Stone Soup for Five: {Prayer School} a tsunami of prayer

{Prayer School} a tsunami of prayer



"Unbelief is a sin-making sin.  The secret of sin's strong hold upon a person is unbelief.  There is no mastering a sinner while unbelief overpowers him.  It is a sin which holds out last on the battlefield, the one which the sinner is least aware of, and which the saint ordinarily conquers last."  -W. Gurnall


A couple of days ago it hit me how much of a hypocrite I am with prayer. (I think it was because of our Book Club Book!)  I pray pretty regular-ish.  But do I really believe?  I remember a while back as I was on a walk I passed by our local high school and felt I needed to pray for the school.  I paused, leaned on the chain link fence, and started praying, but as soon as I started I thought, "This is so ridiculous.  My tiny prayer will never make a difference in this huge school where sin seems so big."   After a few weak sentences of prayer I walked away, feeling overwhelmed, sad, and defeated.

And in fact, if I'm being honest, a lot of the time my prayers feel like week-old mostly deflated helium balloons that I keep tossing up, only to watch them fall down.  Again. 

BUT...

What if I stopped being a hypocrite?
What if my problem isn't with prayer, but with my thoughts about prayer?
What if I truly believed in the power of prayer... and lived it?
What if I stopped thinking of my prayers as deflated balloons and instead understood them as the most powerful part of my life?  Like a tsunami.

Tsunamis aren't powerful because they come crashing in like a tidal wave wall of water like Hollwood portrays them.  Tsunamis are a relentless, constant surge of incoming water that overcomes everything in its path.  People, cars, earthquake-proof buildings, barriers, trees; everything is buried under the relentless surge of a tsunami. 

As I was thinking about the force of a tsunami, I remembered another fact about them: before a tsunami hits, the ocean pulls way out.  Depending on the size of the coming tsunami, the water pulls out even farther than the normal tides.

What if right now in my prayer life, I'm in the first part of the tsunami?  The water seems to be pulled far out, farther than ever, and I'm on the beach wondering when God is going to act... because as far as I can tell He's not here.  He's not moving the way I want Him to, in fact, He's moving away, opposite from the direction that makes sense. 

Even though all the evidence I can see looks like God pulling away... what if beyond the dried up land there is a tsunami growing past the horizon in unstoppable power that will break apart walls, destroy strongholds of sin, and start dead hearts? 

Would I pray the same way if I could see beyond the horizon?  If I could see the tsunami coming?

My problem isn't with prayer.

My problem is my thoughts of prayer.



"I do believe, help my unbelief!" -Mark 9:24

Don’t pray when you feel like it. Have an appointment with the Lord and keep it. A man is powerful on his knees. -Corrie Ten Boom

Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed.  The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.  -James 5:16



4 comments:

  1. Wow! I don't know how old is post is but it was perfectly timed for me to read today. Your what ifs really catch me. Inspired me. I know the power of Prayer. I need to do some repenting my hypocracy. And get back on that horse and watch what only God can do. Thank you Kari

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    1. Awesome! It's actually just last week's post, that I wasn't even really going to write! Praise God that it inspired and encouraged you! He is so good!

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  2. Just watched "War Room" yesterday and feel the power of the Holy Spirit moving in my fam as they stopped in the room watching a few minutes along with me. I am reviewing what I had years ago for a prayer binder and remaking it for these days. All this coaching is spurring me on to a good place in my prayer life! Thank you

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    1. Yay! I love that movie! Definitely calls for a re-watch this month!

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