"I met my friend Angie for lunch after having not seen her for several months. At the end of our time together, she pulled out a piece of paper with notes from our previous get-together. It was a list of my prayer requests she had been praying for since then. She went through each one and asked if God had answered yet or if there were any updates. And then we talked about her prayer requests. How encouraging to have a praying friend!" Excerpt from Our Daily Bread.
Prayer is a precise science and those who are serious about prayer will get results. This has been my experience. My prayer life got serious when I started to suffer after I got sober in AA. My defects of character were destroying me. I had many that prayed for me, and their prayer was what sustained me and kept me alive. Many haved remained anonymous intercessors for me and I am grateful for them.
Once again, you take me back to a time where I went through and learned many of the things you speak of today ... Prayer ??? ... Yep, the 'real thing', and I don't mean 'coca-cola', ... just somehow 'came about' for me ... I think I've shared this before, but the first time my sponsor told me to "go home tonight and get on your knees and 'thank God' for the day" ... ... ... I said WHAT ??? ... He said you heard me ... I said I'm not sure I can do that ... He said, what's the matter?, when you pray, don't you think you mean it? ... ... ... I said that's right, I don't ... and I'm not going home and then pray to God, thanking Him/Her for the day ... It's been a miserable damn day, I hate you, I hate AA, and I hate God ... so I'm not going to pray to something I don't believe in and be a hypocrite ...
He said, THAT's not the point ... IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT YOU THINK ... he said the point is, is it's the ACTION you're taking ... It's the Action you're taking that you don't know you're taking that's going to cause all these things to happen that you never knew were going to happen ... and once all these things happen that you never knew were going to happen, then what you think needs to happen, will never need to happen ... ... ... ... ... ... .... I thought, oh my God, I got an idiot for a sponsor ... ... ...
Most of you know the rest of that little story, but the whole point was to get into the practice of 'prayer', whether you mean it or not ... so I did what my sponsor said, knowing he was crazy and I was just crazy enough to follow him ... of course he later told me, and I want everyone to REMEMBER THIS, if nothing else, He told me that, and I quote: "Don't you worry about your relationship with God, because God can handle that, all by Himself" ... in time, your relationship in that department will blossom into something you can't even fathom right now ... ...
I Love you Lord, and I love everyone in the program of AA, whether they've stayed sober or not ... I pray that others may come to know You as I know You ... in Jesus' name, Amen
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'Those who leave everything in God's hand will eventually see God's hand in everything.'
Thats and real good gratitude prayer Pap...I'm sure that God really appreciates that statement of unconditional love especially the one whose own name is Love. Thanks for the lead. (((hugs)))
