Prayer is Essential.

This devotional is really starting to get me pumped for this summer! Prayer has been a previous struggle of mine. I used to believe prayer was something only to do when the hard times hit. Prayer was when you went to God when you needed something, or thought you did. Prayer is so much more than that! And this week's devotional convicted me that much more. I really enjoyed the imagery that "to breathe is to pray." Breathing is such a simple task, and that's how pray should be. Someone previously wrote that it should be "second nature," and I completely agree! So much of what everyone has written has been so enlightening!  In our youth group, our recent sermons has been on,"God speaks, do we listen?" and I made a connection to the Brother Lawrence quote there. We can get so caught up in the anarchy of life, we may search and search for answers but miss the answer God is spelling out right in front of us. One of our high school pastors put it so great,  that we often "are more obedient to the creation than the creator!" But if our time of business does not differ from our time of prayer we will be engulfed with his nearness. If we just sat down daily to commune with him, we wouldn't be constantly searching.  PRAYER IS ESSENTIAL. I begin my day with a prayer, which I like to think of as my spiritual cup of coffee. Doesn't have to be long,  even when we have a spare moment alone, in the car, walking down the hall, just a short prayer that recognizes his presences in all aspects of life! that simple prayer can give my day that little positive shift my day needs.  This week has been great spiritually and I'm stoked to see how this experience will grow us all!  -Chelsea Goza(: