Making Prayer a Priority

In January of 2020, I listened to a sermon by Mike Patz at Greenhouse Church in Gainesville, FL that convicted me to make prayer a priority as I entered the new year. I’ve been a believer since I was a child, recommitted my life to Jesus in 2013, but like many, was more “luke warm” than I care to admit. After hearing Mike’s sermon, I decided to create a prayer journal, something I had never done before.

As you’ll discover (if you choose to continue to read this blog), I’m an amateur writer at best. Luckily, I was talking to God... I knew he didn’t concern himself with my handwriting, grammar or “approach” (which definitely evolved). He wanted my time. He wanted me to come to him. He wanted a relationship with me.

Little did I know, he was planting a seed for what would become a prayer journal of complete surrender to him and his will for my life... the seed would be planted two months before the biggest trial (to date) I would endure as an entrepreneur, leader, husband, and father... Covid-19. God obviously planted this seed in preparation for what was about to come.

Well, here I am 3 years later. The journey continues, but about a year ago, God put it on my heart to share the story. To “publish” the journal. I’m not going to lie... I’m uncomfortable thinking about it. There is a lot of transparency about my life, finances, hardships, business struggles, and more. But this isn’t about me, this story is about God. I’m just the character that received God’s grace and had the honor of playing a role in the story. Others need to know this grace. Others need to know God’s love. Others need to know that prayer works and sometimes a “no” in the present means “not yet” or that God has something far greater planned for your life. We just have to trust his plan.

I’m going to share my story over time through this blog. I’ll publish pages from my journal, break down some of my thoughts, emotions, mindset, etc. I’ll share what I learned along the way. I’ll pray that my journey will impact you, help you, inspire you to keep going when times are tough (and you may not understand why it’s happening), and ultimately bring you in a closer relationship with Jesus.

If you know me, you know that I’ve been a content creator for years. My strengths were in video and audio (I have a podcast (https://whoagnv.com) that is currently “on pause”), so writing a blog is foreign to me. I’ve tried before and have never gotten very far. So, I’m praying that since I’ve felt led to do this, the time to sit down and write will present itself, my writing skills will improve, and that I’ll be able to connect with whoever is willing to read. If you don’t know me, I’ll try to keep that in mind as I write and break things down for you, but if you want to gain a little more context, here are a couple of links to bios about me and my businesses.

https://www.collinaustin.com/bio

https://newscooters4less.com/culture/

Thanks for joining me on this journey. It’s 6:20p on Saturday, December 31st 2022. I’m excited to see where this goes in 2023! Please remember to subscribe to the emails so you receive new posts when I share them.

God bless you,

Collin