Prayerful Expectations

I journal almost every day.  Even on days when I honestly can’t think of anything to write.  There are days I can’t wait to fill up the blank page and other days, I just stare at it and struggle to come up with even a sentence.  So why do I write on those days?  Because it’s good discipline for me.  I struggle with discipline and routine and I thrive on variety and change!  Though change is good and adds spice to my life, discipline and routine are the things that help me to grow and be the best at I can be.  So, those days when my small journal page seems like it is 50 feet long, I purposely put my pen to paper. 

I start out with a lot of “surface” stuff (the weather and what I ate for breakfast) and then I find as I write that my words are coming from something deeper.  I realize there is a lot more going on inside of me then I thought.  I also find it is God’s sneaky way of getting me to open up to him.  He knows that I tend to stay on the surface with our conversations a lot of times so as I write about the weather and last night’s casserole, He starts to speak to my heart and the next thing I know, I’m telling Him things I wasn’t even aware of myself and that page gets filled up really fast.  My potentially useless journal entry becomes a heart-felt prayer/conversation with my beloved Father.  I imagine a sly smile on His face when that happens. 

Prayer is like that for me at times.  I don’t always feel like having the conversation, but when I choose to discipline myself to spend some precious moments in prayer I get so much more than I put in and that puts a smile on MY face.

Please spend some time with God right now.  I can guarantee that you will get so much more than you were expecting!

“By day the LORD directs his love, at night his song is with me— a prayer to the God of my life.”  Psalm 42:8

“May my prayer be set before you like incense; may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice.” Psalm 141:2

Blessings,

Lisa