By Nathan Tucker

I do not consider myself a prayer warrior. In fact, praying is something I struggle to make time for. I am not sure why I am so adverse to prayer when I know it is so good for me. Is it my pride? Is it sheer stupidity in thinking I do not really have problems that need to be brought to God?. Worst of all, is it turning a blind eye to what prayer has done for me in the past?

Years ago, when my oldest daughter was a toddler, life was difficult. We were living with family while trying to start our own. This put tension on everyone in the house. I had the opportunity to interview with a reputable company. The position would have changed our lives financially. The issue was our need to relocate to the Troy, Pa area. Generally, that is not much of a problem but, we were still homeowners in Ga. The company was concerned that we would not sell our house and find a new one before the position needed to be filled.

While I was still a candidate for the position we decided to attend my wife Lauren's old church in Canton then look for houses after. The church service was much like ours. In the end, one of the elders (that has known my wife since she was born) pulled us upfront during the last song and prayed over us along with a few others from their leadership team. As we left the parking lot my wife noticed she had a voicemail from our agent in Ga. That voicemail led to our house selling a few weeks later.

Fast forward to the year of COVID 2020. With our house getting smaller we had to move. We had to pray a BIG prayer. Our homegroup, Pastor Raphael, and countless others had been praying for a house to come along. After driving our real estate agent nuts, we finally found a house we could picture raising our family in. The week we were supposed to close, the final numbers came in well above what they were looking like just a week before. I almost backed out of the deal because I could not see it working out. However, after praying, meditating on it, and talking with Pastor, I was confronted by the Holy Spirit who impressed in me that if I was going to pray big prayers, I had to be willing to take big leaps of faith. I have resolved that while prayer is a struggle for me, it is a struggle I am willing to engage in because it has played a huge role in my life.

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