Safe To Be, Safe to Grow:: Prayer

"I'll be praying for you"

I used to say these words a lot. It was my automatic response to any difficult or painful experience I heard someone talk about. My entire adult life has been spent working at different churches so I've assumed that anybody telling me about something painful is looking for some kind of response. Prayer always felt like the thing that could offer hope and it was a way of doing SOMETHING. 

So what do we mean when we offer prayer to people? Is it kind of like saying, I'll think about you and your issue this week? Is it the offering of positive thoughts and hopes? Is it interceding on behalf of other people and getting these issues pushed to the front of God's priorities? Is it the religious equivalent of contacting your state representative?

This Sunday we are going to be talking about prayer as one of the core values at Cascade. We all interact with prayer differently. Some of us see it as a powerful force for change and healing in our world. Some of us barely engage in prayer anymore after feeling like it hasn't "worked" in past. 

We define prayer as; We engage our hopes and fears by directing them to God and allowing space for the responses. There is something powerful about creating space in our lives for moving the biggest hopes and fears in our life out of our hands and into the hands of God. My hope is that we can talk about the power of this act and give you one or two new ways of engaging with prayer. Whether you're a prayer pro, a complete novice or someone who has given up on prayer, I encourage you to take a listen.