"Old Camel Knees"

Dear Friends, do you think you'll get anywhere in this if you learn all the right words but never do anything? Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it? James 2: 14-17 (MSG)

All to often the phrase "All you can do is pray." flows so casually out of the mouths of Christians. And each time I hear those awful words uttered, my heart yells out: "That's the first thing you should have done!!!" As I laid in my bed this rainy night, a conversation I had earlier with a family member began to creep back into my thoughts and rendered me restless and unable to fall asleep.
- Family member: "What Christians should do in ban together and get God back into America. If one atheist could take prayer out of the schools looks like all these Christians could get God back into our country.
- My reply: "What does it matter if pray was taken out of the schools when families don't even pray at home?"

This really hits home doesn't it. (I know it did for me) So there I sat in my bed wondering what this "one person" could do to spark a revival of prayer in the home, even if just a little ember. How could I make it apart of my daily life so that I would be encouraged to post a prayer daily? That is when it hit me: From the scripture I read daily should come a prayer. This year I will be reading through the Bible with The Message translation by using a One Year Plan. It will be from these daily scripture readings that I will post a prayer each day. I encourage you to stop by and claim these prayers for yourself and/or join me in prayer by posting your own prayer.

Jonah 3:3-5,9-10 (NLT)
3 This time Jonah obeyed the Lord’s command and went to Nineveh, a city so large that it took three days to see it all.[a] 4 On the day Jonah entered the city, he shouted to the crowds: “Forty days from now Nineveh will be destroyed!” 5 The people of Nineveh believed God’s message, and from the greatest to the least, they declared a fast and put on burlap to show their sorrow....9 everyone must pray earnestly to God. They must turn from their evil ways and stop all their violence....10 When God saw what they had done and how they had put a stop to their evil ways, he changed his mind and did not carry out the destruction he had threatened.

The Message Bible says that James was given the name "Old Camel Knees" because he wore calluses on his knees from the many years of determined prayer. Let us also be worth of "Camel Knees" and give God a reason to bestow his blessed hand back upon our nation. Starting January 1,2009 I will post a prayer daily and encourage you to join me as often as you can in making 2009 A Year Of Determined Prayer for our families that we might once again unite as "One Nation, Under God" Amen.