Day 248
Colossians I:3
"We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you,"
As Paul told the Colossian church, he and Timothy were always praying for them. How wonderful it would be to have someone always praying for us. Prayer changes things. Since God gave man dominion in the earth, He needs our cooperation to work among us. When we pray, it allows Him to perform on our behalf. It may surprise us to know how many good things have happened in our lives because of someone else's prayers that we knew nothing about. We may have experienced a blessing in an area we were not even praying about, but someone called our name out to God, and we enjoyed the results.
It is so important that we do not regard prayer only as a formal time when we seclude ourselves and recite poetic verses to God. Formal prayer has its place. However, when we realize prayer is simply communication with the Father, we can pray more often and be a part of more things being accomplished in the earth. Because of a lack of understanding in the past, we have put off praying many times when we should have. We told ourselves we needed to pray about a situation, but we forgot. In most cases, we could have prayed the moment we thought about the problem, but because our image of prayer was being still and talking to God in a particular spot, we procrastinated and forgot about it. God is always with us. Whether we are cleaning our cars, washing our dishes or riding down the street, He is available to take calls.
Paul and Timothy were always praying for the Colossians. They were probably not stopping constantly to find a place to pause and say a formal prayer. But, perhaps while they were walking along a street, the Colossians came up in the conversation and one of them said to God as they continued their journey, "Lord, in the name of Jesus, I thank you for what you are doing in Colossee. Meet the needs of the believers there today. Help that old man who lost his wife to recover from his grief."
We must catch on to the fact that we can pray all the time, no matter what our lifestyles. Lifting someone up in prayer or just giving thanks can be done in less than 10 seconds. We can pray while we are walking to the rest room, while we stretch our arms to take a break from typing or writing, while we are packing to go home or during some other transitional activity.
Let us be a part of someone else's being blessed today by not hesitating to pray whenever they come to our minds. It does not matter how short or how long the prayer is. What would our response be if someone were to say to us, "I only have IO seconds to pray. Would you like for me to pray for you now or wait until I have more time?" We might rather have a little prayer now, than take the chance of being forgotten about later. Let us pray more often, remembering that prayer includes giving thanks.
I will practice praying more often. I will not wait for convenient times before I bring my requests and thanks to God. I will pray always.