Prayer; It is a beautiful gift that we have been given. It is a beautiful gift that I fear is often neglected. I speak firsthand, for it is me too often neglecting it.
In my lifetime, one of the most treasured realities for me was (and is) knowing someone was (and is) praying for me. The list is lengthy; those who have and still lift me before the Lord. I am confident that the rest I find in Christ today came to be because of a Mother and a Grandmother who refused to leave God alone until He answered their prayers. I treasure knowing that I have a Pastor and many friends who plead for my walk regularly. The greatest gift of all is having a wife who knows my Lord personally and is always calling upon Him for me.
I cannot imagine facing the challenges and temptations of every day without the knowledge of these prayers going forth on my behalf.
But some do. As a matter of fact, the greater percentage of our world walks in darkness every day without a prayer going up for them.
Our friend Matt encourages us to pray for them with the acknowledgement that we may be the only people on planet earth doing so. This is a wonderful challenge to make the most of this beautiful gift we have been given by our Heavenly Father.
At Matt’s site (All Senegal for Christ) is a growing list of villages in his neighborhood that need our relentless prayers. Wouldn’t it be great if we each adopted one of them and committed ourselves to daily praying for them?
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Prayer changes lives! God answers the prayers we pray. After many began targeting Muslims for prayer in closed to missionary countries, they began to have dreams of Jesus and many accepted him.
That is a fantastic and encouraging testimony of our Father’s working through our pleas good friend. Thank you!
I’ve got people on my weekly prayer lists that I keep on there just because I might be the only person praying for them. I haven’t had any specifics to pray for them in a while, but I can’t bring myself to stop. I’ve also adopted the habit of taking the first ten names from my Facebook friend list every day and praying a general prayer for them during my morning break at work. It’s seemingly random (although, out of 500+ friends, many of them never show up in the top ten), and I keep in a Dropbox file so I can access it from my tablet. I pray Colossians 1:9-12 and Ephesians 3:17-19 for them, even if I know they aren’t believers.
Awesome use of the resources we’ve been given. Thanks and blessings Jeff.
Great post! Prayer should always be our first action. Thanks for sharing! God bless you. 🙂
Blessings to you also Steve. Thanks