*Had a great Father's Day.  Ended it with Buca Di Beppo!

*Yesterday I talked about some of my hangups w/ prayer.  Here are a few:

    1) It seems like God's priorities are messed up.   He appears to answer irrelevant prayers, but not the important ones.
    2) It seems like prayer is often very random and makes very little difference.
    3) I don't have a personality that lends toward prayer (introverted, reflective, serious, etc.)
    4) There is a lot of confusing and incorrect teaching on prayer (ie - if you have enough faith, God will heal you!).

*BIG QUESTIONS: What if all of my hangups with prayer were not the point of prayer to begin with?  What if the purpose of prayer wasn't to get stuff from God?  What is the reason prayer is so random is 'cause it was never meant to be specific?

*The Lord's prayer (Matthew 6) teaches us that the purpose of prayer is to express submission to and dependence on God.

*God isn't concerned with the volume, length, or intensity of our prayers!  He is concerned with us trying to sync our will, desires, wishes, and dreams with His.

*The big challenge for all of us is to regularly find a time and a place where we can privately submit our will and desires to God.  This is going to require us to move forward from the "Bless me..."  "Help me..."  "Protect me..."  "Give to me..." type of prayers. 

-Dave


PS - Here is part 2 of the set up team from our series, "Great Lakes Church... in 60 Seconds or Less!"