It continues to be my firm belief that many people don’t pray as much as they could because they don’t think it matters – because they don’t think they matter.  Some people have said, “Hey, God knows everything, and He cares about everybody, and He can do anything He wants, so what difference does it make if I pray?  Doesn’t He have all of that covered?”  And I agree – He knows everything, He cares the most, and He can do anything – but I vehemently disagree with the last point.  Us praying matters a lot.  Like any good parent, God loves giving His children things they want!  Like any good teacher, Jesus wants His disciples to expand their ability to trust the Father like He does.  Like any good motivator, the Spirit wants us to be passionate about what matters to Jesus!  Which is why He devised an open system – God designed our world so that some things will only happen if we ask Him, and they will not happen if we don’t.  In this way, He can find delight in giving gifts to us, we can find joy in trusting Him more, and we can actually work with Him in taking care of the planet He gave to us.  The idea that there’s no use praying, because God in all His goodness doesn’t need our input?  That is a lie from the pit of hell.  He loves you so much that He is eagerly waiting – right now – eagerly, listening closely to hear about the things you think are important!  What you think, what you want, how you see it – that all matters deeply to Your Father in heaven – because you matter deeply to Him!  You matter!  That’s why it makes sense to pray – because you matter like crazy to God!

     So, if you care about the 2011 Eastern Christian Conference, if ECC ’11 matters to you, please, I beg you, ask God to wildly bless the planning work this month of its president (Dave Johnson) and coordinators (Wayne Murphy and Ken Meade) with as much blessing as they can handle!  (And if you ask Him to, He probably will, because I’ve heard that He totally thinks you’re great!)

Jon Walker

2011 Prayer Chairman