that the Father may be glorified.

This summer I've been working at camp in Bayfield, Colorado, surrounded by glorious mountains and lakes and rivers and all kinds of beautiful things.  The Lord has been working on my heart in various ways, the most recent of which has been the importance of prayer.

In being here, I've struggled a lot with the temporary nature of camp.  It's a wonderful place and kids love it, because they come and are encouraged and have the time of their lives and get to briefly escape reality.  I've been amazed by their vulnerability; their willingness to share their brokenness with these people they barely know.  And none of them want to leave, because they saw the Lord show up here and experienced community and they don't want to go back to the hard stuff of life.  But the truth is, they have to go back.  Their time at camp is only two weeks of their year.  And when they go back, many of them do not have any kind of encouragement or support to continue to entrust their lives to the Lord and learn and grow in who He is.

That's tough.  Because it is a desire of my heart to walk alongside people in their day-to-day struggles and joys.  I want to learn and grow with them, to be an encouragement to them.  But the reality is, I probably won't see most of these kids again.

The Lord has been showing me, though, that even though that may be true, this doesn't have to be the end.  And it SHOULDN'T be the end.  Because if I truly care for these kids and trust in the power of God in their lives, I need to be faithful to lift them up in prayer.  Pray that He would continue to grow in them a desire to know Him and love Him more.  Pray that they would be saturated with the TRUTH of who God is and what He has given them in his Son.  Pray that they would trust Him to be their strength in times of weakness.  Pray that He would place people in their lives to encourage them and walk alongside them.  And that realization is giving me so much HOPE.  The experiences they had don't have to be "camp highs"; purely emotional experiences that don't have a lasting effect on their lives.  It CAN be the beginning of a significant, growing relationship with the Lord, or the revival of a broken or hardened heart.

I've been reading John this summer, and have come across multiple instances where Christ says that anything we ask in His name, that He will do.  He is NOT saying that He'll grant us anything we ask for (He is NOT some kind of cosmic genie responding to our every wish and whim).  However, the notes in my study bible talked about praying in a manner that is consistent with His character and His will.  Therefore, if we are asking for and desiring what the Lord delights in, He wants to move in response to our prayer so that He will be glorified in the lives of His people.  We can and should ask big things of a big God who delights in His name and His glory being made known in peoples' lives.

So in terms of my summer and the kids that continually stream in and out of camp's gates, I am confident in the unchanging nature of our God.  He continues to be good and faithful and desires that His children will daily live and walk with Him.   And He delights in responding to the prayers of His people for the sake of their good and His glory.

I am so thankful that through Christ I get to be in relationship with God; I am able to talk to Him and He HEARS me and answers my prayers according to His good and perfect will.  What a beautiful thing.

"Whatever you ask in my name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.  If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it."  -john 14:13-14