The Wall: There's Power in Prayer

“Our prayers may be awkward. Our attempts may be feeble. But since the power of prayer is in the One who hears it and not in the one who says it, our prayers do make a difference.” Max Lucado

In the simplest, most honest terms: I stink at praying.

I always have. Growing up I had a morning prayer, a meal time prayer and a bedtime prayer; one for each setting, never varying from my script. As I got older, I didn't really enjoy praying out loud but had a sense of obligation to always do so, knowing because of my outgoing personality, and let’s be honest- my gift of gab, that people expected me to be the one to lead. I knew it was a stumbling block in growing in my relationship with Christ and so in college I asked my parents for a prayer Bible as a gift. Along every page was a column featuring a prayer for that section of Scripture. That Bible still looks like it was never opened. I could pray through music, I could pray through writing but for whatever reason I could never just sit down and talk with God.

Until my divorce.

That journey brought me to a point I was literally face down on the ground crying out to God. I poured out every disappointment, every desire, every misstep, every longing; I just laid them out as they came. And it never stopped. Days turned into weeks and weeks into months and with every passing moment I was passing on my thoughts to God and asking for whatever help he would still give me, no matter the time or place. I was experiencing conversation with God at a level I had never thought possible. My prayers were no longer lengthy monologues or recitations performed for a king on his throne but dialogues and conversations with the Man who had faced life on this sin-filled earth just like me.  The best way I can explain it is that I truly was experiencing Living Water: "Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, 'River of living water will flow from his heart,'" John 7:38. I was thirsty for so many things: acceptance, healing, purpose; and when I came to Jesus with this empty cup, feeling rejected, ashamed and broken, and not wanting to live, he took that from me and gave me back this Mary Poppins bottomless cup full of his truths:

"For you formed my inward parts; you wove me in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks to you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; wonderful are your works and my soul knows it very well." Psalm 139:13-14

"But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners." Romans 5:8

"And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28

Those conversations with Christ changed my life. I learned the power of prayer. And that got me excited. I thought: if God can do this in me, he can do it in my friends and in my family and even in my enemies. It was like realizing you have this tool that can save someone’s life, you've got to do something with it! But sometimes that excitement is blocked by life; we get distracted and lose our focus, we get busy and time escapes us. The excuses came but the excitement God planted didn't leave so I decided I needed something to help me become more disciplined in prayer.

In December, I had a couple friends move back to the area, and they needed some furniture. I live by myself, travel often and rarely have visitors so I decided I could give some of my pieces to them. This left me with an empty wall. I delayed getting replacement furniture but decided I should at least do something with the space. That’s when one night in conversation with God this idea for a prayer wall came to me. In the book of Joshua, God’s people took 12 stones out of the Jordan and Joshua set them up as a memorial. They were to remind the people that the Lord had dried up the Jordan so they could cross with the ark just as he’d dried up the Red Sea so they could escape Egypt (Joshua 4). I didn't have any stones but I had a wall. So I created something that would help me remember to pray specifically for others. A reminder to help them find the living water I had received and God so willingly wants them to have as well.

Just as those stones served as a reminder of how mighty God was then, my wall could remind me of how mighty God is now. He answers prayers- gosh, if you struggle with believing that just look at my life! The answers may be way different than I imagined but they are also way better. I’ll say it again- he answers prayer! But how often do we make it a priority to go to him and how often do we approach him with the faith that he’ll come through? Hebrews 4:16 says, "So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most." Too often we fail at this; we aren't boldly going. Billy Graham once said, "Heaven is full of answers to prayer for which no one ever bothered to ask." I hope I'm never the one who didn't ask!

My wall helps me make prayer a priority. In my tiny one bedroom apartment it stands at the top of my stairs in between my bedroom and the bathroom. There's no avoiding it. Every morning I wake up, I see it. At the end of the day when I get home, it's waiting for me; filled with pictures of loved ones serving and struggling, of children in need of a Savior, of the specific requests of friends pinned to a board as they come. The prayer wall has been up for over a month now and praise God, I have already seen prayers answered.

The other awesome part of it is that those prayers don't stop at the wall. That conversation is being carried on elsewhere. God is expanding our dialogues throughout the day to include the needs of others and not just myself. Growth is happening. For example, Thursday I went to the gym for the first time in two weeks and ran three miles- without my inhaler. On a good day, that's a struggle. After two weeks of being lazy, it's miserable. Usually, my mind will travel to thoughts of work or I'll focus on the TV or music, but at a mile and a half when  I was thinking I could just quit at two miles today, my mind went to a friend who currently has real estate on the prayer wall. This past week he was in Africa with Athletes in Action training track athletes in their sport and in their spiritual walks. When I couldn't breathe and wanted to quit early, my thought was, "Huh. I've got about five illustrations for our spiritual journeys from this darn treadmill!" The journey is a struggle but if we stay the course, it is worth it- Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary. Galatians 6:9. Or the journey is easier if you take your medicine; aka inhaler = Bible. Genius, right?! Instead of trying to push through by watching some worthless show, I got to pray for people on the other side of the world facing struggles I might never understand and pray for a team that made sacrifices to equip these individuals to push through and rise to the top. Two months ago I would have missed that opportunity. (AND not finished my three miles!)

Every time I see my wall, I beam- yes I've been smiling a lot lately! It reminds me of God's faithfulness in my life, and it reminds me of his faithfulness in the future. There's power in prayer and maybe you need a reminder of that. You may not have a blank wall you can fill but we all have something we see every day. Maybe it's your bathroom mirror. Maybe it's the mantel over your TV. This month I challenge you to find that one spot that can serve as your memorial, where you can place a "stone" that reminds you: God has helped me and he will continue to help me. God answers prayer!

“Pray without ceasing.” 1 Thessalonians 5:17