The Power of Prayer

Today once I was finished with classes, I suddenly felt very depressed and tired. Walking back home, everything seemed gloomy. "Pray," God said to me. So when I got here, the first thing I did was pray for 55 endangered species. And I do feel better now. Still a bit tired and sad, but so much more able to face the rest of my day now.

The Universe

I was thinking about the universe today, and how awesome it is! The universe is so large--and yet God is larger. He created the whole universe and knows it intimately. He knows every time a star is formed, and yet He also knows every time two atoms come together. How awesome is that!! God is infinitely large and infinitely small--bigger and smaller even than the universe.

(A really cool interactive illustration of the size of the universe can be found here--and God is bigger!)

Exhaustion

My life has been crazy busy lately, and I'm feeling exhausted. That exhaustion is also affecting my prayer life. Lately I've been more reluctant to spend time praying, and feeling like it's a waste of time. I know that's not true, but the feeling is still there. I pray that God will give me the strength to keep going, even when I feel like I can't.

"Pray hard, work hard, and leave the rest to God." ~Florence Griffith Joyner

Routine

This past week, praying has been a struggle. I've been so busy that I put pressure on myself to finish praying earlier so I can go do "productive" things, with the result that my prayer time has of course been less God-driven and more me-driven. I've also gotten super behind on my schedule, which isn't that set in stone, but still, being like six days behind 'schedule' stresses me out, makes me feel guilty, and makes me want to pray less.

I guess this sort of problem is pretty inherent in what I'm trying to do, i.e. praying through a list of names. The temptation to just read the name, briefly send them 'happy thoughts' or whatever, and move on to the next name has been really strong lately. I pray that this week I'll be able to slow down, focus, and give my full attention to God and my prayers.

Individual vs. Community Prayer

I recently volunteered to lead a weekly prayer meeting, so I've been reading up on how to do that, what the goal of such meetings is/could be, and so on.

One of the things I read that really caught my attention was the idea that all or most prayer in the Bible was actually done communally. Many of the psalms were meant to be sung by a congregation, Jesus said "When two or more come together in my name" (Matthew 28:20) and not 'one', and many of the prayers of Old Testament leaders were said aloud, to the whole nation of Israel. Honestly, when I first read this, I couldn't think of a single example of anyone praying alone! (I have since thought of several: Jesus going off alone to pray, Moses speaking to God "face to face" (Exodus 33:11) (and alone) on Mount Sinai, Jonah praying to God while he's sitting above Ninevah).

It also made me think about my own prayer life. I've been praying a lot more lately, much more than I ever used to, but I hardly ever pray with a group. But praying together, as a group, and coming together for a common purpose, is obviously very important to God.