I get together on Monday nights with a small group of girls for prayer in the Upper Room. It’s a little group, anyone’s welcome to come, and there are several who come from time to time, but generally it’s just a handful. Tonight is the night, and I’ve been looking forward to it! I’ve missed the last two weeks being in Paris and a bunch before because my baby boy was playing football on Mondays. So tonight’s the night!
I love my prayer times with my sisters in Jesus, particularly when those times occur in the Upper Room, the prayer and worship chapel at our church. I can almost always count on coming away with much more peace and much more joy than I had previously—a glow that lingers throughout the night and into the next day. There is something special about being with my like-minded dear sisters, a fulfillment of that promise that Jesus made, “Wherever two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in their midst.” It’s very different from praying alone, although that’s vital. There’s also something very special about that place, a “thin place”, a place set apart for nothing but prayer and worship.
We always start with some music and worship the Lord for about fifteen or twenty minutes. And then we start to pray. It takes some time to really come into the presence of God, but after a while you know you’re there, you know you’re connecting, and it’s awesome, but never automatic. There is a price to pay, but it’s always an investment that pays back far more.
There have been times when I have been troubled, distressed, and worried when I began, but I have left feeling like I’m floating, feeled with faith and the knowledge that God is able to make everything turn out far better than okay. That’s what a real encounter with God will do for you!
But it’s never automatic, or guaranteed. Sometimes, thirty or forty minutes into our scheduled hour, I begin to wonder if we’re going to get to that place of release, or if maybe we’ll just dutifully pray until the hour is up. I’ve had that happen, and then the next thing I know, another forty five minutes have flown by, and I will be shocked when I glance at my watch. Time has stood still while we have encountered the living God. Occasionally, too, it will just be a dutiful hour. There’s nothing wrong with that from time to time. It’s being faithful.
Prayer is meant to be a powerful experience. When you think about what is happening—a human SPEAKING with God Himself, how can it be anything else?
There is something about encouraging people to pray because of what they will get out of it that seems a little crass, a little inappropriate. “Invest an hour in prayer and see what you can get from God!” I want to pray because he tells me to, it is the right thing. But can I help it that my God is such an incredible giver that when I give up an hour or an evening simply to be in His presence I feel far better afterwards than if I’d totally indulged my flesh, than if I’d had an hour long total body massage and then gone to a five star restaurant? And I do enjoy a great massage and a great meal—there’s a time for that too!
Recently a pastor was telling us that he’d been interviewed by a local newspaper, who had criticized him for the way he took offerings. “You tell people to give money to the church and that God will then bless them with money!” I can see that to a secular mind there is something that seems unscrupulous about that. But again, can I help it that my God is such an incredible giver that when we give to Him, He gives back to us?
I have tithed all my life. Sometimes it’s been so very hard, because money was tight. But we did it anyhow, gave the FIRST tenth, because if we’d paid all the bills up front, there wouldn’t have been anything left to give. And God always took care of us!
It’s a blessing to look BACK and see how He did. It’s sometimes a little scary to look FORWARD and imagine how He will, but that’s where faith comes in.
I have been a lifelong tither and a giver of offerings beyond that, and today we live in the blessing of God, we have all we need and an abundance to give and bless others with. But I don’t want to give just to get—I want to give because I have such a grateful heart for all He’s done. I want to give because my giving can help others in need. I want to give because it advances the Kingdom of God here on earth. But my God blesses me, because His nature is to give. I’m looking forward to encountering Him tonight in a powerful way!
What a mighty God we serve!