Waiting for Inspiration

Waiting for Inspiration

I don’t know if I’ve ever told you this, but I can’t just sit in front of this laptop and write at will. I have to wait for God to give me not only the topic to write about, but the inspiration to do so. It can be a little frustrating sometimes...

Here’s the thing: I have a laundry list of ideas for this site, probably another three or four months worth. Most of them are “meaty” subjects. They’re topics that I could really get into, because at one time or another each one of them has had an impact on my life. Be that as it may, I can’t write about them until God lights a fire in me to do so.

This week’s topic was gonna be When God Doesn’t Make Sense. I’ve been thinking about it since last week, and had developed a layout of it in my mind. And that’s as far as I got. Sunday came and went. Same thing for Monday and Tuesday. Jackie (my wife) kept asking me if I was gonna write, and my response was always “I don’t know. You need to ask God that one.”

And so it was, until this morning. My message to you today is about something that I’ve been immersed in for the last week or so. It has been powerful, moving, and miraculous. Waiting for Inspiration is the title of this post, but its focus is really on what I’m going to refer to as being…

Called to Prayer

Today marks the day eleven of the Twenty-One Days of Prayer service at Church of The Highlands here in Birmingham. I’ve written on this topic before, so I won’t bore you with the details. I’ll just tell you that each weekday morning at six o’clock a couple of hundred church members meet for an hour of worship and prayer; intense prayer.

Look, I’m gonna cut to the chase here.

Your prayers are powerful. AND, God is listening. At this very moment, some of you are nodding your head in complete agreement with both of those statements. You know what prayer can do, don’t you?

There are many of us that want to believe it, but for a variety of reasons can’t, or won’t. We don’t think that our prayers aren’t powerful enough, or that we’re not worthy enough, or that we don’t know how to pray. For so many years that was me.

But I’m gonna tell you right here and now that I was wrong, and if there was any doubt left in those stubborn little corners of my mind, the past eleven days have erased it.

I won’t go into detail here, but I’ll tell you that during this past week it was answered prayer that gave me the strength and conviction to do some things that I really didn’t want to do, but were necessary. Answered prayer allowed me to come up with the right words in some difficult situations. Answered prayer kept me calm and centered though it all. Answered prayer opened a door for me to serve as a mentor for some young adults in our church.

Yeah, I know; these are all answered prayers that I said for myself. And believe me, I was, and am, grateful that they were answered. But there was one other prayer that was answered, and it was a prayer that I was offering, not for myself, but for someone else.

There’s a young lady that I’ve been praying for this week. Well, I’ve been praying for her family too, but I’ve really been praying for her. I’m not talking about including her in my morning or bedtime prayers, but praying for her whenever and wherever I had the opportunity. I was so blinded by my prayers for her that I couldn’t bring myself to even think about The Seed of Hope. Her needs, or more specifically her spiritual needs, were more important this site. And I wasn’t the only one praying for her; she was being held up in prayer by many others, I’m sure.

You know what? God answered those prayers. At what you might call the last minute, of the last hour, of the last day, God gave this young lady and her family a miracle of sorts. No, it wasn’t in the way of a healing, or a narrowly-missed tragedy. Well, it did have something to do with sight…

You see, the eyes of this young lady’s Dad were opened to something that they had been blinded to for a long, long time. And as his eyes were opening, so did his heart. What her Dad may not yet realize is that his restored “sight” is going to open the door for his daughter to touch the lives of many, many people.

I’m calling you to prayer.

Your prayers matter. They’re heard. They’re powerful enough, and you’re worthy enough.

And this thing about “not knowing” how to pray? I hear what you’re saying; like I said, I’ve walked that walk. For years I would say the Lord’s Prayer (because that’s the one I knew by heart), and then I’d ask Him for my needs. And get this: To make sure that He heard me, and because I felt like I hadn’t done enough, I’d go back and recite the Lord’s Prayer again, and again, and again. It got to the point that I wasn’t even paying attention to the words, which in turn, diminished both the effectiveness of my prayers as well as the continued growth of my relationship with God.

If you know how to talk, you know how to pray. I believe that the purest form of prayer with God is talking to Him. It allows us to express our emotions, and to voice, with our voices, our fears, needs, and concerns to God. And it allows us to express, in our own words, our love for Him, and our gratitude for what He’s done.

I’m calling you to prayer.

Go talk to God. Pray for the needs of others. Pray for our country and our President (Even if you didn’t vote for him.). Pray for our elected officials at every level of government. Pray for your church, and your Pastor, and all those who serve to keep it going. Pray for our troops in harm’s way. Pray for your families, and your friends.

Pray for anyone and everyone that you can think of. Pray for your enemies or people that have hurt you; yes even the ones for which you feel hatred (you’ll be amazed at what happens to your heart when you do this!).

Pray for lost souls, that they may come to know God.

Finally, pray for your own needs. And when you do, don’t be timid in your petitions. If there’s something that you need, or if there’s something that you’re facing in life, ask Him, with boldness, for it. Perhaps what you’re needing is more of Him in your life. Ask Him. He answers prayers and works miracles every day!

I’m calling you to prayer.

See you next week!