The other side of prayer...

I pray that you [Sandi] will know that the blessings God has promised his holy people are rich and glorious. And you will know that God's power is very great for us who believe.  ~ Ephesians 1:18-19

Rich Mullins was just the most amazing man used by God....

"Sometimes you try to impress God with all the right words...."

Prayer....

I give thanks for the seemingly microscopic, I make a place for God to grow within me. This, this, makes me full...What will a life magnify? The world's stress cracks, the grubbiness of a day, all that is wholly wrong, and terrible busted? Or God? Never is God's power or knowing small.  God is not in need of magnifying by us, who are so small, but the reverse. It's our lives that are little and we have falsely inflated self, and in thanks we decrease and the world returns right. I say thanks and I swell with Him, and I swell the world, and He stirs me, joy all afoot. 

This, I think is the other side of prayer. (Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts, p 59)

"The other side of prayer."

What a provocative thought.....

In the Job study we have talked about the throne room of heaven, not something I have ever thought a lot about...but, would the "other side of prayer" be my moving more into God's presence?  Would it be the "throne room"?

The list is God's list,the pulse of His love - the love that thrums on the other side of our prayers. And I see it now for what this really is, this dare to write down one thousand things I love.  It is really is a dare to name all the ways God loves me. The true Love Dare. To move into His presence and listen to His unending and know the grace uncontainable. This is the vault of the miracles. The only thing that change us, the world, is this - all His love. (Ann Voskamp, p 60)

I think of Gandhi's challenge to me, "Be the change you wish to see..."

When I give thanks for the "microscopic things" like sunshine filtering through my kitchen window, the taste of warm cider from a pretty cup, the fingerprints of my Grands on my stainless steel refrigerator, being able to dial the phone and hear my mom or dad say, "hello...".... you know those ordinary/everyday things of life...

When I pause and offer gratitude for these everyday things...I stand on the other side of prayer...I stand in His presence....I stand on holy ground....

I feel so ...

small....

I feel amazed...

Ann writes:

I am bell and He is sure wind, and He moves and I am rung and I know it for what it is: this is the other side of where Daniel, man of prayer, lived. Change agent, mover and shaker Daniel, second-to-the-king Daniel...Rather, his prayers moved kings and lion jaws because Daniel "prayed three times a day, just as he had always done, giving thanks to his God." (Daniel 6:10) (Ann Voskamp, p 60)

Wow...I've really got a lot to hold and reflect upon this evening.

Prayer. Holy Ground. Change agent. Daniel.... Something I take for granted....Something I all to often treat very casually.

I want to keep reading, to keep journalling these thoughts and images, yet I feel nudged to sit still with all that is rushing through my heart.

The other side of prayer....

Many Blessings ~ Sandi