The Gift of Prayer

the daily bread series has been about prayers quite often lately. and so is the verse that is fed into my blog everyday.

agnes came up with the very good idea of praying for a particular cg mate for the week; my prayer buddy reassured me he'll remember my prayer requests.

the shepherd and sheep game ongoing in cf lets me know that my shepherd cares for me, and i care for my sheep.

the gift of prayer. it's like the gift of a credit card to someone else's bank account. just swipe, and you have access to all the resources it entails. it's accepted worldwide-- anytime, anywhere. all you need is just faith that the cashier won't scorn at you when you offer to pay with a plastic card instead of tangible cash.

but sometimes i am too blind to see even such simple faith. i head dive into the whirlpool of toil and exhaustion, inefficiency and desperation, all of which are part of a deadly positive feedback cycle. a positive feedback can only be stopped when it self-limited, or when there is external intervention.

the sermon yesterday was on mark 7:24-37. it was about the faith of gentiles in jesus's healing powers. the pastor spoke on the holding onto the promises of God, which are solid as rock, and which have sustained his believers through ages of persecution. God has made many promises. and one that is made for the time now is matthew 7:7

"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you."

and so i will hold on to this, though my mind tends to wander into the realms of transport systems and proteins even in prayer. but this too, i know i can bring to my God, for in His promise i can ask for anything.

i ask for renewed faith, renewed joy, renewed dependence, renewed strength.