Sweet Hour...

I have been thinking about praying. No, not as in thinking about it but not actually doing it. Thanks to my friend Chhunga, and by God’s grace, several months ago I amped up my prayer life several notches. I have been consistently beginning my days in the presence of God through prayer to a degree I have never maintained before. We began opening our church at 6:00 am each weekday to allow people to come start their day in prayer. As autumn came on, we moved the time back to 7:00 am. Not many people have taken us up on this offer so far, but it has been a great experience for me.


First, it has developed into a habit. Interesting thing about habits; it is really hard to create one of something you don’t really want to do. Eating a piece of chocolate cake everyday would be an easy habit for me to develop, but getting up early enough to open the doors was not, at first. But over the 4 months I have been doing this, not only has it become easier to get going, I actually find myself looking forward to the time. I rarely hear the alarm clock, because most days I am already awake and up before it goes off. The quiet time spent with the Lord is a wonderful start to my days. I get to share my heart with One I know loves me more than I can express. And more and more, I sense God sharing his heart with me, as well. Yes, there are days now and then when I don’t want to get up, but they are becoming fewer and easier to combat the longer I do this.

But wait, there’s more! Spending time in God’s presence continues to shape me in the image of Christ. Now, that may sound a bit arrogant to some, but I don’t think it really is. It is my prayer that each one reading these words could say the same thing, that you are a bit closer to the image of God than you were 6 months ago. To acknowledge what God is doing in your life is not arrogance, it is witness. A huge part of what being made holy (that great doctrine of Sanctification!) looks like is an ever-growing awareness of how far the Lord has brought me, and how far we still have to go to reach the prize.

I am convinced that because of what the Lord is doing in me, I am a better pastor, a better husband, a better father and grandfather, and especially a better human being than I was, and would have been without making myself available to the Holy Spirit. For those of you who are thinking I am not all that great at some or all of these things, just imagine how bad I would be without the Spirit’s work in me! It could be far worse.

I am going to keep trying to understand a bit of what goes on as I spend this time in prayer each day. I hope that my doing so is not just talking (okay, writing) to hear my head rattle, as my father used to say. Instead, I hope others will give a bit more thought to your own prayer life, and the intimacy of your relationship with God. Perhaps we can even have conversations about this, to our mutual benefit. There are, apparently, ways to comment on this blog site (see, mom, I am becoming a freakin Geek Squad groupie!), so it would be pretty easy to do.

In any case, I will keep exploring this great gift of conversation God has given us through prayer. I invite you to try it out, too, and see where it takes you.

Grace and peace,

Bruce