Prayer is my
connection to God. This is not a new
concept to me. I’ve been a Christian for
the majority of my life. I must admit
that my prayer life goes through phases, or seasons if I may. I don’t tend to pray as much when I’m on
the mountain top than when I’m in the valley.
There’s an invisible safety net around us that we tend to trust when
things are going our way. The longer we
go without prayer and trusting in ourselves the more holes starts to form in
our safety net. Then the invertible happens,
and we fall through the net.
Most of us are totally shocked when this
happens. Things were going so good. Why did I fall?
I am a natural faller. I’ve done it all my life and I perfected it. I’m
the person who can say I’ve fallen up the stairs – literality. I’ve fallen sideways and backward; anyway you
can imagine. I’ve even falling when I’m
sitting down – now that’s takes true talent, let me tell you.
The
thing about falling is that the older you get, the harder you fall. This may be a cliché, but it’s true! When I was younger, I would fall several
times a day: my scraped knees and elbows ware tokens that I had survived another day. However, now my token for falling is groaning
and gnashing of teeth for days on in.
What happened? Why did the results of my falling
change? Because I’m not as young as I
used to be, my body doesn’t bounce back as it once did.
OK, so how does this relate to prayer?
Most of us when we became Christian, we
were super excited; we had that fire in our bellies? Where did that fire go? It’s still there but for many of us it’s been
dimmed out by the realities of life – we get complacent in are praying and when
we fall through the safety net we wonder why it hurts so much more than it used
to.
Perhaps it’s because as we age and grow
in our faith, we are supposed to be praying more, but we get comfortable and we
just think we are OK where we are. The
safety net will always be there. Right?
I am, for the most part, wheel chair
bound. This really doesn’t bother
me. I am comfortable riding my little
red scooter around to do what I need to do.
It’s empowering, actually. However,
my doctor, my husband, my mom, my kids, my brothers and sisters, my friends; everyone I know wants me to
walk more. Why? Not because they want me to run a 5k, but
because it is what’s best for me. It’s
importain for me to stay active and to maintain what function of my body that I
can to ensure that I can stay as healthy as I can for as long as I can.
But it’s not comfortable. Walking makes me tired, plus that fear of
falling is always front and center…I’m not too keen on getting hurt. IT HURTS.
But I’ve got to start doing it.
Prayer works kind of in the same way.
It can be uncomfortable at times,
especially if you haven’t done it in a while.
You may be wanting to dig deeper in your prayer, but you don’t know
how. You may be in a rut; saying the same
prayer over and over and, well you get the idea.
God wants us to go deeper. He wants us to step out of our comfort zone
and to keep expanding our safety net. He
longs for us to have a more intimate relationship with Him. And there our times life where we need the
safety net. It does serve a purpose;
because there will be rough patches in your life. There may be time where you’re lying face up
on the safety net just wondering why is happening God and where do I go from
here?
That safety net will become you
haven. It will allow you the grace to
trust God and to know that he will meet your needs right where are. It will be like a welcoming bed at the end of
an exhausting day where you can just lay all your burdens down and rest.
They
safety net will allow you to do just; REST!
It will give you the peace and grace that you will need to get through
those valley days. If the net it preserved
correctly; it will have no holes.
Why? Because you mended it while
you were on the mountain top.
How is your safety net holding up?
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