Real Faith

Ladies, I have a question for you today....Do you pray? By this I mean, do you spend earnest time in prayer to God? 
I do and I don't. I have seen God move in specific ways in answers to my prayers over and over again. It blows my mind. It's exciting and yet it's humbling. The God who made and keeps EVERYTHING is here calling me to pray to Him, to have faith, and to watch as He works. 
I am quick to thank God. I am quick to look to God. But I'm just not quick to ASK for things. 

Even so....Every single time I have asked for something specific I've seen a clear answer to it. No spoken words, no writing in the sky, and no pretty package on my doorstep...Not even a "still small voice". What I've seen is CHANGE...Changed hearts, changed situations, growth, understanding, overcoming, and quite a number of times, something given. Usually, answers didn't come overnight, but they came. 
Last week, while I was watching Heidi's kids I decided to turn a sermon on during "nap time". I looked through my iPod and decided on a sermon Mark Dever preached last year. Check it out HERE: Real Faith...Prays. 
Dever is one of my Mom's favorite preachers and I have to say, I can see why! He brings Scripture to real life and I happen to love how he ALWAYS has some piece of history to add to the point he is excited about. 

Ladies, listen to the sermon. Examine yourself and follow Dever's advice!!! Do you pray as though you believe that God is listening and will actually MOVE? 
Pray: Boldly...Specifically...Perseveringly....and WATCH as God works. 
2013 has been about DRINKING and a huge piece of that is praying...God works through our prayers. He works today and our prayers live on long after us! 

Praying isn't mainly about talking to or hearing from or getting something from God...Praying IS about setting a pattern of FAITH. Praying is KNOWING truth, STANDING on truth, and staying FOCUSED on God. 

As I pray, I need God, I need His Word, and I make for myself a path that leads me to walk with Him....Praying is what builds and strengthens and "fleshes out" the mind of God in my own head. 
Dever says to think about what you didn't pray about yesterday and pray about it today. That's A LOT....Don't run, don't worry, don't fear: do pray, do wait, do believe....He cares and He is working and in prayer you are saying, "in faith, I believe".

Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess our sins one to another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Elijah was a man with nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three ears and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit. James 5: 13-18