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“But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen.

Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans,

for they think they will be heard because of their many words.”

Matthew 6:6-7 (NIV)

Jesus told the disciples, “When you pray. . . .” He expects us to pray in order to seek guidance from God.

“Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. (Mark 1:35, NIV)

The question new Christians ask is “When should I pray?” For several years, I belonged to a Bible study where the leader encouraged us to pray shortly after we awoke. Her words were, “Pray in the morning.” At that time in my life, my mornings came later than most peoples’ did. I gave a lot of thought about what she said. Then, I realized my mornings began late but it was still early for me. I started praying during my mornings, even thought it was late morning.

As the Spirit Urges

I recently felt the need to pray for the sister of a friend of mine. I had just awoken and, immediately, lifted this sister up to God. I could not think of anyone else. The next day that sister entered her heavenly home.

Several years ago, I remembered a man I met when I was in college. Back then, he lived in a small town a few miles south of where I lived. Each time, I remembered the same story about him that was humorous. I did this about three times. One day, I opened our newspaper, turned to the obituaries, and saw where he had passed on. He had been staying with his parents, I suppose, due to his disease. I felt convicted that I should have prayed for him because I believed God had wanted me to and I did not follow through.

Prayer is important

Besides the usual praying for others’ needs, Prayer brings us closer to God. Coupled with fasting, it works it center our hearts on what God desires for our lives.

Recently, I heard that my next-door neighbor woman has a great-nephew who was about four-weeks old. His mother had to admit him to one of the children’s hospital in our region because the boy was in respiratory distress. When she returned, she told my husband she wanted to come over so I could pray with her. I prayed the rest of the night for this little fellow.

God Hears our Prayers

God does hear our prayers. He even hears those thoughts that He considers prayer-like. Our son lives in the Eastern Time Zone. He works from home for an agency whose home office is in the Central Time Zone. Therefore, he works on Central Time. After his relocation to our home state, his shift ended mid-evening. I got to thinking about it one day and realized that due to the seniority factor, he would always have a similar shift even though the agency revamps the hours of the employees to meet the workload. Last month he called us with ‘some good news.’ He found out that he would be getting a new shift and his ending time would be an hour-and-a-half earlier, at the end of the afternoon. God took my thoughts and concerns and considered them as prayers. He listened and acted on them.

"Today's Little Lift" from Jim Bullington

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