Images provoke reactions and this image featured in the British newspaper the Telegraph last week is no exception...



As we observe the prayer practices of other faiths what do we learn? What does it say to us about faith, perseverance, the hunger of world to believe there is a God who can intervene?

THIS WAS POSTED ON THE 24/7 PRAYER WEBSITE. I Wrote some comments below to inspire the picture :)

Contention in Prayer – inspired by Monday night Live!

The highest battle for our faith is prayer. I have observed other people, like Hindus and Muslims. What startles me the most about them is their devotion to pray. It makes me wonder some times what they have found in this devotion to prayer that we have not. Why do these two men sit in a barrel of water, what have they found in this ritual that we have not found in our devotion to Jesus?

The past few months Monday night as I know it changed, and why? Two people spent hours on a floor praying for God to show up.

A friend and myself came together every Monday night to pray; Our hearts came open, our spirits came hungry, our eyes came wanting to see, our ears came wanting to hear, our mouths came wanting to praise, our legs came wanting to run, our minds came wanting to be changed, and as we came with our whole being we began to see God move in with His presence and our lives desiring more of the Kingdom of God and His love.

We sat on my floor; and as we sat God showed up and as God showed up we became over whelmed with different desires. At times our hearts desires was to worship Him. At times our desires shifted to others we knew and interceded for them, at times our desire was to pray for each other, at times our desires went over the top and we would pray crazy things like “ God send us to the ends of the earth for your glory even if it means we lose our lives”. At the heart of it all was "God use us to bring your kingdom down to earth no matter what it costs us."

We laughed, we cried, we sang, we talked, we sat in silence, what ever our spirit was hungry for we wanted to see it manifest. We wanted more of His presence. We began to see how we could do nothing without His presence. And as we spent those Monday nights seeking Gods presence He would show up. He came all the time. We did not plead or beg; He was literally at times just waiting in my room for us to be there. We wanted His presence and He wanted to give it to us.

As Elijah stood and called down fire from Heaven, he had a confidence that I long for in life. He knew God would show up. What strikes me the most is when the people see this fire, they immediately fell prostate and cried out to the Lord.

May we reach a place where we carry the presence of God like Elijah, where we can stand next to people like these Holy men in their barrels of water and minister the love of God and the presence of God that will bring them out of their barrels of rituals into the love and presence of God, the God who created heaven and earth, the God who alone brings the rain from heaven. The God who loves them.

Catherine