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If we think we can do life on our own, we will never take prayer seriously. Our failure to pray will always lead to us making excuses like: “we lack the discipline to do it regularly” or “we have way too many other obligations that make us busy.” But when something is actually important to us- we make room for it! There are no “if’s” “ands” or “buts’” about it! Our weakness is actually the engine light of our souls going off alerting us to the necessity of refueling and recharging our very hearts! This should be our loud and clear message that we aren’t as strong as we think we are! We need to learn to not run from our helplessness- but run to God with it! This is how a fiery prayer life is born! On any given day- when do we not need somebody much bigger than you and I to see us through to the other side of those flood waters of the chaos of life that attempt to drown us for good?

The power of Jesus being personal to us is actually linked to the helplessness that he sees in us! The apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians 12:9 the following words: “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses- so that the power of Christ may rest upon me!” Our frail and fragile humanity is the channel that allows us to access the cable of what makes us able and that is God’s amazing and present grace! But while God’s compassion is very much available to those who admit their helpless state- it is to those who are proud and self-sufficient that miss out on the banquet that could satisfy their weary and starving souls! And it all comes down to the fact that they were too full of themselves to leave any room for God’s intervention! God’s power is essential if we are ever going to understand the process and principles of what made Jesus unique as a person! To those with childlike faith- he was everything and more that anyone could wish for! But for the stubborn and stuck up spirit- Jesus could be the biggest of irritants and boldest of whistle blowers exposing the facades of the fake and phony hypocrites! He knows whether you need him or not!

Life is hard for all of us. If you are a believer, you are not exempt from being tested daily! God doesn’t put a holy shield of protection over certain people while exposing others to all of the dangerous elements of life! The Bible tries to explain the need for us to never leave the house without the spiritual armor of God on every piece of our well-being. Ephesians 6 shouts at us to be prayerfully prepared each and every minute- twenty four- seven of every second of our lives! If we go out into the battlefield without our uniform- why are we blaming God when we get hurt? If we get lazy in our exercise, why are we shouting at heaven when we don’t have the endurance that it takes to not be knocked over by all that attempts to trip us up for good? Prayer is our privilege to be in contact with mission control all during the maze we walk here below! Prayer is like the hearing device that allows us to know what to do and where to go and the rest of the details. But yet, like Katniss Everdeen in the Hunger Games Series- we sometimes find the equipment overbearing and we ramble off alone right into disasters that could have been avoided if we only kept praying!

The one who made the mountains can also move the mountains! The one who calls us to live doesn’t leave us high and dry without all the pieces and parts necessary to complete the masterpiece! Jesus points us to pray and to seek God and to be devoted to him and to look to His hand and His insight in order to receive the answers that we seek! God’s power is more valuable than our own. Bold prayers put us in tune with a Big God who never wrote defeat into our destiny! Losing comes when we fail to play the game as it was designed. We don’t practice! We don’t prepare! We don’t pray! And we wonder why we miss out on miracles! It is mostly because we don’t expect any!

When you go to church do you expect to encounter the living God? When you read your Bible- are you doing so in the same way that Payton Manning is reading his playbook? When God is looking for volunteers, are you making eye contact or shrinking back? Have you given up before you even have given looking up an honest chance?

There is a big difference between saying your prayers and living to pray! Both might sound similar on the outside- but one is born out of guilt and obligation and the other is nourished by the necessity to stay connected! I can’t do life on my own! I can’t make it happen but I can live in the midst of the happening when I expectantly call upon God to use me and mold me and make me according to his will his way doing his work here and now!

2013 is a time for bold prayers prayed by believers who trust that God can do what he says he will! It is time to practice what we preach and live what we say and if Jesus is our Lord then we have to go all the way! Our life is a book of all that we live for and we can’t waste any more days when we could have given more to a God who can outdo super abundantly far over and above anything we bring to the table! Don’t just settle for another weekend in church! It is time to ask God boldly to make us his church and his body right here right now! For when we are weak- it gives him the opportunity to be oh so strong and that is a pretty good sight to see! Let’s hunger for our eyes to see more of that because our hearts are praying like our sight depended upon it!