":false,"share_image":false,"show_ad":true,"ad_override":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/75"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71681\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\r\nby Bailey Gillespie<\/i>
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