"To pray is to change"

"To pray is to change. Prayer is the central avenue God uses to transform us. If we are unwilling to change, we will abandon prayer as a noticeable characteristic of our lives."

"Many people who emphasize acquiescence and resignation to the way things are as 'the will of God' are actually closer to Epictetus than to Christ. Moses prayed boldly because he believed his prayers could change things, even God's mind. In fact, the Bible stresses so forcefully the openness of our universe that, in an anthropomorphism hard for modern ears, it speaks of God constantly changing his mind in accord with his unchanging love."

I know that when I start to shy away from discipline, prayer is the first thing to go, and it's because of those two reasons. The first is that I know what I'm going to hear if I really let myself sit and be intimate with the LORD and I don't want to hear it, and the second is that I don't really believe that prayer can and will change things. On the surface level, I believe that it works, but my actions reflect my unbelief.

In the midst of this though, there have been a lot of prayer-worthy events going on in my life in the past couple of days, first and foremost being that one of my friends' mom died a few days ago. My friend knows and loves the Lord and her mom did too, but her dad doesn't. This has been a long process over the past couple of months, and I know my friend's faith and the community of faith that surrounds her has been a huge encouragement and example to her dad. We've been praying for healing for her mom for so long, and now that it's over it's hard to walk the balance between knowing that His will is sovereign in the midst of grief while still trusting that prayer can and will change things, especially her dad's heart.

All that being said, my mentor shared this prayer with me a few weeks ago, and it's been so encouraging to me to pray it over a bunch of different situations:

God is
        above all things presiding
        beneath all things sustaining
        outside all things embracing
        inside all things filling

Father, pull me into deeper intimacy with you. Would I not shy away from you and try to hide behind a front of self-sufficiency but come before you in open honesty. Transform my worldview as I start to take on your perspective and not my own. Cure me of my short-sightedness as I commune with you. 


Thank you that you are reigning above all things, that you provide the firm foundation on which we stand, that you are our protection all around us, and that you fill our cup to overflowing.