TRBC Youth Blog

Prayer - real prayer - sees the answer coming before it actually arrived... Real prayer consists of bold, confident petitions and a certainty that the answer will come. Until belief is conquiered, progress will be halted. We go no further on the Road of Prayer while unbelief obstructs the faith...

According to Eastman, prayer is inextricably linked with faith. Mark 11:24 - Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. Easy to say, hard to do - like the man who cried to Jesus: "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!" This quote has resonated with me since the first time my attention was brought to it - what a great prayer! It's the classic "18-inches" dilemma: 18 inches being the distance between the head and the heart.

So knowing that God will answer prayer, we pray. But believing is an altogether different matter. It's like driving an upgrade of the Flintstone's car: you can run with your feet, or you can use petrol. We get into the car, insert the key knowing that it will run on gasoline, but for whatever reason (disbelief, preferring to do things "the old way") we don't turn on the ignition, preferring to run with our feet to move the car instead. The analogy is a little clumsy, but you get the general idea: we pray for things and events, but rely on our own strength to get there.

Somehow, the answer is a mobius strip. Pray for prayer.



Father,

Thank You for a good Prayer Meeting just now in church.

Thank You for all the responses and sacrifices that are being made by the Camp Committee members to make the meeting this Sunday. I pray that You bless these people for their understanding and giving hearts, and may You remove all and any blockades that the evil one may try to impose along the way to this meeting. I pray for safety as these great individuals come together for their first meeting as a team.

I pray that You preside over this meeting, Lord. May we come together without reservation, and love each other without condition as we prepare for the camp. I pray that irrational fears about meeting new people may be stripped away, irrational thoughts and unreasonable prejudices about anything or any person be abolished, and everyone come with an open heart and mind to meeting new people. I pray that friendships be born that day, and that more importantly, the foundations of Your future church be built. Father, only You can do the magic that is the weaving of lives together - I pray You work Your magic in this group, and bind us together in Your love and Your purpose. I pray that people who are in cliques be self-conscious enough to realise that cliques include and exclude.

May Your purposes prevail within the planning of this camp - please remind us never to forget who is the reason why we come together.

In Jesus' Name,
Amen.