Praying with Eyes Wide Open: My Shortest Post Ever By Cortney Donelson

Image Cred: Unknown

After this post, I may never be asked to participate in community prayer again. You see (pun absolutely intended), sometimes I engage in group prayer with my eyes wide open. Not every time. There are moments when I just want to drop to my knees and face plant into the floor boards out of awe and respect.

However, there are instances when I am in prayer circles or ministry settings when I look around at the people I'm with, and I take in everything they are doing ... everything they are feeling. As I speak and worship out loud, I am watching, learning, and seeking the Lord as I set my heart and eyes not on the ground, not into the blackness of my own peepers' lids, but into the precious faces of His children.

We were created in God's image. We were fashioned from dust to reflect His creativity, intelligence, relational abilities, capacity for intimate communication, and of course, His spiritual nature. Prayer highlights these God-qualities within us. By its very definition, prayer is vulnerable communication with our Creator that is deeply relational and spiritual.

When we come face to face with brothers and sisters in Christ, we come face to face with God. As temples of the Spirit, we carry around not only the truth of the cross and all that it signifies, but also the very essence of God through the Holy Spirit.

One of the reasons I pray is to experience God on an intimate level. What better way is there to do that than to look into the faces of His ambassadors - His children - as we gather in corporate prayer? I'm telling you, it's an amazing way to experience God in all His creativity and intelligence.

Prayer is an open door into the Kingdom of God. I make no apologies. I don't want to miss a thing.

Prayer: Father God and Holy Spirit, I am humbled to be called child of God and I am honored and grateful that Your Son, Jesus Christ, paved the way for me to have a relationship with You. I worship you and love you. I pray for my brothers and sisters in Christ all over the world and count it a blessing every time I can worship with them, seeing You in their faces and hearts. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen. 

Influenced by my prayer life, my prayer groups, Genesis 1:27, Genesis 2:7, Matthew 18:20, Act 2 (yes, the entire thing), and 1 John 3:1.

©2012-2016 Cortney Donelson. All rights reserved.

Cortney's book, Clay Jar, Cracked: When We're Broken But Not Shattered is available now as an ebook on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other retailers, as well as in paperback at www.cortneydonelson.com! It will be available world-wide in bookstores and libraries through Morgan James Publishing when publicly released on March 7, 2017. Visit www.cortneydonelson.com for more information and to learn about the "I'm a Clay Jar" Encourager Class for groups! To schedule speaking engagements, please email Cortney directly.