day eight: praying BIG is praying together.

I love Friday mornings.  They start at 6:10 a.m.  Unlike folks like the wonderful Angela Conklin, I despise seeing any number before 7 on my clock in the morning.  And 7 is even pretty tough.  But I digress.

My first alarm goes off at 6:10.  This alarm just scares me, really and so in a frazzled haste, I silence it.  Three minutes later, it goes off again.  This time I'm a little more awake and silence it, knowing that I have two more alarms so I let myself relax again--and sometimes impressively fall back asleep--for two more minutes.  6:15 and it goes off again.  This time I'm awake and aware that if Brett is waking up because of this 4-alarms-nonsence, he is probably isn't super happy about it, so I silence it super fast.  Then I lay there for two more minutes just waiting for 6:17 because I know if I don't silence it before it goes off, my marriage may be in jeopardy. 

At 6:17 I brush my teeth, wash my face and pump.  If you don't know what pumping is, don't even worry about it.  It has to do with breastfeeding and even though breast feeding is a miracle, it's still crazy and maybe a blog about prayer isn't the place to delve into it.  Finish pumping, make a bottle for Brett to give Haddie when she wakes up, get dressed, grab my bag and keys, and slip out the back door in hopes to not wake either of the girls.

At 7 a.m. I get to Ann Reynold's house where there are Jelly Donuts (not actually donuts with jelly in them--those are dis.gust.ing--but donuts from a store called Jelly Donuts in Burlington--they are the BEST donuts) and coffee waiting for me.  Along with these people:

Well, give or take.  Sometimes there are more, sometimes less. And as much fun as 7 a.m. and Jelly Donuts and Ann's cozy living room are, we aren't there for that.  We are there to pray for the ministry of Young Life, specifically in Alamance County.

Every week, Ann starts us out in prayer and we all just popcorn-style start praying through the requests that we've shared for the ministry.  And as we get rolling, I inevitably start praying BIGGER and bigger as that sweet hour of prayer continues on.  Hearing the hearts and the prayers of fellow believers encourages my heart at a deeper level than words can process and gives me courage to pray bigger.

Praying with Brett is one of the most important (and easiest to not do) things we do together.  There is nothing that will get you talking at a soul level and dreaming together than talking to the Lord together.  Don't get me wrong, in the crazy of two kids and two dogs that need to be fed and cared for and toys that need to get picked up and years worth of laundry that needs to get folded and dishes needing to be washed, by the time the girls are down, praying together is the furthest thing from my mind to do. But ahhhh when we do, it's GOLD.  

 (This is what my house looks like right now. You're jealous, aren't you?)

As I've prayed about writing this post, the Lord brought to mind the early church.  Right after the disciples had encountered the risen Christ (<--Please, Jesus, help this MIRACLE that you defeated death & sin in your resurrection NEVER be dull to me!) they went upstairs together and as Acts 1:14 says, "They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers."  Praying together is part of what laid the foundation of the church.

Acts 2:42 -47 seems to me to be an overview of what that newborn church family looked like.  I love verses 42-43: "They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and prayer."  But then it's in Acts 4:23-31 that it gets real.  After some intense persecution, they all get TOGETHER to pray.  Here's their prayer:

They didn't just ask to be protected or for God's peace, which would have been GOOD things to pray for, but I can't help but wonder if praying TOGETHER gave them a boldness to ask for something BIGGER than themselves and their safety and their comfort.  They asked to be able to preach the Gospel with boldness and for miraculous signs and wonders to be done in Jesus' name--they saw beyond themselves and into a broken world in need of redemption and realized THEY were God's ambassadors in sharing the good news of redemption in Christ.

What I love is that by God's graciousness, I've been able to experience this same thing in prayer with my friends.  When I pray with other people, my prayers get bigger, braver, and more expectant.

When the believers stopped praying in Acts 4:31 it says that "the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly."  They prayed BIG together and God showed up BIG.

So go find you some people.  Or just one person.  Pray with them and watch Jesus make those prayers turn from little to BIG.