Pray is my word for the year, and as we are 2 weeks into the year, I am already learning many lessons through this journey.
I loved what my pastor, Casey Cockerham, said today (which, by no coincidence, was a service totally dedicated to praying). He said
"Don't end your prayer with a period; end it with a semi-colon. Pray without ceasing."
We are encouraged to pray without ceasing, but who has the time to do that? Well, prayer doesn't have to be profound. It can be one word, echoing within the chambers of the heart and mind, and God hears that. It can be a tear rolling down the cheek and the words full of fear saying "Oh, God" It can be a prayer of peace whispered for Him alone in the quiet of the morning, only to be interrupted 5 minutes later with a crying child or a frustrated spouse. The point is…it continues through the day. And I loved the way it was worded: to end it with a semi-colon.
Let me take you into my Sunday morning beginning…. and let's be honest here….many of us have these type of starts to a day and Sunday is often times no different, if not even worse at times.
Nothing seemed to fit right on me out of the closet.
My middle school daughter was having a meltdown about….I'm not even sure what.
It was an emergency to have…..breakfast….because we hadn't grocery shopped yet this weekend.
The kind of morning when I felt like I could do nothing right.
And well, the last thing I felt like doing was stopping to pray.
And yet that is what my heart needed most on this morning. A quiet moment- even just a second or two- that I didn't carve out like I should have. It could have been as brief as a semi-colon moment. It would have made the difference.
And as I left in a rush to get off to church, I felt that familiar nudge inside my heart telling me to pause and pray.
And then I arrive to a service dedicated entirely to prayer.
It goes without saying that the majority of the service, I was quite the bucket of (quietly dropping) tears. Because it was totally what my heart needed this morning.
It is what my heart needs every morning.
From the time I wake up and grab my morning coffee until I crash at the end of the night.
Prayer with a semi-colon. Prayer that continues all day long. Brief at times.
Longer at other moments.
Prayer for the day…
Prayer for my heart to follow His
Prayer for the hurting customer….
Prayer for the frustrated co worker….
Prayer for the children's day….
And the list goes on.
Pray without ceasing. View it as a semi-colon. That is the lesson my heart learned today in my journey of the word shaping my year.
One prayer, one moment, one day at a time. Nothing is too big (or too small) for His care.
I liked your post. I think sometimes we forget that a prayer doesn't have to be "formal". Nice reminder that our connection to a higher power is within reach always. :)
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