Shut the door behind you...

Tonight is our second night of small group meeting for the new fall session. As I've mentioned before, we are meeting as a large group for the first 3 weeks to focus our energies and minds on prayer and how powerful it can be. We have 30 min. of a DVD series and then 30 min. to break out with our small groups for discussion. Let me just say, last week was amazing and I'm so excited to see what God has in store for tonight.

The passage that we focused on last week was the passage right before Jesus tells us how to pray the Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6.

5"And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 6But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

Andy Stanley is the speaker on the DVD series...and wow!! God is using him in incredible ways. He broke down these 4 short verses in a way I'd never even thought of before. The main idea I took away was that while praying consistently throughout the day is certainly a good thing...Jesus tells us that when we pray, go into our room, and shut the door. Now I'm sure that we can either take this literally or figuratively but the main point is that when we are really wanting to get close to God we need to strive to find a place without any distractions so that we can truly focus on communicating with God.

In the past week I have really been striving to have a quick time with God before I head to work in the mornings and I can tell you that he is already revealing teachings to me that I've never really considered before. Now I don't spend the time in our bedroom but I go to our living room to our nice comfy oversized chair and sit there with the sun shining in and spend time in God's word. It's not a long period of time, but it's enough for me to feel a peace about the day and to be reaffirmed that God is going to be with me through any trials I might face during the day!

I can't wait for tonight, I know that even more amazing truths are going to be revealed this week!