It seemed appropriate to begin this blog this week because on Friday I leave for a prayer retreat in Taize, France and soon after I return I begin my senior year. The focus of this trip is silence and prayer, with cultural experience and learning mixed in. I'm looking forward to just being myself because I don't know a single person there, so I don't have any previous images to live up to. I think it will be really good for me. Just to have an idea of the event, it's a week long prayer retreat for young adults (ages 16-29) from all over the world. So there will be about 5,000 "Christian" young people from all over the world, speaking dozens of languages. At least one of them is bound to have an interest in missions, right? I'm really praying for some opportunities in terms of new relationships.
So in terms of my first weekly prayer log: I'm going to be praying for God to help me stay focused when I'm in prayer with Him. I want to be in constant prayer with him, throughout my entire day. I'm praying to learn to pray in a way that is pleasing to God. Right now that means learning to treat prayer as simply a conversation with God that continues through the day. Lately I've learned a lot more about prayer and how, even though God knows what we are going to ask before we say it(Matthew 6:8), He is still waiting for us to ask because He wants that relationship with us. So my prayer while I'm in France is that my relationship with God would be strengthened through prayer, and that it will not be weakened after I return.
