Prayer

October 26, 2011
This morning’s Upper Room devotional spoke to me. Being still and silent challenges many of
us. Where do we find time to be still
and silent before the Lord? If you are
like me, it doesn’t happen without intentionality.

I remember a Prayer Guide that was developed by The
Southeastern Jurisdictional Conference Council on Ministries. It challenged persons to pray for five
unchurched people during the Lenten season.
Each day’s prayer guide began with a statement about realizing you are
in the presence of God. Here are a
couple of the ways it was put:

Get
comfortable. Realize that you are in The
Presence, receiving special attention, as you join God in love and concern for
each of the Five.

Get
comfortable. Become aware of the
presence of God within you and about you.
Prepare yourself with expectation to receive some new truth from the
scripture you are about to read.

I need to remind myself to be
still and become aware of God’s presence.
Without such an intentional commitment to be still, I tend to rush
through my petitions without ever sensing God’s presence.

This week, some of the staff was
talking about prayer and one mentioned writing her prayers. I have practiced that at times in my life. Writing my prayer helps me stay focused. It also helps me look at my prayer
times. Am I giving God praise and
adoration or simply asking things of God.

If you want an example of written
prayers, look at the Psalms. Many of the
Psalms are prayers. In the Psalms, the
Psalmist pours out his heart to God.
Sometimes he offers praise and adoration, at other times he offers
confession, petitions and intercessions.

This Sunday, our Youth will be
giving leadership to our Sunday morning services. Be in prayer for them and for Micah Dormann
as he brings the message. Then on Sunday
evening we will have “The Resolution Service.”
We have copies of “The Resolution” used in the movie Courageous and also
a women’s version. There will time in
the service for families to come to the altar to reaffirm their commitments to
one another using these resolutions. If
you plan to participate in signing the resolution during the service, please
communicate with Marcia Cuellar, so we will have enough copies. (mcuellar@gmvumc.org)

Monday night, October 31, is our
Harvest Hoedown. That needs to be on
your prayer list. Especially pray for a
door to open to any undiscipled person who attends. While it is a night of fun and games, our
main focus is to become all things to all people in order to reach one for
Jesus.

We expect a few thousand to come
to the Harvest Hoedown. I understand we
could still use some more candy and trunks for “Trunk or Treat.” Find where they are having sales on candy and
purchase a large bag or two. If you want
to volunteer to help, contact Amy Sizemore (asizemore@gmvumc.org).


As always, your responses to these
Reflections are welcome. You can
email me at rguess@gmvumc.org.