EPHESIANS EXTRA #27

ALERT FOR PRAYER

My second graders and I had just returned from a field trip to the Fort Worth Botanic Gardens when one of the moms approached me.

            “Miss Hale, what was my son doing at exactly 10:20 this morning?”

            “Why do you ask?”

          “I was having my quiet time and praying for others when the Spirit urged me to pray for Brian.”

            “Well…at about that time, Brian left the group and ran directly into the path of an oncoming car. One of the chaperones grabbed him out of the way in the nick of time. The driver never even saw him! I made him hold my hand the rest of the day.”

            “I’m glad I obeyed that call to prayer!”

Are we alert to the need to pray for each other? If we wake up in the middle of the night with someone on our mind, do we pray for them or just roll over and go back to sleep? When we tell someone we’ll pray for them, do we offer up a perfunctory word or two and then forget all about our brother’s need; or do we diligently lift his burden to the Lord?

I can find more excuses for not spending time in prayer when it should be one of the most important services I perform. A synonym for assiduously in the definition above is tirelessly. I need to make prayer a priority, first and foremost because it is the only way to become more intimate with Jesus.  But I must also persevere in prayer as a ministry to fellow believers and in intercession for those whom God is drawing into relationship with him.

Father, help me to be more diligent in prayer. Specifically, help me to find a time to go to the prayer room at church and lift up the burdens of others and encourage them. I pray that you will develop that ministry in your timing and will. Continue to grow it into the effective, fervent prayer ministry that it needs to be. Lord, let our church be known as a house of prayer.