Praying and Believing

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. -Philippians 4:6-7

I know. It seems so simple right. Christians say it all the time. You've heard the conversation. It goes something like this:

You: I just don't know what to do.

Friend: I can imagine. It just doesn't seem _________*. (*insert: fair, right, understandable, logical, honest)

You: I've tried everything humanly possible I can do in this situation. I guess the only thing there is left to do is pray.

Friend: Yeah! I will add that to my prayer list.

Maybe it is a little different and I guess there are times that you sit on the side of the 'friend', but I know I have caught myself in this conversation many times. The way I see it, there are two problems with it:

1. I leave prayer as a final option, when it should be the first option; and
2. When I do pray, I don't always believe

God challenged me on this yesterday and showed me the peace that passes all understanding. There are a group of 5-6 young guys (14-16 yrs) that hang at the Dream Center. Over the past 3-4 weeks we have seen them start to open their hearts more and more to the gospel. I started to faithfully pray for this group of guys and yesterday something incredible happened!

After going to to Groundswell with the guys the past 2 weeks and hearting about how a team from Seacoast was praying every morning at the flag pole at Wando High School, one of our guys told me he is serious about doing the same thing at North Charleston High School. Then one of the others that goes to a different high school, wanted to start there to: Garrett High School. I never believed that this would happen, although I prayed for it. God taught me through this not only to pray as the first option, but to BELIEVE!

For those that might be interested on how powerful this is, let me share some of the stats on North Charleston High School & Garrett:

North Charleston High School
Enrollment: apx. 1,000 students
School Ranking: 170/199*
Graduation Rate: 35.3%
% of students with Subsidized Lunch: 72%

Garrett Academy of Technology
Enrollment: apx. 700 students
School Ranking: 161/199*
Graduation Rate: 94.9%
% of students with Subsidized Lunch: 71%


*Note: Based on SC schools only and SC is ranked one of the lowest states overall in the nation for education.