𝐏𝐫𝐚𝐲𝐞𝐫 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞 𝐆𝐨𝐝, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐢𝐭 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐬 𝐡𝐢𝐦 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐩𝐫𝐚𝐲𝐬.

This week I’ve been noticing how my prayer requests have over time brought insight & gratitude to mind.

𝐏𝐫𝐚𝐲𝐞𝐫 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞 𝐆𝐨𝐝, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐢𝐭 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐬 𝐡𝐢𝐦 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐩𝐫𝐚𝐲𝐬. — 𝐒𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐧 𝐊𝐢𝐞𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐠𝐚𝐚𝐫𝐝

It’s also been said that prayer may not change our circumstance but it will change our heart.

I pray for the Church every day. Recently, I started praying that we the global Church would be compassionate. That prayer quickly felt stale, too vague. I started praying that compassion would be our reputation. Eventually that prayer started feeling superficial. Although it is important, we are more than our compassion.Through a series of tweaks, I realized the prayer was focusing on us - instead of Jesus. Currently my prayer is that the Church have a reputation for reflecting the compassion of our God.

Another example is that I’ve been praying for our nation. For months, I’ve been praying that we be less polarity divided. The past couple of weeks, something started tickling me. Just this week I realized there’s room for gratitude there. We don’t want a nation of homogenous opinions. There’s no room for growth there. While the polarity is often counter-productive and detrimental to our nation’s health, I’m praying that God use those differences to construct a greater nation to His glory and I’m thanking Him for the passion of so many. May that passion burn the chaff and fuel debates that continually improve the lives of us all.

How has prayer changed you?

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{Image is a close-up of my daughter's face while she's snuggling a baby bunny on her shoulder. Her green eyes are looking up to the left. Her hand is holding the bunny, whose eyes are open and whose ears are straight up. A royal blue blanket is in the foreground, a part of her snuggle ensemble.

The scripture is James 5:16b
"𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘢𝘺𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘢 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘦𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯 𝘪𝘴 𝘱𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘦𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦."}

I chose this picture because the effect of prayer is similar to the nourishment of a baby - an invisible process that fuels their growth into a more mature, healthy version of themselves.