Prayer is something that I had always tried to do, but I was inconsistent with. I only partially understood the power and necessity for it in my life. I struggled to figure out how to spend time in prayer without making it a religious box to check or feeling like I needed to do it to please the Lord. He showed me that I don't need to pray to check a box or to make Him pleased, but I need to pray because I desperately need Him.

Recently, the Lord has been speaking to me about laying down my agenda in all aspects of my life. Setting aside my schedule, my time, my expectations and making space to be with Him. I’m learning to put all of those things aside because I’ve been given an invitation to meet with the King. 

I have recently been thinking about how our time on this earth is the only time in all of eternity that we get the chance to worship God and praise God through hardship, through pain (physical, emotional), through suffering, AND through joy, through blessings and prosperity. Because in Heaven, there will be no hardship, no pain, no suffering. “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away” (Revelation 21:4-5)

All the enemy does is steal, kill and destroy (John 10:10.) We too often allow him to steal what God has given us or placed in front of us. Even if he hasn’t entirely stolen what God has given us, maybe he has a firm grip upon something he has no place touching.