Your prayertude

Christmas eve is an exciting time in the life of a small child. I have known that since my days of childhood. What I didn't know about this time was how exciting it is for the parents of those small children. I find that Tara tosses and turns more than usual on Christmas Eve. She can't wait for the girls to wake up and most years Tara has gone in and got them up because she was tired of waiting. I on the other hand have a different kind of fun out of it. I like to squelch the desire and the expectations. I like to make them feel like what they are asking for(what we actually got for them) is a little bit out of reach. I like to make them think smaller, less cool, or less fun. I love doing this not just because I am cruel and have a sick humor like that, but because it makes Christmas morning better and full of more surprise. I like a good surprise and I like to see them react when the realize they got something they didn't think they would.

In the morning, O Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before You and wait in expectation. Psalm 5:3

I spend my first waking moments in prayer, spending time praying for my day and thanking God for another day. Praying for those who are sick, those who are lost and unchurched. Praying for the church and its people, praying for other pastors and youth pastors and their days. I do this every morning and I have to be very careful in how I do it. At times it can become repititious and monotonous. I have to make sure I don't just pray the same thing each morning, then go through the day expecting to do the same the following day. Do you pray with expectations? Do you offer your requests and your needs to God and sit waiting for them to come through? I hope so because David did and you should also. I fully expect the things I pray for to come through and I fully expect my day to be full of answered prayer, every day. The world however, feeds us doubt through out the day. The news is bad, the news covereage is always extremely pessimistic and that is what makes this world go round. You have to see your way through this mentality. The world is taking away your strength but we have something far stronger. Faith and we know that our faith in God is going to be overwhelmed by our hope. God tells us in Romans that hope does not disappoint.
So lift up your prayers each morning and wait for them to be fulfilled. It's not an empty list of petitions and going through your day forgetting them, it's praying and waiting to see it. Watching and waiting with full expectation of God's power in your life.
thanks for reading and have a great day!