Prayer is a Gift
The worship team was practicing on the Saturday evening before Easter Sunday. We had several songs to polish when suddenly our worship leader’s voice became quite hoarse. He could barely speak, and he couldn’t sing. Now we were stymied. I was standing on the platform while others were trying to figure out what to do. I decided to pray. Making no noise about it, I silently prayed that our worship leader’s throat and voice would be restored soon so we could finish our practice session.
Minutes later our leader exclaimed, “My voice is back! I don’t know what happened!” He was astonished. I smiled. I knew God had answered my prayer and said that I’d just prayed for him. That was amazing. Sometimes prayer works that way but you never know exactly how God will answer a prayer. I know for a fact, God answers prayer.
When we were children, one evening my little brother became extremely ill. Dad was away, possibly smudging in the citrus groves a full half hour’s distance away. My brother’s temperature spiked and his eyes rolled back. I believe he even may have hallucinated. Mother held him close and prayed with urgency. We three older sisters, though very young at the time, stood near while she prayed. We lived out in the country where our nearest neighbor was a fair distance away. I remember it being dark and around bedtime. Later that evening my brother’s fever broke and he soon recovered. My mother would say about that incident that she was scared we might lose Paul that night. She believed God had intervened. It was one of those scary mama moments.
It’s always a thrill when something you pray for comes to pass in a direct way. That happened to me on two separate occasions very different from each other in the past two weeks. One involved a friend, the other involved my father. Both were quite important. It could be argued that what I’m attributing to God might have happened anyway. That’s true, but I don’t think so. The answers were too specific to the prayers I had prayed to be random happenings.
Prayer is a great gift to the believer. Prayer provides direct access to the spirit realm, to our heavenly Father. We go to Him with our earthly concerns, our requests, petitions, thanks, gratefulness, confessions and sorrows, hopes and dreams, praises and worship, all said in Jesus’ holy and precious name. God tells us we can ask, and so we ask.
Prayer Unites God’s People
Every Wednesday some of my friends and their friends take an hour or more to pray for America. This hour of prayer is time well spent. We pray spiritual truth for institutions, people, and situations that come to mind. We read the Word to absorb what God has for us. Prayer is God’s work. We believe God hears our prayers. I first mentioned this endeavor on this blog here; A Call to Prayer. This prayer movement has grown and we are blessed with many people praying with us. Please spread the word.
We pray as one together though we live in scattered places across the states. We pray for our country’s leaders, educators, youth, ministers, public institutions, mental-emotional-spiritual-cultural-social needs, for healing and grace in the hearts of all. Lord, how we need it. We need our Father God to infuse, transform, and make us and our countrymen and women anew and afresh. This is a time of great urgency for the hearts of people have grown cold toward things of God.
You can see what sorts of things I pray for and a brief description here; Praying for America that I shared on my Facebook page. We would love to have you join us in praying one hour a week for America. Those who are able can pray with us on Wednesdays from 9:00-10:00 AM, Pacific Time. Thank you to all who are praying with MaryAnn and me.
Prayer Matches God’s Timing
I read the book “What Happens When Women Pray“ when I was a young woman. The author made many strong points. She stated that our prayers may be answered over the course of years or decades, not in days. The answer may not come to pass in our lifetime but will in God’s time. Another concept that stayed with me is that prayers often are answered in increments, a little here, a little there, a little more later on. It is a relief and joyful to know it is up to God to bring it to pass. We learn to deliberately wait with hope and expectation in God. He tells us to ask in faith believing.
Prayer from the Heart
An element I truly enjoy and appreciate in soulful prayer is the open-ended expression. This kind of prayer is prayed without any human solutions or even clarification. In other words, the prayer is an expression of a feeling that just puts it out there. These can be all over the map. It may be praise and adoration, emotion and angst or just a situation you leave in God’s wisdom and grace. Prayer is the embodiment of spiritual living.
3 Takeaways about Prayer
- Some prayers are answered in increments: piece-meal.
- Some prayers are answered years or decades later.
- Ask God to bring it to pass; to prepare the heart or situation; to cause it to happen in a natural way. Then wait and continue to pray until the opportunity to speak arises in a natural way. The way this works out will amaze you. It removes impulsive, preachy actions and reactions.
Of course I could write much more about prayer and have in the past. Effective prayer requires relationship with God through Christ, and then turning toward Him in everything. I leave with you a verse Pastor Pete used to quote in his sermons. He said it so often that it has left an impression in my subconscious. Our prayers coincide with God’s promises. Praying God’s will is part of His promises to us.
For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God.
2 Corinthians 1:20
God bless you.
Photo by Rod Long, Unsplash
