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thoughts on Prayer [+] Friday E-Devotion

Margaret Feinberg will be our guest at The Community Fellowship this Saturday at 6 pm and Sunday at 10:10 am as she shares from her new book, The Sacred Echo.  This book is a challenging look not only at the fact that prayer is and ought to be a significant part of the Jesus' follower's life but that there is deep, deep intimacy with God on this journey.
 
On my office desk is one of my favorite pictures.  It is of me and my grandfather, William Henry Harrison.  We are sitting in a lawn chair stretched out in the front yard of their old Temple, Texas home.  My head on his chest.  Feeling and even hearing his heart beat.  (I have a picture of our son with his grandfather, my dad, in almost the same position.  I cherish that photo, too.)
 
Hearing from God and prayer is much like that picture of me.  It is as easy as resting with God.  Letting Him do the worrying, and letting Him do the working and talking.  What I need to do is lean on Him.  Don't we all need to learn more and more of that?
 
This is not inactivity.  This is faith in action, hearing God and responding.  Here are some quotes from her book:
 
If prayer is one part speaking and one part listening, I think there's a third part people don't talk about as often: waiting.  (page 56)
 
Don't be distracted by what others are doing...stay on course.  They have their lanes and you have yours.  You need to follow Me...Such experiential moments of hearing God's voice are often the most difficult for me to recognize.  I cannot imagine how many times God has wanted to speak to me about an encounter, experience, or exchange, but I don't have eyes to see or ears to hear.  (pages 89-90)
 
True surrender is not a single action but a posture in life, yielding ourselves - our whole selves to God.  Breathtaking opportunities for surrender will surface throughout our lives, but grabbing hold of them begins below the surface, in the deep places of the soul where God is already preparing us not just for those moments but for Himself.  (page 123)
 
Orphans, widows, and aliens, by their very nature, have all experienced relational loss.  They have been separated from those they love.  God tells us not only to give them food and financial support, but also to come alongside them into our land to glean and invite them into our feasts to eat.  These are not people to be marginalized and set aside, but to be acknowledged, included, and appreciated. (page 133)
 
Some things are just beyond earthly explanation or understanding, but in His bigheartesness, God did not leave me there.  (page 162)
 
Those are just a few of the nuggets that have lifted and stuck with me through these pages all pointing me to remember:
 
Psalm 46:10 (nlt) --- Be still, and know that I am God!...
 
Join us, if you are close by, this weekend as we spend time listening, speaking and waiting on God.  You will be blessed (Saturday at 6 pm and Sunday at 10:10 am, two different talks) by Margaret Feinberg.

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