Stay connected in prayer

Greetings:
I love the Lord this morning and thank him for opening my eyes and granting me another day on this Earth.
God is a God of comfort, peace and strength and I am grateful that he is ever-present and always a prayer away.
How many of you know that prayer is a privilege and a duty?
Growing up, when I was in college my mother used to always tell me to 'phone home' when I had received my destination.  In those days we didn't have the always connected cellphones. We used the rotary kind that youngsters only read about or see in a museum. I was instructed to call home at 9 p.m. by placing a collect call and asking for myself. My mother would answer and say 'no, he is not here'.
It was our signal. She knew that by calling everything was okay on my end and I also knew everything was well with her. The good thing about the call was it didn't cost a dime, because there was no charge when the collect call was not accepted.
Praying to God is kind of like that.
We are to call on his name in prayer. There is no charge.
All we have to do is talk and listen to him.
Prayer is nothing more than conversation with God.
God is never asleep or too busy to listen. There is never a bad connection or a bad time. You never get a busy signal or voice mail or get put on hold. You have unlimited free minutes—and hours.
You don't have to be in a sacred chapel to pray, just find your place of comfort and peace.
Early mornings are a good time for me to chat with God. The quiet time is special and I gain strength to meet the challenges of the day.  It's a time for me to go over my prayer list and intercede for others – lifting up their needs and petitions.
I pray a lot in my car – while commuting to and from work. I wouldn't recommend closing the eyes during the car prayer time, but it is a great time for me to again, get alone with God and voice my thanks and love for him. It's a time to see guidance and it's a time for me to simply listen to God as he speaks through his Holy Spirit.
Our heavenly Father cherishes prayers offered with complete honesty and sincerity, even if they include respectful complaints. The prayers in the book of Psalms certainly portray candid honesty.
We also must pray God's Word. Pray and voice his scriptures in your prayers.
Let us never forget that God does answer our prayers. Possibly it's not on our time schedule.
He responds in the way that is best for us spiritually, and that sometimes means the answer is "no" or "not now," or the answer is something other than what we expected or wanted.
Take the time to pray. If you don't have time to do that. You are too busy.
Be blessed.
These morning messages are now available by email. Simply write me with you email address at schneider.nick@gmail.com, and I'll be happy to forward them to your in-box. Also, all of the photos in my blog are for sale. Contact me for pricing.