Greetings from Austin Street

Happy Monday! All is well here at 811. 26 treatments down with 8 more to go and the boost treatments begin tomorrow. I think they are pretty intense but are shorter. Please say a prayer tonight for my friend Allison. She is having back surgery tomorrow and has had many bumps in the road leading up to this day. She is a strong woman of faith but with any surgery there is anxiety. Her surgery is at 9:00. Thank you.

Dear God of heaven and heart and all creation.  I am first to you and you are foremost to me. Thank you for this wonderful gift of prayer. Thank you for allowing us to speak to you and granting us you voice when you speak to us.  Teach us to pray as you would have us pray. Help us to listen so that we make the pest possible choices that would honor you. Help us to make decisions even the small everyday ones that keep us in close communion with you.  And Lord, thank you for giving us this gift of prayer so that we keep a close relationship with you. I love you Lord. In Jesus’ name, amen.

The disciples often witnessed Jesus praying. One day they asked Jesus to teach them how to pray. This little conversation has often puzzled me. Why would the disciples not know how to pray? Or was it maybe they observed Jesus praying differently than they had been taught? Maybe the only way they knew how to pray was to recite the prayers of the Temple? Or maybe they heard Jesus calling God by name and praying what was in his heart. Perhaps they heard their own names being lifted. I don’t know, but something about the way Jesus prayed caught their attention and they wanted to learn to pray the way Jesus did.

Jesus taught them to call God by name. Jesus called him Father.  Jesus spoke directly to God.  This greeting told the disciples that Jesus had a personal relationship to God. The disciples witnessed Jesus speaking to God as His father and His friend.  We can speak to God the same way.  We first call God by what he is…God. My next sentence usually is “in Jesus name.”  I give thanks for God being my heavenly father, claiming a personal relationship. I give thanks that Jesus is my Savior, claiming my salvation and giving thanks for the Holy Spirit being present in me; acknowledging the very essence of God within me. When we pray God speaks to us and we speak to God.  When we pray we are telling God through our prayers that we trust in him, trust his faithfulness, believing that he hears our prayers and will answer.   But here is the thing…we don’t have to pray powerful prayers, poetic language and be long winded. We have to believe that the true power of prayer lies with the One who hears our prayers.

“This, then, is how you should pray:  ‘Our Father in heaven:  May your holy name be honored; may your Kingdom come; may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

Matthew 6: 9-10

“God! Let people thank and enjoy you. Let all people thank and enjoy you.”

Psalm 67: 3

Take joy in the journey and take time to pray. Pray for what you need, pray thankfully for what you have, give God thanks for being God, pray for others and ask to be forgiven. Wear comfortable shoes, get some sleep and think pink!  Love you all, Bruce and Gaylene