Prayer Room

So my church (Brentwood) is doing a 30 days of prayer event. Every hour of every day someone is supposed to be praying for the church, the people of the church, and church direction (and of course whatever else you want to pray about). This is taking place because we are trying to launch a new location and become a multi-site church! Exciting stuff people. Anyway the church has created a "prayer room" in a local hotel room for this event and people are asked to sign up for hour time slots. I felt convicted to sign up and so I signed up for last Monday at 11pm.
Praying for an hour... well I've never done that before. Don't get me wrong I am a praying girl but getting me to do anything in one spot for an hour is a tough sell. I was a little bit anxious about this task. It seemed big and overwhelming. What if I fall asleep?! I contemplated writing a list of things to pray about, a friend advised me to write out a prayer, but in the end Monday ended up being a really complicated day as usual and I didn't have time to write a list or write out a prayer so like most things in my life I went to wing it!
I was nervous driving over... I had my bible, my spiritual journal, a brain full of motivation after a wonderful FCA meeting a few hours prior, and my ipod for worship music if I needed. I wasn't really sure what to expect besides your typical hotel room and what I feared was going to be an overwhelming evening.
Overwhelming... no way! This hour of prayer was definitely not what I expected. It was an amazing time of quiet, prayer, thought, and insight into the heart of our church. It turns out it wasn't a typical hotel room at all. The room had really been transformed into a "prayer room". There were knee pillows, chairs, an art station to draw and write scripture, a journaling section, worship music if you wanted it, books, and a whole lot of inspiration. Just reading some of the things people wrote was really moving. It was an hour full of feeling nothing but love and God's presence. When I had been so worried about praying for an hour it went by incredibly fast and before I knew it my hour was up. There were so many things to look at, impose thought, and pray for that I never once worried about falling asleep or what I was going to do.
It's amazing what God does in my life everyday. This was just another one of those times when I am completely amazed and caught off guard by him. He calmed me, comforted me, heard my prayers (as always), and showed me what a special part I am of a very special church. Sometimes you need that when you feel like you are a very small part of a very big thing.
I'm going to sign up for one hour a week until the event is over and I can't wait to see what God brings to the table during the next "prayer room" visit.
1 Thes 5:16-18 Always be joyful, never stop praying, be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you who belong in Christ.