June 07 - Stagnation

** IMPORTANT NOTE: I have not been able to upload videos to the 12thirty blog because I recently dropped our internet plan to a less expensive plan. The drawback of going from high-speed internet to "economical" internet, is that you cannot download and upload as much or as fast at you once could. I am trying to figure out a way to make this work...bear with me...

God is not a genie. Only when prayers are made in faith, will he respond to our lives...and even then, it may not be the answer we want or we are expecting.

Prayer is mentioned 512 times in the Bible according to a user on Yahoo answers. I believe when something is addressed and given attention to that many times, it is important. Prayer is something that can become monotonous and repetitive. Think about the prayer given at dinner, if you pray at dinner. In my own experience, it can and does get repetitive. The same things being said over and over again, day after day. While that's not always a horrible thing, the aspect of the personal touch and "from the heart" characteristic can often times go missing. 

I think, as for myself, my prayers become stagnant and repetitive from my relationship not growing. Think about a friend of yours that you were once close with, but as time moved on and careers change, etc, the personal touch and conversation just doesn't flow like it used to.

The same is true with God. 

If we only speak to him in that 10 second slot before we eat, we have no time invested in the growth of our relationship. If our prayers are concentrated on me, myself, and I...our selfishness drives us away from what is truly important. 

As Christians we should only be concerned with God's will. When we lose sight of this and begin to view ourselves as more important, then our relationship suffers. Whatever we are in prayer about, we should pay extra close attention to whether or not it points back to God.

Everything about you is of God. Don't graffiti your life. Don't claim success for your own. Reveal God to the world...