And now for your praying pleasure

You know, sometimes someone sort of dares you to do something, without coming right out and saying it is a dare.  When this happens you have two choices.  To either prove them right, or to rise above.  I'm taking the high road on this one.

Okay, so I've been longing for a long time to be a part of a prayer group.  Before the split in my church, as I think I've mentioned before, I never really felt needed.  Yes, at that time, we had a prayer team, but they had all the help they needed, thank you.  So now that we are smaller, we have no prayer team and that's okay too, as long as we continue to pray. 

I have no trouble tossing up a "quickie" to God while I'm driving to work ("Thanks God for such a beautiful day."), or when an immediate need arises ("God, please be with so and so while they undergo such and such.").  But when it comes down to deliberate prayer, I kinda suck.

Last night, I crawled into bed and had trouble falling asleep, so I decided to pray, figuring it would be a "quickie".  But once I got started with petitions and praise reports for things that have gone well, I was at it for about twenty minutes!  Bottom line is that we all know lots of people and all of those people have some kind of problem or are undergoing a hardship.  What started out small grew and grew as I remembered so many people; the family at church who just lost a sister, wisdom for Shell and Jim, healing for Robyn, peace for Sheri and the other friends who just lost a loved one, Gaby's friend who is currently paralyzed, for Kelly as she undergoes problems at work, for my church, my family, my children, myself.  The list went on and on and when it was all said and done, it felt good!  Praying on behalf of others brought peace to my heart.  I don't even think you have to be a believer to find some peace in knowing someone is praying for you.

So, with all that being said, I have created a Google prayer group that anyone interested is invited to attend.  Well, any women.  I just think that we sisters can be pretty powerful when we need to be praying on behalf of someone and I want the group to be a safe haven for folks to air their hearts.  It's not a group about judgement, but about supporting each other through friendship and prayers. 

So, I invite any of you to join who may want to.  If we get up to around 15-20 people, I'll poll the group to see how they feel about higher numbers, as I want the group to be intimate enough for people to be comfortable sharing.  I think things could get too big and impersonal and that isn't what I want at all.  The addy for the group is Sisters of Grace