Pray!

A few days ago my friend Cheri over at Pass the salt, please! posted an article on prayer. You can read her article here. This article spoke volumes to me- prayer changes things. Prayer doesn't change God's mind, it gets our hearts in tune with His and prepares us for what is about to happen.

"But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you."

Matthew 6:33

"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.

Matthew 7:7-8

When we pray, we are to pray according to the will of God. We are to, first, seek the things of God. We are to set our minds on Him, seek after His righteousness then all else will fall into place. I've found that when I pray according God's will, I can rejoice no matter what the outcome may be because I know that it was all about God and not a selfish request of my own.

After reading Cheri's article, I had a lightbulb moment. One of the verses that she mentioned was 1 Timothy 2:8, "I want men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer, without anger or disputing." Since, my kids tend to be on the "disputing side of things" I thought it would be a great idea to make a family prayer jar. This prayer jar will serve many purposes for our family.

1. It's hard to stay angry with someone when you are praying God's best for them.

2. This will be a time for our family to sit together, share our hearts and get to know one another better.

3. It will be an opportunity for us to see and record God working in each of our lives.

4. It's an opportunity for us to encourage one another.

Today, my kids and I made our prayer jar. We talked about what prayer is and why it is important for us to pray.

All our materials.

My son and I talked about Abraham and his trust in God.

My oldest looked up several scriptures about prayer- 1 Thessalonians 5:17; Ephesians 6:18; Philippians 4:6; Colossians 4:2; Isaiah 55:6; Psalm 95:6; 2 Chronicles 7:14- she wrote them down and then we talked about what these verses mean.

In our jar we included three different kinds of cards: "I love _______ because", "I am thankful for..."

and a card with everyone's name on it. These cards will be put in the jar. At dinner everyone will get a name of someone to pray for, an "I love________ because" card, and an "I am thankful for card." We'll then take turns going around the table completing our cards.

I've placed the jar where everyone has access to it. Beside the jar are blank cards that will be used for prayer requests or praises. Anytime during the day, we can get a card, write our name and the date on it, our prayer request or praise, and put it in the jar.

Making our jar pretty. I just used an old formula can. We covered it with paper and put 2 Chronicles 7:14 on the front.

On the lid of the can we labeled it "Prayer Jar".

Putting in the cards.

Ta-da! Our family prayer jar.

Praying Scripture back to God is very powerful. It helps us overcome many things, tunes our hearts into the heart of God, and replaces our thinking with the righteous thoughts of Christ. If you'd like to have some verses to pray for your husband, children, or teens- go here and scroll down to the bottom of the page.