Praying

Isn’t it amazing that we can stay connected with people all over the world via satellite? How anyone figured out how to build something like that and launch it into the heavens is beyond me! Do you realize, though, that we’ve been able to launch messages into the heavens for years via prayer? Who needs a cell phone or computer for that? For instance, I can send a request to God about someone in New Zealand and God does a work in that person, and I feel connected by praying for him or her.

God reached down from the heavens to speak to His followers through all the centuries past. He still does it through His Word which He spoke to men long ago. Did they have a clue how many billions of people would be reached through their writings?

I love the prayers recorded by the apostle Paul. He prayed for his friends in the churches that he had helped to start. And he prayed for people he didn’t even know; but he’d heard about their faith in Christ. He felt connected to them by his prayers.

We are presently in Florida for the winter season. So we miss our friends back in Kansas. One night recently I was having trouble sleeping. I thought of the ones in our Sunday School class there and prayed for each one by name. While I struggle with the difficulties of aging, I’m sure they do too. So I identified with their struggles and reached out to God on their behalf. That’s a way to stay connected, isn’t it?

How can God hear our prayers, even the ones we don’t speak out loud? I don’t know how, but He is God and He knows our hearts and minds. The Psalmist said: “O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off…there is not a word on my tongue, but behold, Lord, You know it altogether” (Psalm 139:1-4).

Here is the prayer that I’m sending up past the satellites to the heavenly Father on your behalf today: “that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ” (Philippians 1:9-10, NIV).

Why don’t you shoot up that prayer for someone dear to you?