Wednesday, May 5, 2010

The Power of Prayer

I know I haven't been very good at keeping up with this blog lately. My life has been hectic academically and emotionally as well as with my family. I went into a short depression, but I am slowly but surely getting out of it.

I wanted to discuss the power of prayer. In BCF, we have been doing an activity at the end of each meeting where you take an index card and write down a prayer request. Each card goes into a pile and you blindly pick one up. That card will have the name and request of someone else, and you are reminded to pray not just once, but all week for that person and their request.
Usually I have been praying for other people, and my requests were for friends or family members. I thought asking someone to pray for me would be considered selfish. However, I really needed some hope at the time of my depression, and so I finally wrote down for three weeks asking the recipiant to please pray for me and my troubles. To be honest, I doubted anything would happen, I thought I needed my own power to turn myself around. Not-so-surprisingly though, God worked in many mysterious ways, and he did in fact answer my prayers.
Starting with last Tuesday (April 27th) I became really positive. I got my paper back and a quiz, both really good grades for a class I wasn't doing well in. God was giving me a day to relax and have fun, and I took full advantage of it. To start it off, I did a walk for civility around campus, and since it was a beautiful day that left me in a good mood. Next I screenprinted my first t-shirt with a nice music quote and got free ice cream later. I had a delicious lunch, went to accounting class, left with a good feeling, and met my friends for dinner. It was a simple day but I loved how I was happy and in a positive mood. The rest of the week, though not as excellent, didn't get my mood down. I went through spring weekend free and happy. Crunch time was this week. I went to ACE for pretty much the first time to get help on my assignments, as suggested by a specialist. Despite my reluctance, I actually think it helped. They told me there was nobody to help me in global anthropology, but they redirected me to a writing specialist, thinking that was the best option. This is where the prayer answer comes out: the writing specialist turned out to be an anthropology major in college, so she knew exactly where I was going with my paper and gave much insight on my topic. I told my mom about this after the appointment and her response: "the power of prayer"

Wow. The Power of Prayer. It's amazing how saying or thinking just a few simple words can result in so much.
The power of prayer.
I was extremely pessemistic, thinking that there was no way I would be able to come back to university in the fall, but now I am optomistic, finishing with a bang.
The power of prayer.

Steven Curtis Chapman knows exactly how this works.


I hear you say your heart is aching
You've got trouble in the making
And you ask if I'll be praying for you please
And in keeping with conviction
I'll say yes with good intentions
To pray later making mention of your needs
But since we have this moment here at heaven's door
We should start knocking now, what are we waiting for?

Let us pray, let us pray, everywhere in every way
Every moment of the day it is the right time
For the Father above, He is listening with love
And He wants to answer us, so let us pray

.....
And just because we say the word "Amen"
It doesn't mean this conversation needs to end



The power of prayer. Yeah. I'm liking it
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"This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us - whatever we ask - we know that we have what we asked of him." -- 1 John 5:14-15