I was nine years old when I prayed my very first prayer, accepting Jesus as my Savior. I cannot recall any significant prayers from that moment on until I had hit various “crises” of adulthood, when I cried out to God for help over matters like career, relationships, and life direction. Matthew 7 says “seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you.”
Through those very first self-centered prayers, God answered, opened the door, and displayed His great power and guidance in my life. As I learned to extend prayers beyond my needs, I got to witness miracles big and small in different situations and the lives of those around me.
Though His timing and responses often fell outside of my expectations, He always responded in such a personal way that made it unmistakable to me that He was answering. God showed me that prayer is an act of worship through humbling myself, releasing control over my wishes, recognizing God’s sovereignty over all, and allowing His glory to be revealed through His leading. Time spent in prayer has produced some of the most intimate and powerful moments with God. With the upcoming Week of Prayer, I pray that we all would have the opportunity to boldly seek and experience this powerful intimacy with Him through prayer—to come together as a family to ask for His sovereign guidance and for His power, will, and glory to be revealed in our lives, our world, our community, and for our church.