Pray

Do you ever doubt the value of praying? Yes, there are times when I question my praying. As someone said once, "it seems like my prayers are only words that fly up to the heavens and then fall back down somewhere unknown." As I thought about my prayers and the prayer list that I often go through the Lenten gospel lesson from At Home With The Word for Saturday connected with my soul.
The reading was the account of the Transfiguration in the Gospel of Luke chapter 9.
Verses 28 and 29 are as follows: "Now about eight days after these sayings Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white."
Jesus believed in prayer and praying. Now if Jesus the perfect example of humanity prayed then I ought also should have prayer as part of my life. So even if I struggle with the concept I am going to keep on being a person who prays. God can do what God wants with them. The Bible in the Book of James states that the prayers of a righteous person are powerful and effective. And in another teaching in the Gospels Jesus said a person ought always to pray and not lose heart. Okay, I hope you get my point and that you will join me in offering prayers as Holy Spirit leads you even though you may struggle with them.

During this season of Lent I'm reading the book Pauses For Lent - Forty Words for Forty Days by Trevor Hudson published by Upper Room Books. He picks one word to reflect on for each of the days of Lent. I liked what he said in his reflection for the first Sunday of Lent, he doesn't choose a word for the Sundays. "How can we describe life in the Kingdom? It is an intimate life in which we come to know God personally as Abba (father/daddy). It is a shared life through which we come to discover ourselves as a part of God's family. It is a transformational life in which we are gradually changed into the people that God wants us to be. It is a powerful life in which in which God acts together with us for the good of others and the healing of our world. It is a loving life in which we become more responsive to those around us. Above all, it is an eternal life that cannot be snuffed out by death...To enter the joy of life in the kingdom, we need to open ourselves to repentance and trust. We must walk a daily journey of turning toward the risen Christ and learning from Him how to live our lives. As we do this, he steps out from the pages of the Gospels as our ever present companion and gives us courage to follow him.

Do what God says and say what God does.