Tonight I meet the Transiteer class of 2008, the bunch of people from the UK, US, Australia and Canada who've given a year of their lives to live in a Boiler Room and explore what it means to be true to Christ, kind to people and bring the gospel to the nations. I'm joining them on their first retreat in Ashburnham to chat to them about prayer...
The way I prepare talks has changed a bit this year. Chatting about prayer is less threatening than it once was. Now it's like a pit stop of reflection on a journey of discovery rather than a cram before an exam. I sat down last night to start putting some of my swirling thoughts down on paper and I found my self drawn in, typing away a stream of consciousness, one thing into another. I'll spend many more hours today praying and shaping it, but it comes from a place of peace.
I wrote a list of all the ways I'd tried praying in the last five to ten years. It went something like this: thinking, speaking, writing, drawing, moving, singing, tongues, toothbrushes, meditation, imagination and grinning. All these things have been experiments in talking with Jesus. Some worked better than others. Some have stuck, some fell by the wayside, but all have brought me on in a love of hanging out with Him.
I wrote at the beginning of the week about asking for a rise in my faith and expectation. Well God is answering my prayers. I have a group of four trusted friends whom I've started to email every other week with requests for prayer support in what I do for 24-7. I asked them to specifically pray about two meetings this week and the meetings not only exceeded my expectation but great things poured out from them :) I wrote a confidential prayer update to the forty or so people who support 24-7 in prayer and then had a horrible night of panic attacks that felt like attack. I asked my girlfriends to pray and the last two nights have been the best night's sleep I've had in a month.
They may seem only small things but they were really significant finger prints of God at work in my week. My prayer each morning is still the same, "Holy Spirit teach me to pray... give me faith, I want to see you move." It wil probably remain the same for quite some time.
If you're praying today then I'd appreciate some prayer for my journey to Ashburnham. It's a bit of mission on the trains, I’m going alone and the last train is only a half hour after I finish my talk. I'll be back late tonight :) prayers for protection would be greatly appreciated. xc