Prayer has always been a struggle with me in public settings.  Such a personal and intimate connection with God has always been just that for me, personal and intimate.  Recently I’ve been excited about some future prospects of mine and have started in some goals that will lead me into some very different areas.  To get to these areas I will have to put complete trust in God’s will for me.

Part of that trust is also a step of faith on my part.  Corporate prayer.  When I say corporate a lot of people get the missinterpretation that I mean in a business setting.  This is truly not the case.  Corporate prayer is any public prayer with 1 or more participants.  Typical corporate prayer is prayer geared towards the church, the community, our nation and those around us.  But it also brings us to a point of vulnerability and accountability.  Up to this point in my life, I’ve tended to keep my personal and spiritual life to myself.  It seems God doesn’t want it this way.  In the past week I’ve made some interesting decisions, some changes in my daily walk and some outward motions that I’m not all that comfortable with.  I’ve since made it a point to be faithful to our church’s Sunday afternoon/evening prayer service and the Tuesday morning Men’s prayer service.  Both prayer services have kindled a fire in my heart that I can’t explain.

Prayer is not something that comes easily to almost everyone at first.  Our bodies don’t want to sit still, want to fall asleep, our minds wander and our anxiousness increases, but when we continually pray and deliberatly pray, God puts those things at ease.

I invite anyone who reads this to challenge themselves to at least a monthly devotional time with their church body in corporate prayer.  Not only do we need it, but our churches, our families, our communities, our nation and our world needs that intersession.

As the oft quoted bible verse says:

if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
2 Chronicles 7:14

It’s a relief to know that God loves us no matter who, what, where we are and that we can always turn to him. I thank him daily for that blessing, that grace and that mercy, because I know, I’m not nearly close to what He expects of me.