Alas, the story has been completed. If you stayed with me these past months, it was likely your first time to read a novel in one-chapter increments for fourteen months!

As I got to the end, it dawned on me that I never gave the story a title. I’m not sure if I’ll try to reshape it and have it published, but if I do, I will need a title. There’s your first challenge. If you read enough chapters to have the gist of the story, would you offer a title? If I choose your idea, I’ll let everyone know.

And now, back to more devotional thoughts. Many of you said that’s what you particularly like about my blogs, so here we go.

At our church, we are spending the next nine months focusing each month on one of the nine disciplines of our faith. This month’s focus in on prayer. I have been pondering prayer recently, so this will be a good subject for us.

Prayer is such a regular component of our faith. We talk about it often. Encourage it and practice it to one degree or another through our lives. But like regularly eating “good for you” food or staying faithful to regular exercise, we may fall off the wagon of faithfulness at times.

We know there is power in prayer. We experience wonderful sessions where we carve out plenty of time and quiet our souls patiently waiting on the Lord to reveal fresh thoughts and guide the direction of our prayer. This is a learned discipline that truly is a disicpline. It also reaps great rewads for our spirit.

On my better days, I sit quietly for a few minutes, begin to express concerns or needs, give Him praise, and then the hard part – wait and listen. If I’m patient enough and don’t let my mind wander, He will bring thoughts, even revelations that are so blest, it brings tears to my eyes. I feel drenched in His presence.

Other days, I feel warmed by a devotional thought I’ve read or refreshed by a Bible passage which moves me into simply thanking Him. Then there are those quicker days when I pause long enough to acknowledge his presence and express a few concerns.

Ah, but there are those days when I have an early appointment or pressing thing I must do and the day slips by with not a word to my Lord except for maybe a meal blessing.

To make it worse, I might check my phone to see if there is any immediate need and before I know it an hour has slipped by and I have to get ready for other things in the day and realize, I never prayed today. I finally decided to discipline myself. “You may not use your phone until you have had your quiet time for the day!”

Sound familiar?

Second challenge – what do you find that most helps make you faithful in your devotional/prayer time? (Scroll below to comment.)

~ Joyce ~