May 12 - Anonymous

The effectiveness of prayer cannot ever be overstated. Since our God, The Lord Jesus Christ, and The Holy Spirit are “omni-present” we never need an appointment nor a ‘google meet link” to express ourselves. We who follow Christ directly from the word of God build a personal relationship with and have access to the creator of the entire universe!

One night looking up at the stars on my deck, I suddenly realized in the awe of these amazing works, that I had a book inside my house that gives me all the information to be sufficient for my limited knowledge of the very God who created what I am looking at. How wonderous is our God we serve!

At first, I was filled with the spirit and riding high with the joy of this knowledge. Then I was humbled in just a moment to realize the importance and seriousness that “prayer” is. We are actually having an open conversation with the one who has shown us by the word given to us, the “results” in the work that is already there. Then I thought about how many times I’ve prayed in my life mostly for wants, desires, and needs. I was then enlightened of the blessings that God has brought into fruition from my “previous” prayers, which occurred to me in the middle of “praying on something new.

Well, I stopped in my tracks, and began to thank God for all the incremental processes of our divine creator. How do we know this? By the results in God’s previous blessings given to us in the name of The Lord Jesus Christ, not necessarily through miracles that defy earthly physics, but through the beauty of God’s gentle providence. However, it is still a miracle to me that God answers our prayers in the most subtle of ways, that are now reality, but originated from hope? How awesome is our God!

This experience teaches me that I need to prepare for and start every prayer with incessant “Thanks” for the countless blessings we have already received, which are reality, before we pray and hope for the new blessings we seek.

When Jesus Christ taught us how to pray” and started with “Our Father in heaven hallowed be your name” (esv), it brought on a whole new life changing meaning for me in just 8 words. Either way, the providence of our God is the only thing that can speak gazillions of volumes, in just one sentence.

We praise you Father and give thanks for all the blessings that we have previously received, in Jesus’ name, Amen! :)