Since 1893, odd machines called Penny Presses have stretched pennies into different shapes and images, to make an instant souvenir out of your own penny.
I think the machines are cool, having grown up putting many-a-penny on the well-used train tracks that I used to live near as a kid…and watch oncoming trains flatten my pennies.
I was amazed when I first saw these machines at an Iredell County Fair in the 70s.
I remember telling my friends how “with an easy turn of a crank” they could “flatten a penny without having to wait on a train.”
At the same age, I remember being enamored with putting a piece of paper over a coin and scribbling over it so its impression would transfer to the paper. Don’t you?
It’s interesting that the same coin that can impress or emboss its image on paper, must take on the impression given it in a penny press.
Prayer is sort of like that, we can either pray to try to impress God or whoever else is listening to change their opinion of us, or we can be impressed on BY God in prayer, and we are the ones who are changed first.
Which way reflects most often when YOU usually pray?
Compare these 2 scriptures:
“When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the temples and street corners TO BE SEEN BY MEN.” Matt 6:5
“We all, with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s Glory, are being TRANSFORMED INTO HIS IMAGE with ever-increasing Glory, which comes from the Lord.” 2 Cor 3:18
Why do we pray anyway?
Is it more important to impress others with your prayer, or be impressed upon by the One you are praying to?
We need His Impressions in our daily life!
We need His Impression of us, so we can see where we need to be changed more into His image!
We need His Impression of the situations we are praying about, so we can more accurately pray His Will into the situations!
We need His Impressions to make the right decisions!
We need His Impressions to know how best to encourage or instruct others!
We need His impressions to have discernment to know how things really are, and not just go by what they look like on the surface!
We need His Impression on us to make an authentic Godly Impression on others!
At the end of the day, whose impression is really more important to be seen and remembered anyway?
Forget my name, just call out His!
Let prayer become a totally different experience then it has ever been by allowing Him more than ever before to impress or emboss more of His Character, His Love, His Mind, His Hope, His Peace, His Joy, His Strength into You …
You don’t have to wait for an oncoming train!
