It seems like every time I stop striving for something through my own strength and give it up to God's will, God ends up blessing me with it (or something better) soon after. Yesterday, I had come to peace with my lack of ministry accomplishments. Today, things totally changed through unexpected answered prayers.
My pastor has recently been challenging my home group to grow in the area of prayer, specifically by setting aside a portion of every day to pray for a set amount of time. Last week our "homework" was to pray for 10 minutes every day. This week it's 15. Next week it'll be 20, and so on, until we reach 60 minutes. Craaaazzzyyy. He said something along the lines of, "When you pray more, you become more conscious of God working in your life. When you don't pray for something and you get it, you attribute it to your own strength and you get the glory. When you earnestly pray for something and you get it, all the glory goes to God." While I haven't been totally consistent in setting aside time every day to pray with intentionality, the days in which I am able to do so have been so, so sweet, partially because I can see God answer my prayers but also because it's just nice to be able to fellowship with God.
Let us not forget the example of Martin Luther, the man who typically prayed for 2 hours a day, except on days when he was busy, in which he would then pray for 3. It's crazy for us to think this way because when we're stressed or busy, our instinct is to spend more time working, and less time asking because it doesn't feel as productive. And yet from Martin Luther came the Reformation!
This reminds me of Ephesians 3:20:
"Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen."
Also somewhat related, I was quite convicted by the simplicity of these lyrics during praise today:
'Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus,
And to take him at his word;
Just to rest upon his promise,
And to know, "Thus saith the Lord."
