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Devotional

A Prayer for Flourishing

by HOLLY PENNINGTON FLOURISH Abide Hearing God & Understanding His Will God’s guidance & direction Quiet time with the Lord
A Prayer for Flourishing
  • by HOLLY PENNINGTON
  • Comment
“to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, my immediate response was not to consult any human being.”
Galatians 1:16

We huddled in the middle of a neighborhood road on a cold, February morning. To an early riser peeking out a window, we must have looked strange: five women clad in winter coats, hats and gloves, heads bowed, staying in the same spot for an hour or more. This is where we started praying together, in the predawn darkness of a pandemic-related shutdown. 


It’s been a couple of years since those early days of our prayer group, and we recently passed a milestone of 100 consecutive weeks of gathering to pray. Family strife, job changes, health scares, parental struggles and church frustrations have been met with prayer. Songs of praise have risen from grateful hearts. Faith has been tested, nurtured, and stretched. And our ways of praying have changed. 


We say, “thank you,” more than, “please.” We spend less time talking and more time listening. When we seek God’s presence, we do so with a bit more assurance that we are already in it. 


Also, we wrestle with more hard questions: prayers that we thought were answered ones tucked away unravel into familiar battles, lack of “progress” with deeply-seeded, holy desires gives us uncomfortable pause and we ponder what it really means for Jesus to be “in” us.  


When Paul describes his call in Galatians, he says that Jesus was revealed “in” him (1:16). So often, we pray for God to be revealed “to” us. Perhaps we forget that He is also in us. Maybe we get stuck in familiar language. Perhaps we are disconnected from such a great possibility: God within us. It’s a curious thing that something so wonderful can be so difficult to grasp. 


But, by the grace of God, we will keep trying.


Closing Prayer
Dear God, Thank you for your “beyondness.” You are beyond not just our understanding, but our capacity to imagine goodness. The gifts you have for us are so much greater than we can dream. Prepare our hearts to receive them. Amen.
Question for Reflection

What does “God within you” mean to you?

Comments
Holly Pennington
July 30, 2024

It strikes me that I self-limit the power and goodness that is within me because of Jesus residing and abiding in me.