Faithbase

Romans 12 12 Paul writes to be joyful in hope patient in affliction and faithful in prayer and this passage challenged me in a way that I honestly didn't expect and I say that because this is a challenging thought that I'm about to share but it's not a condemning one so so stick with me through this and when we read about this word faithful being faithful in prayer some translations say devoted but the understanding of this word as it was written was to be steadfastly attentive or to be in constant readiness to something and it really cost me to sit and say okay am I truly being faithful in prayer the way that Paul is writing the way that he is explaining it and I was thinking about times in life where I've been steadfastly attentive or when I've been in a state and I'm constantly ready and it reminded me growing up playing football I'm not the you know overly aggressive athlete I was a little bit more timid I'd like to you know stay out of the game rather than getting in the game but I remember growing up my dad would encourage me to stand right behind the coach when I was on the sideline that way I would show the coach that I was attentive to show the coach that I was ready to get in the game so if there needed to be a sub in he would turn around and see me there and put me in the game and and honestly I didn't want to do that I wanted to be on the other side of the field you know don't put me in the game you know I thought that I was being faithful to the team simply because I was there right but wasn't really being faithful to the team was I really being devoted to the team especially the way that Paul writes and I've felt that challenge and felt that conviction when it comes to my prayer life to say am I truly being faithful in prayer or am I actually convincing myself that I'm faithful just because I prayed right or was I constantly ready to play pray was it the first thing I did was I ready to take action through prayer or is it something that I did as an afterthought is it something that I did an hour later after I already tried to control the situation on my own and this is an area of growth for me in my prayer life to be constantly ready to pray and I believe it's an area of growth that others relate to as well and thankfully Paul lays it out for us how we can remain faithful in prayer and that's something I'm gonna unpack in tomorrow's video but I wanted to leave you with that challenge today to take notice of when you pray and how you pray and really lean into the strength of the Holy Spirit and the guidance of the Holy Spirit to really empower you to be faithful in prayer.