Prayer

Some days you feel like you can conquer the world and other days you feel so overwhelmed. I think most people have more days that they feel like they are just trying to keep up than feel they are fully living. We all have so many struggles. Real Struggles. As parents things happen with our kids that we never dreamed of having to navigate let alone parent and rear a child through. As friends, we ache over happenings in life that we are powerless to do anything about. As husband or wife, we never thought we would live through that with our spouse. We never saw that coming. As a child, we never thought we would feel that hurt by our parents. We never thought life would be this hard. Yeah, we watched people as we grew up and realized there were struggles, but if I make right choices that won't happen to me. And then we became "adults". We started living life on our "own".  And somehow the hard finds us. The pain creeps in or smacks right in the face.
But what about this verse in the Bible:

John 10:10-  I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

Where does all this pain and having an abundant life intersect?  My husband often thanks God when he prays for life and life abundantly. I love when he does this. It brings me comfort. Why does it bring me comfort? I am trying to figure that out. Recently, I watched a sermon being preached online about prayer. It really opened my eyes to what prayer is. ( Side note here, Not long ago I started praying that God would teach me about prayer. I am always amazed at how God answers my prayers for learning about Him) In this teaching I learned that in the Lord' Prayer, it starts Our Father. First of all, I address the creator of all things as Father. Our Father which is in Heaven, hallowed be your name. OK stop here and think about all that God is. Whatever you want to say or realize that He is. For me right now, It is the creator of all things- the One who keeps everything moving and going together. Then the prayer goes on to say- Your will be done. Here is where I have to spend a lot of time praying. God's will be done. Not only His will be done, but I will be at Peace in that will. I will trust You. God already knows what I need, the stuff going on around me and what those situations need, I just need for me to Trust God. Here is where the abundant life comes in. If  I can maneuver my day knowing my God has it all under control, then I can live abundantly. 
Then we move on to asking God to provide for us. Provisions, God gives us all that we have.
And this is becoming one of my favorite parts, protect us from evil. Pray for protection from Satan and evil. Pray for yourself and those around you. Evil has touched us all and some of those we love. We ache for how evil has invaded their lives. Here is where we can pray for protection from that evil. This excites me. As I watch my children grow and real life choices face them, I take great courage that I can pray for protection from evil for them.
I'm excited about this new insight for me and I wanted to blog so I decided to share it.

Thanks for reading and may you learn to live abundantly!!!!