Wakefulness

Each morning my alarm goes off and I don't want to get out of bed. Just 5 more minutes I think. Recently, I've been justifying my laziness by spending that time in prayer - sometimes falling asleep multiple times. I don't even have to ask God to grant me more sleep cause that comes naturally.

This morning was different.

I woke up and immediately began praying for a dear friend. She's my age and yesterday was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma. The story of her diagnosis and treatment is hers to share and because she hasn't shared yet, I'll leave all of that out. It's not the purpose of my post anyway. This morning I was focused in prayer. Having learned and been reminded about several things surrounding prayer in the last 6 months, I had a hard time praying.

Pray for Specifics.
Naturally I want my friend healed. Fully. I want her to feel better. This isn't completely out of selfishness. I know that she's called to missions overseas. In my peabrain sized mind, I can't comprehend how she can go through the medical stuff associated with HL and still do the missions work.

This Then is How You Should Pray...
There's a section of verses in the bible that talk about how to pray - bringing glory to God's name, bringing God's kingdom to others, asking for God's will to be done. HOw can I incorporate my not-so-selfish specific prayers with this? This part I managed to put together pretty easily in my thinking and praying. God, a complete healing would allow her to bring glory to Your name, bring Your kingdom to lost people, do your will by reaching the nations. Can it be that simple?

Simple Faith.
It's so much easier to have faith like a child - a simlple faith. Praying for God's will to be done would be so much easier and that evokes emotion from faith but that's not me. I do want God's will but I also want to tell God my heart (yes, I know he already knows it), I want to share the intimate details of who I am and that when my friend hurts, so do I. Is it really that simple?

So in the early hours of the morning when I should have been crawling out of bed, I was there wide awake approaching the throne of a Holy King on behalf of my friend. Though Ryan nudged me three times to wake up, I was wide awake and thankful that God hears our prayers!