June 15: Prayer

Last week we looked at assessing spiritual gifts. Assessing, assessing, assessing. But after the assessing comes the implementing. And there is a secret weapon to spiritual gifts: prayer.

Okay, maybe it isn't so secret. Yesterday, Pastor Jef encouraged us to pray the prayer of St. Augustine. We pray the Lord's Prayer every Sunday at church. I've been known to offer a little prayer of thanks when there is a near miss on the highway or when Drew is on his bike doing some crazy stunt.

What lacks in my prayer life is deliberate action. Before writing this post, I had never sat down and deliberately prayed to God about my spiritual gifts. Have you? It seems obvious that with testing high on the administration side of things that I should be doing office work or managing a blog or those types of tasks. Hmm, go figure.

But what about using the garbage can as a step stool? Is there some alternative, crazy use for my gifts that I'm not finding? I shouldn't just assume that I'm doing all I can with my gifts for God. There are other things that he wants me to do, and I would even be willing to do if I knew what they were. That's where prayer comes in.

The other day, Drew was crying because he was upset with Lizzy. It turns out that Lizzy was trying to play a game with him, but she was playing it in the complete opposite way he wanted her to. She wasn't been mean, but the rules of the imaginary game had evolved and she was unaware of the change. I wonder if our lives aren't a little bit like that. We'll never know if we are playing the game the wrong way despite our good intentions unless we frequently ask the one in charge how we should grow and change to play better.

Prayer does not need to be eloquent or poetic. What we need in our prayer life is sincerity and openness. Just talk to God like he is a good friend, Jesus did. He called him Abba, which I'm told translates more like "Daddy" than "Father". This didn't really hit home for me until we had a guest speaker during youth group who began all of his prayers with "Papa God". If we are truly brothers and sisters in Christ, then God is our Papa or Daddy. Talk to him like that. (And, if your earthly father wasn't such a great person, think of someone else who makes you comfortable and talk to God like you would talk to them.)

Challenge for today: Find a quiet place, either physically or just in you mind and ask how God wants you to use your gifts today.

Matthew 21:22

And all things, whatsoever you shall ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive.