the power of prayer.

God called me out tonight.
He legit said, "Sara Meghan Willard, I have something to tell you, so listen up!"
I was sitting in church and needed something to write and as I was flipping in the back of my Bible, I read something I had written there my senior year during a youth retreat.


It read:
If God is telling you anything, He's talking to you about your mess.  Stop telling others what God's saying to them.


I found out some news about a friend yesterday that upset me.  From that moment, carrying through to today, I was upset.  I was anxious and frustrated.  But when I read that quote, I realized that's exactly what I've been doing.  I've been too concerned on fixing my friend while I'm not really even in a place to tell him how to live his life.


As I stated in my last blog post, I've always struggled with prayer.  It's something that my friend, Rachel has really been encouraging me in and I've been praying more in the past couple days than I have in awhile.  When I was upset last night, I couldn't sleep.  I was so conflicted.  So I prayed.  I prayed about frustration and confusion and for the desire to want what God wants for me.  And I kind of felt like I was talking to no one.  I didn't really feel that much better after praying so I hoped God would answer my questions soon.


So tonight he slapped me upside the head.  It was a "Godsmack" as my friend Phil would say.
During 6:33, the first slide on the powerpoint was a quote by Martin Luther King, Jr.


To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.


It's funny that for so long I have thought I could be a disciple of Christ without prayer.  Tonight we defined prayer as talking and listening to God.  As Christians, we are called to have a relationship with God.  What do we generally do in a relationship with friends?  We hang out with them, we spend time talking and listening to them.  That is what God wants from us!  In order to know Him and discern what he wants of us, we have to be spending with Him.  If I want to really hear from God, I HAVE TO SPEND TIME IN PRAYER.  This is something I'm learning now.


Everyone talks about the power of prayer and sometimes I doubt it.
The topic for 6:33 tonight was prayer.  We were reading from Acts 4 and verse 31 really jumped out at me.


After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken.  And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.


That is amazing.  If that isn't a testament to the power of prayer, I don't know what is.


[Food for thought]-
The one concern of the devil is to keep Christians from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work, and prayer-less religion. He laughs at our toil, mocks at our wisdom, but trembles when we pray.