Debbie's Perspective

Psalm 17:6 I call on you, my God, for you will answer me; turn your ear to me and hear my prayer.

I’ve heard it said that we pray only as much as we believe it will do any good. There are also those who see prayer as a final resort — okay, I’ve done everything I know to do, I guess all that’s left is to pray.

My great-aunt Hattie believed in prayer. Everyone knew that if you had a need just tell Aunt Hattie, and she would be praying. She wore an apron everyday. In one of the pockets on her apron she kept pieces of paper with people’s names and their needs written on them. Throughout the day she would stick her hand in her pocket, wrap it around those pieces of paper, and lift up a prayer. She called it her ‘Prayer Pocket’. I believe her prayer pocket was a tangible connection between God and those needs. Each day, several times a day, they were lifted before the throne of grace and mercy; brought boldly there to receive God’s answer by a woman of prayer.

I want to be a connector from earth to heaven. I want to be a woman of prayer, to persevere in prayer and see the hand of God move for the people and things I pray for. I want a prayer pocket in my heart. A place where I keep the needs of those around me, and lift them up to the Lord throughout the day – a tangible connection with God.

So how do I do that? Where do I start? My ‘One Word’ for this year is Seek. I don’t want to just seek answers to my prayers, I want to seek God, and in finding Him I know all the answers I ever need will be there.

My first step was to define Seek: To make a search or inquiry/to attain awareness or understanding. To perceive keenly – extreme perception. Yes, that is what I wanted; to have an extreme perception of God.

Now I just needed to find the right scripture to meditate on daily to help me keep my focus where it needs to be. In my search through the scriptures that had the word seek in them, I couldn’t find the one that really resonated with the depth of what I wanted. Then, while talking to my sister about one she was memorizing from The Amplified Bible, I found it.

Philippians 3:10-11 [For my determined purpose is] that I may know Him [that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly], and that I may in that same way come to know the power outflowing from His resurrection [which it exerts over believers], and that I may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed [in spirit into His likeness even] to His death, [in the hope] that if possible I may attain to the [spiritual and moral] resurrection [that lifts me] out from among the dead [even while in the body].

I know what grabbed me was the phrase ‘For my determined purpose is’. That was it! It had to be my determined purpose to seek God, to know Him intimately, to have an extreme perception of Him. I couldn’t do any of that without prayer. I had to talk to Him; connect with Him.

Could I do it? Would I fail?

“Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.” Isaiah 41:10

No, I will not fail to seek Him. Not because of my strength or my ability, but because of His strength and His ability. I will not fail because He is seeking me.