These trees are leaning. They have been planted in a good position but perhaps the soil is too thin, or perhaps the wind and rain has just been unkind to this pair and they lean.

This makes me think about my life, is it stretched to such a degree that I can not function properly. Today we have so many things going on that to devote ten minutes to God might seem a push, but how much of our life are we devoting to staring at social media. Yes this site links to social media and people will read it, but its primary aim is to convince people to turn to the Lord, through images and through my blog. This has taken time away from other things, family, friends, even away from just spending time with God, and so when this challenge is over I will be glad I will not need to pour my heart out and I can just – switch everything off and pray.

The soil under the trees may be too thin.

Our prayer life may be there, but it may be too short and so the prayer power that we are building up perhaps is getting spread too thinly so it seems to have no effect.

I remember the few occasions I have really prayed and stuff has happened, there and then.

Jesus modelled an awesome prayer life that we should esteem to try to reach, but we never will. But does this mean we will be forced into a lip service prayer life were we are not really getting past the pilot light, we haven’t really turned the gas on.

Prayer sometimes feels like there is a wave pushing me down, I feel alive and it is sometimes painful depending on what I am praying about. But most of the time I seldom reach those dizzying heights, I just feel tired and waste time because I can not function.

I woke this morning with a word “Why do you test me?”

Why do I doubt God sometimes, when I have experienced prayer that works. I have experienced God’s Word coming to me. I have experienced the Holy Spirit guiding me, and I have experienced the devil putting his claws into me, and being released by Jesus. Most will say I am mad, hey I am used to that, and I believe God has guided me to be thick skinned. But God is real. His power is here and now and why do we indeed test him when we seldom sit down to actually listen to him and ask for his interaction in our world in a compassionate, Spirit filled prayer life.

I have been humbled by reading questions from children. They have written questions about their faith and many have answered their own questions with such sublime simplicity and clearness that I really need to pray to God that I can guide them and do them justice. Children are indeed the future and there are many that are not drifting from the faith but are becoming the faith. Far from church buildings these children are living bricks building a church that neither has boundaries nor has limits. When Ezekiel was having a vision to measure the city of God, I don’t think he would be able to measure this church. It is a living church with such depth and love that we are in danger of being left hiding in buildings that are cold and are struggling to pay for themselves. When faith is shown to be neither alive, nor Spirit filled then the vision I had many years ago of a church with a dead body in the midst is real, the Spirit may be indeed dead in some churches. But the church is alive in every living brick that actively goes out and spreads the word, carries the Word, passes on the Word, heals with the Word and becomes like the Word.

So I urge you all now. Pray, pray, pray. Overtime when you feel like checking emails or Facebook likes or any other distractions that push the focus back to yourself, connect to that inner temple and pray to God that He will give us all the power to be His hands and feet here today on this earth.

For Gods sake, pray,
don’t be planted in thin soil,
don’t be distracted by the bright lights behind the tree,
pray and stand up straight, tall and strong,
for God’s sake, pray

Amen