Prayer

¹⁶ Rejoice always, ¹⁷ pray without ceasing, ¹⁸ give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.  -1 Thessalonians 5

Writing this post is so hard.  I feel like I could write about a million things, but I have decided to dedicate this one to what God has really been showing me.  The next few posts after this one I am going to do features on different aspects of my job here and help you learn more about where I am, what I do, and the people I work with.  For now though lets talk about prayer.

Throughout my support raising experience prayer was something I struggled with pretty frequently.  It felt risky and there were times when I really didn't trust God with my pain and I didn't trust him to lead me through it.  Furthermore, asking him for the deep desires of my heart was not somewhere I wanted to go for fear of being abandoned.  As you can probably tell there were a lot of negative associates with prayer.  However, God has been softening my heart and I find myself praying all the time now.  

One of the biggest ways he has be teaching me is through others.  My family here prays before every meal, and though I pray before meals sometimes in the US, it's not something I do all the time.  And they don't just pray.  They pause to thank God for his grace.  They thank God for the food that he has provided and that it can settle in our stomachs to nourish us.  Then my host mom Isabel always thanks Jesus after we eat that we had sufficient food!  Furthermore, she has a group of women over each Monday to pray.  Last Monday I had the privileged of joining the group and I was in awe of their dedication and the love pouring out into their prayers.  They prayed so sincerely and so fervently that a few were actually crying pleading God to have mercy on their friends and loved ones.

Ok so maybe none of this seems that exciting or revolutionary to any of you, but for me it is opening my eyes to see God in a new light.  He provides every single thing we have.  It is only by his grace that we wake up each day and can breath.  Isabel thanks God every night as she closes the door.  I think this attitude of reverence and recognition of God's provision is so beautiful.  She is in communion with him "pray[ing] without ceasing," every day.  It has spurred me on to be more faithful in prayer and I am finding myself making prayer lists, praying for people spontaneously throughout the day as I think of them, and looking forward to prayer!

If God provides every breath I take, how can I not trust him with the desire of my heart or my pain, or anything else I want to pray to him about?

 I'm not really sure that this photo applies at all to this post, but it is so cool I couldn't wait to share it!  It is winter here, which just means that it rains almost daily.  When I took this photo I was at the beach and we watched the storm roll in.  In the left half of the photo is it is raining while the right half is still clear.  We were even able to see the clouds condensing and some pretty intense lightning bolts.  It was amazing.  God is so powerful.

Standing in awe of all I have to be grateful for,

Sigourney