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b'In those Dark Ages before smartphones, streaming, and DVDs, there was VHS,\\nwhich is what I grew up with. Whenever I wanted to watch my favorite\\nmovies, I would pop the VHS (video home system) tape into the VCR (video\\ncassette recorder). \\n.\\nWhile I may be nostalgic about VHS now, I would always dread when the tape\\nwould start to skip and the movie would blur into staticky incoherence.\\nWhen that happened, it was my signal to clean the VCR. This whole process\\nreminds me of spending time with Jesus in prayer.\\n.\\nPrayer helps to clear our minds. When there\\u2019s a sense of spiritual\\nblurriness or fuzziness surfacing inside, and we\\u2019re unsure of how to go\\nforward, it\\u2019s time to pray. Much like how I would clean my VCR to see my\\nmovies more clearly, prayer can clear our minds so we can focus on what God\\nis telling us. If the static of life is deafening, we can hone in on the\\nquiet sanctuary of prayer within, listening to what God wants us to know\\nabout His love in this present moment.\\n.\\nThen, once our minds have cleared and the static has been wiped away, we\\ncan start seeing the bigger picture instead of just focusing on what is\\nstressing us in the current moment. Prayer helps us clear out the static so\\nwe can see the story of Christ\\u2014and our place in that story\\u2014kind of like a\\nmovie. We can watch the progression from His birth to His death, and then\\nthe high point of His resurrection. And we can realize that there is no\\nending to Jesus\\u2019s story\\u2014the story continues as Jesus lives in each of us\\nthrough the Holy Spirit. By remembering this big story and our place in it,\\nwe can see how Jesus is at work even in the midst of our stresses and\\nworries.\\n.\\nThere is more to this part of life we find ourselves in than what we see at\\nfirst. Prayer helps us see that more clearly, allowing us to shine Christ\\u2019s\\nlove into this fuzzy, staticky world. \\u2022 Kathryn Sadakierski\\n.\\n\\u2022 How could seeing our place in the big picture of God\\u2019s story help us\\nunderstand the details of our lives more clearly? \\n.\\n\\u2022 In many psalms (which are prayers or songs to God), the psalmists remind\\nthemselves and each other of the great things God has done and the bigger\\nstory they are a part of (Psalms 71, 81, 105). How might it be helpful to\\nfollow the model of these psalms in our own prayers? \\n.\\nDevote yourselves to prayer; stay alert in it with thanksgiving. Colossians\\n4:2 (CSB)\\n\\xa0\\nRead Verses:\\nPhil.4.4-Phil.4.9|Col.4.2|Ps.32.6-Ps.32.11|Ps.46'