You know how good it feels to connect with your best friend
over the phone?
You let it all out, you laugh, you cry, you tell old stories…That’s
how we should feel about prayer.
God knows your
heart. He knows your fears. He holds you tight when you are scared and He
will always give you a signal that you’re on the right path when you ask for
one. What more can you ask for in a
friend? AND He is available 24/7.
If someone asks you to pray for them, do you nonchalantly
say that you will and then forget, or do you say that you will and do it? It is convicting to respond,” I will pray” when
we are asked to lift worries up before the Lord. We are giving our word that we will do it. It takes a commitment to follow through, and
it might even require immediately stopping to say a brief prayer. If your request comes from the heart, there
is no time limit that makes it more or less precious to God.
It takes vulnerability to ask someone to pray for you, and
many wonder why we, as Christians, put it all out there and let the world see
how weak we are? Well, we are
vulnerable, and humble enough to show it.
We can stand in awe knowing that as we cry out in prayer at night, so is
another woman down the street or across the ocean echoing those same concerns
to our Father.
He hears them all. He
cares about all of them, and He will respond according to His loving will in
His time.
It is an incredible blessing to pray for someone, and then
watch God work. It refocuses our hearts
and minds on Christ instead of the circumstances. One of Jesus’ most important commandments is
to love thy neighbor as thyself. What
better way to love someone than to pray for them?
We are told to pray
for “all people”. That includes the ones
who have hurt us, the ones who have turned their backs on us, and the ones who
aren’t believers. Lifting up your
enemies before the Lord can result in healing of your heart and He will somehow
use it in their lives too. When He was
dying on the cross, He said, “Forgive them for they know not what they do.” Those walking in darkness need prayer because
they know not what they do, and their eyes need to be opened to the miracle of
God’s love.
Many Christians struggle with prayer. They don’t see the point in devoting any real
time to it because God is going to do what He is going to do regardless of what
He ask for, but prayer might have more to do with building each other up in
Christ, deepening our relationship with God, and learning about ourselves as we
listen and let Him lead us.
If you are struggling to find the time to pray every day, or
you think there’s no real point, or you think your concerns are minimal in the
grand scope of problems, try some of these things.
- · Read some books about prayer. If you’d like some suggestions, email us at sunflowerseedsforhope@gmail.com.
- · Talk to other Christians about it, and their experiences.
- · As Nike would say, “JUST DO IT”. Remember, God knows you. He knows YOU. It’s okay. The more frequent conversations you have with Him, the easier it becomes.
- · Look online for a prayer calendar and print it out. It will have a different scripture and a different prayer focus for each day. It’s a great way to remind you to pray for things you wouldn’t have thought about. This is especially helpful when praying for our kids.
- · Incorporate it into your chores. When you fold laundry, pray. Keep index cards with prayer requests beside the place where you fold and just talk to God as you do it. Just have a conversation with Him, you don’t have to be formal.
- · Keep a prayer journal. Go back occasionally and check off the answers that you’ve seen.
Prayer works!
Believe that God will deliver the best outcome in each situation
according to His plan. That doesn’t
always match up with what we want, but He has a bigger plan that we can’t see. However,
when we do see the miracle of a prayer being answered it is something that we
never forget.
Kathy shares this testimony about prayer
“When my daughter was 18
months old she developed symptoms where she could keep no food in her system.
She was in Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. She had 3 doctors working on
the case. None could seem to find out what was wrong. A week had gone by and no
answers on why it was happening and she was no better. I remembered what I had
been told in my younger days that Jesus was the answer.
So I knelt down where I
was and began to pray and cry out to God. I asked him if He was there and truly
loved me to show himself. I cried until a real presence of peace overtook me.
The tears stopped and I knew that He was truly real and that He had heard my
prayers.
It was a short while later that I heard God
say go and check your daughter now. I went to her and she was peacefully
sleeping and was sweating badly. That was a good sign the fever had finally
broken. I began to praise God right then and there and told my husband that she
was going to be fine and that God had taken care of the situation. When she
awoke she was singing like she had never been sick. I brought her food that she
had not been able to keep down, gave it to her and she ate it, kept it down and
when the doctor came in I told him that God had healed her.
They actually put what I
said in her file. I read it. It said verbatim "Her mother said God healed
her"!
I have never been the same since. Not all my
prayers have been answered so quickly or quite the way that I might have wanted
them to have been answered but they have been answered nonetheless.”
Don’t give up. Don’t look at praying as something you have
to do because you’re told to. Open up to
God, let it all out and BELIEVE!
Passages to
Ponder:
I Timothy 2:1- I urge you, first of all, to pray for all
people. Ask God to help them; intercede
on their behalf, and give thanks for them.
II Chronicles 7:14- Then if my people who are called by my
name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their
wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and
will forgive their sins and restore their land.
Philippians 4:6- Don’t worry about anything; instead pray
about everything. Tell God what you
need, and thank Him for all He has done.
Contributors:
Karen Bromby, Kathy Derda, Jodi Dunbar, Michele Killion, Kim
McClure, Marla McDonald, Brooke Radnor and Kristy Tolley
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