Hey guys, sorry about the late postings, lost of fuzziness going on. Anyway here's my notes slightly expanded.

First thing I noticed was the sentence "..without prayer, we are essentially dead." This one kinda just hit home because I haven't been as honest with my Lord in spending time with Him as I really need to be. 

"As spiritual exercise I sometimes imagine prayer as inhaling and exhaling..." This was really cool to me because lately some of the guys in my small group have been sharing about their prayer experiences and it's really cool to hear everyone's views on prayer. I personally have been trying to stop making my prayers an essay and instead I've been trying to talk to God as a friend(using a simple hello and goodbye, or things of the sort).

"so often my desire to not meet God in prayer is in order to 'evade' what God may have for me..." I think this speaks a lot of truth to me personally because I haven't been letting go of my whole life and giving it to God for fear that he might actually take it and change it radically. I would love to have a radically changed life no doubt, but sometimes I want it to be radical only along the lines in my mind, not what God has planned. 

"apart from me you can do nothing" I just thought this would go well with my Boy Scout Troop's verse Philippians 4:13 "I can do all this through him who gives me strength." I feel like it makes a good connection, like God is saying 'Seriously you can't do this by yourself, but with me you can do this and so much more'.

"If we genuinely love people, we desire for them far more than it is within our power to give, and that will cause us to pray" Well I'm sure everyone fit this in because it is a great phrase. What this reminded me of is part of the sermon at my church on Sunday, my pastor was speaking of when his car was stolen and destroyed. He knew exactly who did it, but he knew that the Lord would not want him to retaliate with violence, so he had to resort to praying for this man, instead of hurting him. I think that is an important part of love, being able to love those who have hurt us like our Lord commands us to do.

"Jesus proclaims the Kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation..." Often I see the Kingdom of God as an object to achieve and I ignore the rest of loving and caring for others. This brought that a little more to my attention, so that I can start to focus on what God has planned for me now, rather than where I have planned to see God..


I am so excited to finish reading all of this first week! 
Everyone have great weeks, God bless you all.


Sincerely,
Rex Bilodeau