Doubtful Prayer

Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart.

Colossians 4:2 NLT

At first I'm thinking, again, preaching to the choir. But there's more here, there's always more. Prayer is this hidden power, that its almost doubtful at times. I get prayer requests emailed to me, I  see them on facebook, my wife requests them, I pray for my family. I don't think about having an alert and thankful heart. I just pray. I'm amazed though of how many times things come to my mind when I pray. Sip some coffee, I read and think. I see the word Devote, and I seem to pass it up. I find myself doing that alot with first word. I bounce around alot. its easy to pass this up and just go to pray with an alert mind and thankful heart. I often think about why God made us as humans, why we should pray, then it hits me, we are born half done, and need help to complete ourselves. Even getting saved means you have to pray. Yesterday God lead me to help an 83 year old woman to Him. I wasn't planning on this but it just happened. She's our neighbor, she was venting to me about some family issues and how she prayed for people, but I could tell she wasn't saved, but just trying to do what was right. I knew deep down that I couldn't just tell her that she was good with God because she prayed. I knew she had to confess with her mouth. So I had her repeat after me and she did. She began crying afterwards. I was very nervous during this time, because i wasn't used to doing this. Susan, Shayne, and I had some family stuff to attend to that afternoon and I was able to speak to her that night, she was very joyful, very happy. I'm amazed of how lightly I take prayer, up to that point, it was always a fix thing. I read and think. When I'm devoted to something I believe in it and I'm passionate about it. I'm also reminded of Petra's Secret Weapon. A song about prayer. I'm amazed when ever I tell someone who'm I'm not sure believes that I'll pray for them, what difference that makes. Things are going on in the spirit world that I don't think anyone wants to admit. It says be alert and thankful, prayer's a powerful thing, even when you don't think yours are working, they are. God knows my language. I don't get Him but He gets me. He'll make me alert when I'm not ready and He'll teach me to be thankful even when I'm not.