Is Your Prayer Life Squirrelly?

 Have you ever wondered if there's a secret to having an effective prayer life that everyone but you knows? For many years, I felt that way. I felt like the squirrel that stares mournfully at me from the sill of my kitchen window every morning.

 

There's a bird feeder that hangs under the eaves. It satisfies the chickadees, finches, and wrens, but vexes the squirrels. They watch their feathered friends feasting abundantly on rich Black Oil Sunflower seeds while they gaze at it,  dangling hopelessly out of reach.

They climb up one side of the window, then the other, even try hanging upside down, always scrambling for a closer launching pad from which to make their raid. But to no avail. 

Occasionally a particularly courageous (or desperate) squirrel will fling himself off the windowsill toward the feeder, land on the wildly-spinning feeder like a child on the Tilt-o-Whirl at the fair, and rocket back off again.

Eventually they give up and resign themselves to scavenging for leftovers in the bushes. They don't know what their bird friends know. They don't know how to fly.




In my early years as a a believer, I felt like those squirrels. I'd listen to others talk about miraculous answers to prayer, intimate times of conversation with God, and remarkable power that channeled through their quiet times, and I'd feel left out. Like the boy who attempted to crash our NO BOYS ALLOWED club when I was 9, I didn't know the secret handshake.

Recently, at Pleasant Hill Baptist Church in Troutville, Virginia, I had the privilege of sharing the concepts of Becky Tirabassi's Let Prayer Change Your Life. Seventy-four ladies and I met for a day-long retreat and focused on powerful prayer principles from the Word of God. These principles were underscored by the dynamic testimonies of prayer warriors down through the ages. It was a sweet and special time of learning, laughing, and praying together.

Our day culminated in a Come to the Cross time. After studying Persevering Prayer, one of many we examined that day, we wrote out the prayer concerns that were weighing heaviest on our hearts. One by one, we prayerfully committed those requests to the Lord. 

 




Then we pinned them to the cross. 

It was a powerful, poignant, and fitting way to symbolize our new resolve to trust God to work on our behalf through prayer. Prayer Warriors from Pleasant Hill Baptist Church have committed to faithfully continue to lift these requests to the Lord long after our time was finished.

To the ladies who attended,here is my charge: "(s)he who has been given a trust must prove faithful." I have every confidence that you will allow prayer to change your life. 

I know many of you prayed for me as I led this conference. Thank you. God empowered me, not as an expert, but, as C.S. Lewis so eloquently said, "as a fellow-patient in the same hospital who, having been admitted a little earlier, could give some advice."

I've posted a few more pictures of the day below. I hope you enjoy them. And if your church would like to know more about hosting a Praying with Power Day Conference, feel free to contact me at loriahatcher(at)gmail(dot)com. 

Pastor Kevin Wirt welcomes the ladies.

Heather Martin Wirt and her team of amazing ladies planned the event. Thank you Chris, Denise, Karen, Abby, Debbie, and Debra.

Sutton led us in reverent, introspective worship.

The Wirt family (Brighton, Weston, Ashton, Sutton, Heather, and Kevin) worked so hard to make this event a success. Ethan (not pictured) was our tech guy.