{"id":1643,"date":"2014-12-02T11:54:03","date_gmt":"2014-12-02T16:54:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/?p=1643"},"modified":"2014-12-02T11:54:03","modified_gmt":"2014-12-02T16:54:03","slug":"instant-grace-ification","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2014\/12\/instant-grace-ification.html","title":{"rendered":"Instant Grace-ification"},"content":{"rendered":"

As soon as I pray, you answer me;<\/strong><\/em>
\n you encourage me by giving me strength. \u00a0 \u00a0~Psalm 138:3<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

My friend likes to remind me that I might be just one prayer away from my miracle. I like that. And the Psalmist agrees. God isn’t too busy or distracted, he’s not asleep, he’s not involved in some other\u00a0commitment, and he’s not aloof. He’s attentive to our prayers and answers immediately. That doesn’t mean our prayer is granted instantaneously; he’s not the Great and Powerful Genie who exists to grant my every wish. (He wouldn’t be loving if he were! What a mess we would make of the universe.) But he IS intimately involved in my life and wants to teach me and train me to walk with him hand in hand throughout my days and \u00a0to become more and more like him, full of grace, truth, and love.<\/p>\n

So when I pray, I can count on his encouragement\u00a0and his strength to get me through anything. The Lord told Paul: “My grace is sufficient for you.” And it is for you and me as well. His grace and encouragement can strengthen us to withstand anything we are facing today: financial trouble, relational strain, pain, illness, or fear. Let’s pray and receive his encouragement. There is no one on the earth who can’t use a little \u2013 or a lot \u2013 of that!<\/p>\n

My Father,<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The instant I breathe\u00a0a prayer to you, you are listening. And as I pray I know you are building me up, sustaining me through hardships, helping me to rise above the troubled waters and walk on them as I keep my focus on your lovely face and your strong arms and on the compassion in your eyes. I receive your grace today. I lift my hands like a great funnel and receive your encouragement as you pour it on, grace upon grace. And with that, I take on this day unafraid for I am not alone.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

IN JESUS’ MIGHTY NAME, AMEN.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

“…The love of God hath been shed abroad in our hearts through the Holy Spirit…” Romans 5:5<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As soon as I pray, you answer me; you encourage me by giving me strength. \u00a0 \u00a0~Psalm 138:3 My friend likes to remind me that I might be just one prayer away from my miracle. I like that. And the Psalmist agrees. God isn’t too busy or distracted, he’s not asleep, he’s not involved in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":478,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[354,761,532,142,764,366,766,357,765,117,762,763],"class_list":["post-1643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-answered-prayer-2","tag-compassion","tag-encouragement","tag-fear","tag-financial-trouble","tag-grace","tag-illness","tag-miracle","tag-pain","tag-prayer-3","tag-relational-strain","tag-trouble"],"yoast_head":"\nInstant Grace-ification<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2014\/12\/instant-grace-ification.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Instant Grace-ification\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As soon as I pray, you answer me; you encourage me by giving me strength. \u00a0 \u00a0~Psalm 138:3 My friend likes to remind me that I might be just one prayer away from my miracle. I like that. And the Psalmist agrees. God isn’t too busy or distracted, he’s not asleep, he’s not involved in…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2014\/12\/instant-grace-ification.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Prayer, Plain and Simple\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-12-02T16:54:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mark and Jill Herringshaw\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Instant Grace-ification","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2014\/12\/instant-grace-ification.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Instant Grace-ification","og_description":"As soon as I pray, you answer me; you encourage me by giving me strength. \u00a0 \u00a0~Psalm 138:3 My friend likes to remind me that I might be just one prayer away from my miracle. I like that. And the Psalmist agrees. God isn’t too busy or distracted, he’s not asleep, he’s not involved in…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2014\/12\/instant-grace-ification.html","og_site_name":"Prayer, Plain and Simple","article_published_time":"2014-12-02T16:54:03+00:00","author":"Mark and Jill Herringshaw","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2014\/12\/instant-grace-ification.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2014\/12\/instant-grace-ification.html","name":"Instant Grace-ification","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-12-02T16:54:03+00:00","dateModified":"2014-12-02T16:54:03+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/#\/schema\/person\/29563cda917dd596f93dba2ff3a7fedf"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2014\/12\/instant-grace-ification.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2014\/12\/instant-grace-ification.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2014\/12\/instant-grace-ification.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Instant Grace-ification"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/","name":"Prayer, Plain and Simple","description":"Prayer, Daily Prayer, Simple Prayers, Quick Prayers, Prayer Requests","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/#\/schema\/person\/29563cda917dd596f93dba2ff3a7fedf","name":"Mark and Jill Herringshaw","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/94f\/94fb184ea80985d82e603e3d8dd0056bx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/94f\/94fb184ea80985d82e603e3d8dd0056bx96.jpg","caption":"Mark and Jill Herringshaw"},"description":"Mark and Jill Herringshaw and their four children have been ministering in their local church since 1990. Jill is an accomplished worship leader and recording artist with several CDs in Target stores\u2019 \u201cLifescapes\u201d collection. Mark is the former pastor of the 7,000 member North Heights Lutheran Church. He holds a Ph.D. in leadership from Regent University, is the author of three books and a recognized conference speaker.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/author\/mherringshaw1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/478"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1643"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1643\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1646,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1643\/revisions\/1646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}