Love, & the Power of Prayer

Today at church we got to watch a discussion between our church leaders and Admiral Chaplain Barry Black. It was so good to hear his persective and his story. Something he said really stuck with me. "Love your neighbor as yourself" and "people don't realize the power that prayer has". 

 I just want to touch on these for a minute. I've heard a lot of different perspectives recently, some people are saying we just need to love each other more, while others are saying loving people isn't enough. I would offer this thought: when we truly love other people, all the other things will follow. 

When we truly love people, as God does, we will come to respect them, we will come to treat them kindly, we will come to treat them as our equals. Just as we come to to obey God, listen to Him, and follow His will. Love, it's not just caring about someone, it's a willingness to act. It's a desire to help, to take care of, and nurture. It's also the need to defend, protect, and support. It's a willingness to lay down your life in order to save someone else. "There is no greater love than this, that a man should lay down his life for his friends." It's an ability to sit quietly and listen to a broken heart, and to encourage the down-trodden spirit. Love also corrects, and instructs, but not with harshness or anger. The hard part is, all of this takes time. 

When you love someone, you don't instantly know exactly how to treat them, you have to learn, and as your love grows, out of it grows all the rest. 

 Prayer. It's so true that we don't realize how much in life is affected by prayer. When we are broken down and all we feel is pain or sadness, let's use those times when we're down on our knees in defeat to lift up our troubles in prayer. Yes, all the Christians have said "oh, I'm praying for you" or "we really need to pray for so-and-so, or for our country". Yes, people get tired of hearing it, or we feel like we're missing something if we don't pray all the time, but guys, listen. When we are broken down about something, do you think that God might be pulling on our heart strings? That He might be whispering "talk to Me about it, I care about this too". 

Prayer is an amazing thing. It can be a weapon, used to wage war against the powers of evil. It can be a comfort, as we look to God and remember that He has everything under control. When we pray, God Himself is listening. When we pray, He moves mountains, softens hearts, and makes a way for us to walk through the valleys. He's listening, and He's working. 

We don't realize how powerful prayer is, because we don't always see the answers to our prayers, but God has a plan. He can take even the worst of our human mistakes and bad choices, and use it for something good. So when you're broken hearted, when you can't seem to find hope, when you despair of our world, remember: He is listening to you. He knows your heart, He feels your pain, talk to Him about it. He may just end up moving a mountain. And while you may feel like loving isn't enough, it's still a good place to start.