Pumpkin Spice Up Your Prayer Life - University of Valley Forge

Pumpkin Spice Up Your Prayer Life

Pumpkin Spice Up Your Prayer Life

According to FoodNetwork.com, who I am trusting blindly since I don’t drink coffee, the following are necessary ingredients for a Pumpkin Spice Latte (PSL):
– 1 cup of milk
-2 tablespoons of pure pumpkin purée
-1 tablespoon of sugar
-1/4 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice, plus extra for sprinkling
-1/4 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract
-1/4 cup of hot espresso or strongly brewed coffee
-Sweetened whipped cream, for serving

 

For those of you who enjoy the feeling of your heartbeat being artificially quickened, you might be thinking whether or not you have access to any of the above ingredients. Personally, I try to keep my heart rate at a normal and steady pace by avoiding excessive caffeine and all forms of exercise, but I digress.

These ingredients are the necessary components to create the PSL that everyone loves or loves to hate this time of year. Since you’ve obviously been drawn to this article having seen the clever pun in the title, you know that we’re not really here to discuss coffee. Of course, oh Valley Forge enthusiast, we’re here to talk about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ–or at least talk about talking to Him.

Initially, my plan for this article was to turn each ingredient into a pun or in some way connect it to the on-going conversation that we might tend to neglect. But I ran into a snag. Why? Because I cannot ignore the unique properties and tendencies that make you… you.

Personally, what amazes me most about our Creator is how He handcrafts individuals with unique precision and that He knows just how to communicate with us. Have you ever noticed that you hear His voice when you’re involved in something that’s important to you? He speaks to me when I am around students, when I am in corporate worship settings, when I am writing, and when I see the majesty in His created world. I mean, you can’t help but praise Him when you’re standing at the base of a roaring waterfall. Our Lord meets us where we are.

All that to say, I cannot necessarily create a recipe for prayer that will yield the same results for each person:

  • Maybe you need perfect quiet or maybe you prefer background music.
  • Maybe you want to be outside or maybe you would rather curl up on that chair in your dorm or living room.
  • Maybe it isn’t about whether the situation is exactly right or comfortable: if it was, then the demands of life would keep us from ever fully settling to speak with the One who is always ready for a great conversation.
  • Maybe it’s all about our willingness to surrender to His good, pleasing and perfect will.
I believe the best way to spice up your prayer life is to step outside of what you’ve found to be successful in past seasons, and ask the Lord to guide you into how you should be communicating with Him in this season.

 

After reading this article, it’s okay to not know exactly where you need to tweak, or where this new semester’s challenges and triumphs are going to push you.
The point of this article, or the cherry on top (because all drinks with whipped cream are null and void without a maraschino, period), is that God is faithful and just. He loves you, He knows exactly what ingredients make up you and He’s infinite enough to meet you where you are with what you need in this season.
Lord, 
May we never fall into a rut that allows us to treat our relationship with you as a human system that we simply cycle through. Help us to allow You the room to lead us to Your will and to transform us, season by season, into the potential for which You uniquely created us.
In Jesus’ name, 
AMEN

 

Written by Logan Ritchey