Do You Rely on Prayer?

 “Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there in the midst of them.” (Matthew 18:19- 20)

Prayer is such a large and personal aspect of our daily Christian walk. As I’ve matured in the Christian faith, I try to be more cognizant and steadfast in my prayers. I keep an ongoing list of people and/or situations in which I petition to our Father regularly. Not that HE needs the reminders, but because I do. {Lists are certainly not required}. One quick note, I try to start my prayers out with GRATITUDE and a spirit of thankfulness.

One of my personal convictions is that I make it a practice not to say, “I’ve been praying for you,” if I really haven’t; or “Yes, I’ll pray about that,” if I’m just being nice out of human concern. There’s another way to be nice without making a false promise. We need to be careful of those things which we promise other people. Some people are really RELYING on our prayers. If we tell another soul we’re praying for them, I believe it is our Christian duty to actually do it! We DO believe in the power of prayer, right?! If someone asks you (or me) to pray for them, make an effort to be found reliable!

My husband recently phrased it to me this way:  If someone is relying on you to pray for them, they trust you with 2 basic things: You have the right address (meaning heaven, through our Lord, Jesus) – and that you have the right heart to be heard by God. (I thought that was a wonderful way to break it down!). We wouldn’t want our prayers to be in vain or to be unfruitful would we? It IS important in those ways that the petitioner understands what the Bible says about prayer and how we have an advocate with Christ.

When I signed on to be a prayer writer for Guide Post ® I received ‘formal’ training on written prayer. This was both helpful and surprising! I’m not sure WHY it was surprising to me, but I thought it was great practical learning! Christians do need to practice active and effective prayer lives! Life Moment: Guide Post ® has a few options for responding to public prayer requests. Don’t hesitate to go to their website if you feel like this could be an area of service/ministry for you.

I have copied the following paragraph from one of the Guide Post ® training sessions I received. I have underlined and “bolded the font” in areas that I had made personal notes in.

“A person asking for prayer is often looking for someone to stand with them in the midst of their struggles and difficult circumstances. As an OurPrayer Ministry prayer writer, you have the unique opportunity to offer a tangible sign that someone cares and they are not alone. Written specifically for the person’s need at the leading of the Holy Spirit, Personal Prayer Responses are messengers of faith and love that inspire hope for the future in their heart. Prayers of faith invade the darkness of despair with the light of Jesus Christ, when they are prayed with the awareness of what He accomplished on the cross for us at Calvary.”

I say, Amen! Blessed is the Christian who can petition prayer to our heavenly Father!

 The phrase “darkness of despair,” hit me like a thunderbolt when I first read it! That IS what Christ Jesus (and prayer) does in the life of a Christian…He offers hope to the hopeless, Light in the darkness, sight to the blind, encouragement to the downcast, peace to the weary, manna to the hungry, comfort to the lonely, freedom for those in bondage, and Praise the Lord, salvation to the lost!

Keep this in mind when you pray today. HE is listening.

Look UP my friends!