September Prayer

There is something about September that has a hint of the same feeling as January. With long summer days coming to an end, most of us get back into some kind of classes or schedules that begin fresh in September.

New beginnings often cause me to reflect, this time maybe more-so as I see a change in the school cycle that’s been kind of lost to us with our oldest grandchildren being home-schooled in far off Indonesia. That was until just recently.

This week our barefoot-running grandchildren began classes in a one-room schoolhouse, taught by a teacher from North America. And then, to bring it closer, we have an excited five-year-old, who just became a Canadian citizen, starting Kindergarten right here! Who would have thought that we’d have this pleasure?

It’s not only my grandchildren who are entering a new stage in life. I also want to keep learning . . . these days being convicted about the area of prayer.

On one of my flights, this summer, I was reading a short devotional on the importance and the power of prayer. So often I wait to pray until I am desperate about something and end up taking many things for granted. I wonder, how different my life could be if I truly took God up on His promise to answer prayers. How would things be if I did not wait until prayer is all I have left?  As a grandmother now, I want to pray  about my dreams . . . and practice the one thing that will eventually outlast me.

The writer pointed out how Abraham, when he learned that Sodom would be destroyed, “remained standing before the Lord” … he did not give up asking God to save his nephew until he had that confirmation from the Lord.

Jesus prayed. He prayed early in the morning. He prayed in the garden and He climbed a mountain to pray, He taught his disciples to pray. If Jesus needed to pray, how much more do I? The significance of prayer is emphasized by the fact that He did not call the temple a house of music, fellowship or teaching … but a house of prayer. He said, “When two of you get together on anything at all on earth and make a prayer of it, my father in heaven goes into action.” Matthew 18:19

Prayer causes us to have to humble ourselves and admit that we need God and when God sees a humble and contrite heart, He hears. When we draw near to Him, He draws near to us because He made us for relationship.

There is so much more… but I’ll leave it for now and just pray . . . pray first.