Ouch

I had a good long prayer time today. You know how when you study or give Bible studies on prayer there is always that really huge emphasis that prayer is not a formula, but then they give you a formula.

Hey, I've taught this to others myself.

It's not a bad thing, I guess we just know our tendency to never be balanced. And it is important that prayer have the balance of praise and listening and petitioning, and confessing.

However, when it comes down to it, on some days there is no balance. Today as I prayed the world was so broken and I couldn't help but just spend the whole time begging God to heal and guide and comfort.

And as soon as I thought of one more person in my life who needed God's blanket of protection around them, I remembered two more - and so on and so forth.

Life hurts, and I know so many people right now that just have pain, death, illness, struggles with loneliness and inadequacies. So many people are struggling with faith questions. Big questions about truth and purpose. There are just so many hard questions with no easy answers. Sometimes truth and hope can't be found in words. They can only be found by God's spirit of truth or comfort just encompassing their heart. Knowledge and comfort can't be found in logical rhetoric.