Passion for Prayer
My name is Julie Hadley I am an elder that has a passion for Prayer. I am most excited about prayer because it is a direct link to God. I discovered that as I began to consistently read my Bible and pray, God became real in my life. God not only cares about big things that happen like an illness, accident, financial problems, divorce, job, children, he cares about the little day to day details of our lives as well.
“Cast your burden upon the Lord and he will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken. ”
When we have a problem our first instinct is to contact a friend, and with all the technology we have we can even talk to family and friends across the country. Certainly God desires that we help to bear one another's burdens and that we seek wise counsel. However, in going to others we tend to forget to take the burdens to the one who is invested in our daily life, and who cares about our problems. The verse above implies if you cast your burdens upon the Lord then he will sustain you. God is there to strengthen or support you physically or mentally. I find it comforting to know that God promises to help both physically and mentally, even through trials. I don't have to wait for someone to pick up the phone or answer my e-mail. I can be assured God is only a prayer away waiting for me to speak.
One of the first prayers that I remember God answering was a huge realization of how much God cared about me. It was a Saturday morning and my family was in the van ready to go to church. But we soon discovered that we'd locked the van and house keys back in our home. We didn't want to break a window to get into the house for those keys, but what were we going to do? I needed to get to church to help teach children that day. After stressing and panicking I said to my boys, "C'mon boys lets pray to Jesus, to help us." A few minutes after praying and asking Jesus to help us, I remembered when we bought our house only a few weeks earlier, the seller let me know that there was a hide away key. Sure enough I found that key! "Thank you Jesus."
God already knows all our needs. So why do we need to pray? Because God is relational, he desires and longs for us to come to him and pour out our hearts and ask him for what we need. One of my favorite Bible texts is "Delight thyself also in the Lord and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart." Psalm 17:4
Our Prayer Team is made of twelve wonderful members who love the Lord and love to pray. We call them our prayer warriors. Share with us how God has answered a prayer in your life. Do you have a need or prayer request? Let us know how we can make a difference in your life.
May you join in the power of prayer, the anchoring force of God. May you experience relation with each other and with God. May you be moved to realize your prayers.