(Guest Writer - Katie Corbett, VA) It is 5:04 am, and I am sitting at my computer reliving the past hour of my life. My church is participating in a campaign called “50 Days of Unbroken Prayer.” They claimed each Wednesdays during the 50 days, and I picked the 4:00 am spot. (It is crazy, I know.) As I walked into the room to pray, I was unsure of what God was going to be teaching me, but when I left 54 minutes later I felt the message was clear: I cannot be consistent with temporal things but allow spiritual things to fall to the wayside.

Humans are a desperate people who need to spend consistent time with the true lover of our souls. I am a woman in desperate need of my holy God. As I went through the steps of the ACTS method of prayer (adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication) I was constantly being brought back to the idea of consistency. Over and over God kept whispering to me, “Why are you so consistent with this and with that, but consistency with me is an afterthought?”

Why do I allow the giver of true and awesome love to be pushed aside? Am I really that busy? I doubt the Love of my soul is filling up my day planner with everything except him. At this moment, I feel him asking me to come to him…all the time. This great big God, who is so beautiful and mighty, wants to spend time with little, insignificant me. He is so consistent with me. Don’t I owe Him the same?

So, I started thinking of all of the things I do on a daily basis. It’s not like I am unable to make a commitment or be consistent. Some areas of my life draw amazing consistency. I will almost always find time to run three miles a day even when life gets hectic. It doesn’t seem strange to me to wake up early before work and go exercise. How is it that I will exercise my physical body almost daily, and yet I sometimes fail to spend more than a few minutes with my Father?

Every morning, I spend time dressing and putting on make-up. I spend a good 30 minutes just staring at the mirror every morning focusing on my physical beauty, but I often allow the beauty of God’s redemption to go unnoticed that day. How can I refuse to leave the house with out mascara, but I rush out the door without spending time with the Father?

How much can be learned in one hour? Well, if I go by what God has taught me this morning in that empty hotel room, the answer is a heck of a lot. I wonder what will happen if I am willing to rearrange some stuff and get consistent. What will happen if I apply what he has taught me in the past hour? What amazing things will God bring forth in the hours to come? I can’t even begin to imagine, but I can’t wait to find out.

Praying for Rain

(Katie Corbett - Guest Writer, VA) Northern Georgia is in crisis. For several months there has been little significant rainfall. MSNBC is reporting that in 90 days the city of Atlanta will be completely devoid of water. Unfortunately for the residents of Atlanta, there is no backup plan in place. I can hardly imagine what life would be like if one day I turned on the faucet and nothing came out. Yes, I do drink mostly bottled water, but I do not wash my hands with it or enjoy my daily showers from it. To me, the idea of running out of water is absurd. This is Georgia, not the Sahara. So, as Bo Emerson, in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution states, “Desperate times call for desperate measures…we’re in desperate times.”

Enter the governor of Georgia, Sonny Perdue. Gov. Perdue feels that he has the answer. On November 13, 2007, Perdue called a prayer vigil to ask God to send much needed rain. At approximately 11:45 am on the capital steps many came forward to pray. The concept of praying for rain isn’t really new. American Indians have been dancing and praying to their gods for rain for centuries. The question plaguing me about this situation is "why the wait?" Why did he wait for desperation before hitting his knees? More importantly, why do I often do the same thing?

Just like the people of Georgia, I fear that prayer is often our last resort. When talking to several friends about what they do when they are in crisis, few of them said their first response was prayer. When problems arise, who are you mostly likely to turn to? Most I spoke to turned to thier friends for advice, while some turned to their parents, and others to a counselor. When asked where prayer comes in most answered, semi-bashfully, that prayer was almost at the bottom . . . a last resort. I know in my personal life--much like those Georgians--only when desperate times strike do I turn to my heavenly Father and ask Him for help.

Why do we do this? God wants us to ask. He says it over and over in His word…Philippians 4:6 says, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be known to God.” Our God wants to help us. Furthermore, most of us know that God is the one with the answers, so why is it so difficult to ask? We trust Him enough to save our eternal souls, why can’t we trust him enough to help us with our everyday problems? The answer is WE SHOULD!

I hope that we will join the people of Georgia as they pray for rain, because they truly are desperate. Yes, desperate times do call for desperate measures, but wouldn’t it be nice to arrive at a place where we don’t see prayer as a measure reserved for desperation but as an everyday conversation with someone who loves us and wants the best for us?

Let it fall.