Sunday, March 30, 2014

How can I pray for you?



Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. – Hebrews 4:16 (NIV)
      

      
One day as I was scrolling down my Facebook page, I noticed a few prayer requests sprinkled in with the posts. As I usually do, I bowed my head and whispered a prayer – right there at my computer, even though I felt the pressure of a demanding do-list.
       
“Wouldn’t it be nice to have all the prayer requests on one page?” I thought. It would save time because on a busy day, I could skip the social stuff and go straight to the prayer requests.
      
So I set up “Michele’s Prayer Page” on Facebook. Every day I ask, “How can I pray for you today?” Some days there are no requests. Some days there are several.
      
It’s been a humbling experience as folks open their hearts and their lives, sharing their concerns, pain and grief. What does it take to pray? Not even a minute to raise that request to the throne of grace. If there are seven requests on a particular day, what are seven minutes out of 24 hours?
      
I feel honored and privileged to pray for others.
      
As I look back on the past several years, I realize God has been calling me to a prayer ministry. My daughter occasionally calls me with a concern – usually for a friend – and asks me to “do my thing.” My son’s girlfriend has texted me with requests, asking me to “talk to the Man upstairs.”
      
I’ve prayed with hurting people in supermarket aisles, over the phone, in a church hallway, even at a Senior Expo – wherever I happen to be when I sense the Spirit prodding me, “Pray with her (or him). Now.”
      
I love the phrasing in The Message of Jesus’ words as recorded in Matthew 18:20: “When two of you get together on anything at all on earth and make a prayer of it, my Father in heaven goes into action. And when two or three of you are together because of me, you can be sure that I’ll be there.”
      
Wow! When we pray, God is right there with us – in the supermarket, in your kitchen, on the street, wherever you are when you wrap your arms around a hurting person and pray with them.
      
Sometimes I don’t know how to pray. That’s when I remember Paul’s words to the Romans: “The Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God” (8:26–27).
      
Sometimes I feel frustrated when I hear of a need and can’t respond in a tangible way, such as donating money or goods, or giving my time to help. But then God reminds me: Prayer is one the three most powerful forces in the world – right up there with God’s Word and the Holy Spirit.
      
All I have to do is ask, “How can I pray for you today?”
      
Teach me to pray, Lord! Amen.
Special-Tea: Read Luke 11:1–13


I invite you to visit “Michele’s Prayer Page” on Facebook, post a request and pray for the needs listed there. A team of prayer warriors prays every day for the needs posted there. 

2 comments:

  1. Spread the blessing, Karen. I sense God calling His people to PRAY!

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