Prayer week reflections

On Tuesday night May 13th, a group of us sat outside Panera drinking coffee and talking about our walk with the Lord. We were sick of the mediocrity in our walk with God. Robby Scott suggested that we meet at 5:30am every morning for a week to pray along with a fast. We decided to meet at Stinson Park at the Ortega bridge.

All of us fasted from something during that time. One person fasted from surfing (as they were obsessed with it), some from the Internet (wow, being a blogger and twitter freak, that's tough), some decided to fast from junk food, and one from coffee (wow again). I decided to fast from lunch and from listening to anything while riding around in my truck. I love listening to music and messages. This was harder than skipping lunch.

Today it's over. We fasted and prayed from Monday May19th - Monday May26th. Here are a few things God taught me...

1. God's creation is absolutely beautiful
I twittered quite a bit because of what I saw. One day I twittered that I was heading to "Stunson" Park. Amber let me know I misspelled it. As I thought about it, it might as well have been "Stunson" not "Stinson" because I was STUNNED at His glory which was displayed for us. Below is just a glimpse of what I saw and experienced every morning this week.






2. Silence is a good thing
Riding around in the truck with nothing coming through my speakers was tough, but a very good thing. When ever I was tempted (which was every time I got in the truck my hand went to the radio knob... yours doesn't?) I just prayed... That was awesome. It forced me to pray while I was riding down the road, a lot of the time I just listened to God. Many of us use the excuse, "I never have any alone time". Most of us have that alone time in the car...

3. When you commit to something distractions will come.
It seemed like I didn't get to bed before midnight on 3 or 4 nights, something came up a lot. One morning when I went to walk out the door, it was raining a little. It would have been easy to just not go. I went anyway, and I am so glad I did. Distractions will come, Satan HATES what God works in your heart. When you commit to following through, demonic distractions will come. That morning when it was raining a little, I arrived and no one was there.

4. Do what you've committed to do, even if your all alone
For a couple of days some went out of town for a little camping. On Sunday morning, when I pulled up to the park, I was all alone. God met with me in a special way, just Him and I. I mostly just stood in his presence that morning without saying much. Which leads to another thing I learned.

5. It's OK to not say a word
I haven't really thought about just sitting in silence to pray... when you pray aren't you supposed to say something to God? Though I never just kept silent when the group was praying, I felt like it many times. I was just in awe of God, I wasn't sleeping, I just felt like being silent before Him. It's ok to do that. The silence is awkward, but it's awesome just to listen to Him and sit in His presence in silence.

The thing that spoke to me the most was how God displayed His glory for us to see. I watched 7 sunrises this week... glorious. Psalms 19:1 is sooo true that the heavens declare the Glory of God. On the last day, God showed off with this...



So if you didn't make it down there, let me encourage you to do it once or twice this week. Get alone with God in a different place then usual. If you can drive to Starbucks on Roosevelt, you can make it to Stinson Park, it's just 45 seconds further. You don't have to drive to the beach to be totally mesmerized and silenced by God's glory. He shows off seven days a week right there at the Ortega bridge.