Will you
open the floodgate
into eternity,
into the vast realm beyond?

Will you allow
the infinite supply
of Divine Love
to flow
freely
into your heart
and through?

That’s all it wants to do.

Imagine this:
Pure Majesty
waiting patiently
just beyond the horizon
like a sun hoping to rise …
you may not live to see.

But will you acknowledge
this great resource
of the heavens
grand,
miraculous,
so far beyond
our comprehension?

Even grace
needs an invitation,
a warm welcome,
an open door,
a choice,
a prayer.

It’s up to us,
whether she’s allowed
to work her magic
in the world.

While COVID-19 has been busy transforming the world, God has been busy transforming my heart. 

To process the stress of dealing with the pandemic with my empathic nature on overload, I found peace by spending more time than usual in contemplative prayer and meditation. I’m not sure if I ever felt so deeply connected to God as I have through this time. Something about being quarantined with so many family commitments cancelled allowed me the space to dive deeply and experience the Lord’s presence in my heart.

When George Floyd was killed, I found myself lit up from the inside. I’ve long been an advocate of social justice but witnessing the cavalier way he was murdered in broad daylight sparked a wild desire for justice in me beyond what I’ve ever felt.

After being so inspired by all the collective goodness and heroic sacrifice of healthcare workers in dealing with the pandemic, I was shocked to witness the darkness of systemic racism revealed in such an undeniable way.

Both of these events strengthened my conviction in how deeply interconnected we are with each other in our humanity.

This virus spread one person at a time from China crossing an ocean slowly but surely literally impacting the entire world to the point, where we have become conscious of the potentially deadly impact of even breathing on each other.

An action of pure hatred sparks outrage across a world and begins a ripple effect of protests, triggering change across the world that impacts people of every race, creed and nationality.

To me, these physical realities of our interconnectedness point to the broader spirituality reality of our innate interconnectedness as one human family. In prayer as an empath, I can sense how we are ALL one connected to each other in a mystical way. Through our thoughts, words, intentions, prayers, beliefs, judgements, forgiveness – we are impacting each other every moment of the day consciously and subconsciously – for better and for worse!

With invisible threads
of love,
we are
stitched together
by the hands
of God –
nothing
is more important
than prayer.

All these events have conspired to deepen my conviction in the power of prayer! With all the chaos, fear and hatred, what could possibly be more important than inviting the power of Christ’s love into our personal and collective suffering?

My own faith journey started with a miracle – grand, undeniable. One I wish I could give as a balm to the whole world right now! We don’t always experience God so tangibly. We don’t always see radical change, the fog clearing in an instant – it can be discouraging and hard to justify time spent in prayer, when we don’t see those immediate results.

But the reality is: as we persevere in the silence inviting God’s love into our hearts, that same majestic force which created the whole world and still creates miracles is 100 percent certain to begin working in our own lives, revealing our own areas of darkness and gradually transforming us into more loving people, making space for increasing amounts of light to flow through us into the people around us and those, who are most in need across the world. 

As we persevere in prayer, we become less reactive, more loving and more conscious. We cultivate more self control, more strength, more wisdom and a more finely-tuned sense of discernment. As our interior suffering becomes healed, we become increasingly passionate about wanting to alleviate the suffering we see outside of ourselves in the world.

Prayer changes us in the best ways possible. Our mindsets, attitudes, behaviors and priorities come into alignment with God’s will for our lives, which naturally includes the greatest good for others as well.

By it’s very nature, prayer pours grace into the people around us through our specific intentions and also through our increasingly Spirit-filled presence by osmosis.

Yes, prayer sometimes sparks us into action and that’s a wonderful thing, but no action we are inspired to can ever be more important than the act of prayer itself because prayer is doing something. Prayer is inviting God’s grace into the world, which may inspire us to action or may inspire action in someone else across the globe, sparking a series of events we only learn about in heaven someday.

Our prayers can travel across the globe strengthening the hearts of those, who are marginalized and oppressed in the most horrific ways – people, who we could never reach in any other way.

In a world full of hatred and fear, prayer is a profound act of love, which connects the powerlessness of our human affections to the Divine and Supernatural miraculous power of God’s creative healing ability!

Through this time of change, I have taken a break from writing, but it’s been gratifying to see previous prayers I wrote circulating through the internet … for healing of racial wounds, for prisoners, for protection of police, for an end to violence and more.

Whether they are written and shareable on the Internet or not, I think all of our prayers and inspired actions continue to circulate God’s love in the world long after they’ve been said and done.

All this global change has renewed my conviction to keep praying a lot and following the still small voice of God in my heart, sharing my writing and trusting God to use these acts of faith to spread His love into the world through that offering of my time to Him.

How have these global events impacted you personally? How have they impacted your faith and trust in God? Do you believe in the power of prayer to impact those across the world? How are you called to spread Christ’s love in the world right now? Comment below, and I’ll be delighted to keep you in my thoughts and prayers. 

Lord strengthen our conviction in the power of prayer. Help us to know You and answer our calling to share Your love with others through our thoughts, prayers and actions. In Jesus name, we pray. Amen.

written by Nicky Gant for http://www.uniteinprayer.org 7/4/2020