What To Do When You Want To Give A Really Good Gift
Maybe you know I wrote a book on prayer. I did. We launched the pre-sale for Prayer, In Practice today. Likely you're reading this tomorrow. But I'm writing it tonight which is still today; I'm up late looking back over a long 24 hours of good, encouraging work.
This morning, groggy, 4-hours-slept, I sat down to send messages. I wanted to send a personal note to every person who'd shown interest in this project over the last month. I made a list of Facebook likes and shares and dug in to write. For the next two hours I wrote messages--message after message to all kinds of people...
People I love
People who love and support me
People I've only ever talked to on Facebook
People I've known since childhood
People who've been reading my work for half a decade
People I don't know at all
As I read these names I couldn't help but feel overwhelmed with appreciation and love and excitement. So I prayed. I prayed for their kids. I prayed for their jobs. I prayed God would rain down blessings. I prayed He'd fill them with His Spirit. I prayed thank You...
Thank You, thank You, God for people like these, people generously investing in one telling Your story and equipping Your saints. People who want to pray more and better. People who want to pray because they want to be close to You. People who think being close to You is the best thing there is...
I prayed because I loved these people. Because they'd given me a gift, and I wanted to return the favor. Because prayer seemed the only thing big enough to offer.
One of my friends said to me once, "Every time I go in Anthropologie I think of you and how much you love that store and I wish I could buy you everything." Haven't you felt that? Like you love someone so much you want to give them all the gifts.
What I love about prayer is the way it enables that kind of extravagant generosity. In praying for the people I love I'm giving them a gift. And with prayer, there's no limit to how much I can give. I'm never, ever, never denied access to God's shareable, transferable, unbounded love and power.
-
I wrote this book on prayer because I love prayer and I love God's people and I think God's people deserve (and need) better prayers. If you're struggling to get traction in your prayer life, I'd suggest you give it a shot. This book is SO MUCH praying. You're gonna love it.
Check it out HERE: http://www.jlgerhardt.squarespace.com/prayerbook