prayer

sunday afternoon we received some sad news about one of the students in the youth group. while this young man's father was in the hospital waiting to have surgery he suffered a heart attack and died while at the hospital. i know that the entire family is hurting deeply at the loss of their father and husband. i didn't know the dad, but the son is a wonderful young man.

this tragedy gave us an opportunity with our small group sunday night. we talked with them about prayer.

what is prayer? why do we pray? does God hear us when we pray?

after we discussed prayer we gathered together, kneeling before our Father, and prayed. we prayed for will. we prayed for the mccallum's. we prayed to our Sovereign God. i am so thankful that He is in charge. He gives life and He takes it away. although we don't like to think about it that way, He does. He reigns supreme over all.

reed and i have always cherished our prayer time together and this past sunday was no exception. prayer is incredible! i love knowing that i am spending time with my Heavenly Father. and that He is listening. to little ol' me. He cares about every word i utter before Him. every one.

we studied the book of 1 John this week in BSF and i have to say that i think it was my favorite BSF lesson to date -- 6 1/2 years worth of lessons! the verse at the bottom is one that really stood out to me as i was studying this past week and in true God form, He allowed me to use what i had learned to share with the youth as we discussed prayer.

have you ever stopped and traced a situation backwards? that might sound really weird, but i love to see how God puts everything together. how He uses us at the exact right moment to achieve His will. my prayer now is that i will continue to seek His heart in order for His will to become increasingly more evident to me, a sinner seeking Him.

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