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staying present when it’s hard

For the first week or so of being in Guatemala City, I was really homesick, disconnected, and not present. One night, we were going over James 4 as a team and this passage really hit me in what I was going through.

“Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.””
??James? ?4:13-15? ?NIV??

We should be present in the season the Lord has us in at this moment. Don’t focus on the next season or what you will do tomorrow, focus on today. Because that is all that we are guaranteed right now. God will give us what we need for the next season, when that season comes.

And then James 5… let me just say, prayer is powerful!

“Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.”
??James? ?5:13-18? ?NIV??

We are supposed to pray about everything. We are supposed to pray for each other and with each other. We are supposed to pray in the good times and the hard times. We are supposed to pray for healing. We are supposed to pray for forgivenes. We are supposed to pray with faith.

Our prayers are powerful!

I love this example of Elijah and how he prays. It starts off by saying he is human just like us. I just think it’s so cool that it specifically says that he is just like us..

And then goes on to say how mighty his prayers are. But why are his prayers so mighty? Well, it says ‘he prayed earnestly.’ Do we pray earnestly like Elijah did? Do we pray without ceasing? Are we truly believing what we are praying for?

Maybe when we think we aren’t hearing Gods voice, actually we just aren’t praying earnestly enough.

I want to be like Elijah when I pray and pray earnestly to my Almighty Father.