I'm so amazed at the committment of the church, the staff, and the families of Farmland Friends. My heart just gets so excited when I think of what God is doing inside the beautiful people in this church. I see so much potential in our ministries and I'm starting to get the vision of the church, and I'm so blessed to be a part of it! During this time of the building to bless campaign, I took part in a 24 hour prayer day. I signed up for my hour on Friday at 10:30 am. I was really looking forward to taking this hour just devoted to prayer and spending time with God. Friday came and I was ready. All morning I was trying to get my mind in the attitude of prayer and I really wanted God to show me what to specifically pray for. The hour came and it was Awesome! I read in Psalms, praised God, really focused on how grateful I was that He's my God. After that I prayed for everything God brought to my mind. I was telling myself, this needs to be a reoccuring event in my life. Well, that was the first thirty minutes. About the time 11:00 rolled around, my mind was drifting to other things I had to do that day like picking my kids up, putting together a new dresser, hanging window treatments, the huge pile of laundry I had, etc. . . . I couldn't pray constantly for one tiny little hour! I had such a hard time focusing after that first thirty minutes. I don't know if it was satan trying to distract me or if I just can't concentrate that long (which is highly possible). I felt like such a dissappointment to God. Why couldn't I just pray for one little hour of my thirty-one years I have spent on Earth? Seriously! I did end up refocusing and praying for something God brought to my mind after I stopped thinking of what to have for dinner that night! The next day I was reminded that God knows that my mind wanders a lot and seems to be thinking of 1,000 things at once. He also knows my heart and knows that it's the quality of the time and not the quantity of the time I spend with him. I'm so glad that God listens to me anytime I talk to him even if it's for a second. I just hope I'm not the only one that really finds it difficult to pray for an hour! Please let me know!
3 comments:
You're not alone. My mind wanders also. Even when four of the Pastor sat down to pray it was difficult to pray for an hour. We spent some time talking and James shared some of his thoughts on the scriptures he had read. I received some much needed encouragement and we finished the hour with prayer. We do have a wonderful God who is gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in love.
Oh yes, I have this problem as well. I had the 9:30am to 10:30am of prayer on Friday. I was ready, I kept it in my mind, but it was a struggle to finish strong. It really felt like the last 15 minutes took an hour.
I know exactly what you mean. I was unable to go to the church and pray, however, I struggle daily with prayer time. I will have twenty things to pray about and get sidetracked after five. It sounds like you did pretty good to me.
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