Prayer Changes Me

I've been in a funk this week.

This week I've struggled to stay "on fire."

I actually woke up today thinking, “I’m just going to go through the motions today. I’m just not very motivated.”

Then, I practiced a new habit I have begun: Keeling prayer the very first thing out of bed. I’m using A Diary of Private Prayer to help me pray each day in the morning and in the evening. I grabbed my book and hit my knees.

Here's how the Twenty Fourth Day Morning Prayer started today…

“O Lord God, ever blessed, You have given me the night for rest and the day for work and service. Grant that the refreshment from last night’s sleep may now the used for Your greater glory in the life of the day ahead. Do not let it produce laziness in me, but instead let it encourage more diligent action and willing obedience. Teach me, O God, to use all the circumstance of my life today to nurture the fruit of the Spirit rather than the fruits of sin.”

Ouch! That was a rebuke, a wake-up call, a kick in the seat of the pants! The Lord knew just what I needed. A prayer written by John Baillie in 1949 was just what I needed today. 71 years after it was written.

Don't tell me that written prayers cannot assist us in our Christian growth. We can take what was written and personalize it so that it's not a "rote prayer."

Thank God I received that divine jolt this morning. I got going. By God's grace, I was able to make some very significant progress on developing what could turn out to be a very important strategic plan to help us equip more new planters for the future. I was able to take some work done my my friends in Boston and contextualize it for a potential city-wide church planting residency program for NE Ohio.

Prayer does change things. And as usual, what God wanted to change the most today was me.