Prayer - Opening the World

Prayer, a simple and yet such powerful word, gift and tool! For the past year or so I have asked God to begin to open my eyes to see the world as He does and He has done just that. Slowly but surely God is opening my eyes. In all honesty sometimes it’s ‘frightening’ which is why I write today. ‘Ask and you shall receive’; it is so true! As days and weeks go by, I am made aware of many new prayer requests. These prayers are for people I know and for those I have never heard of, they are for those in the US and for those afar, they are for believer and non-believers a like, they are for nations, governments, organizations, situations, etc.

The more I pray for others the more I realize what a ‘sad’ and ‘sinfilled’ world this place is. My heart can easily begin to fill heavy. Just this week I began to feel a heavy burden for many people and things I am praying for. As my heart was heavy I heard God tell me, ‘lay this burden on Me, this is what I ask. Not that you carry this weight yourself.’ Wow, this is when it hit me how powerful prayer is. God does not ask us to pray so we can learn to solve the world’s problems, He wants us to ‘make all requests be made known to Him’. God wants to heal each of us and our world… While one can look around the world and be filled with sadness, I can now see the great JOY as well. God has overcome the world!! I will never fully be able to grasp His love, but what a blessing as He reveals Himself to us a little at a time!

On a side note, I have a project I would like to share (mainly b/c it’s been sitting there for almost a year now and I need to get it done!). I have a special box in my dining room with ‘blank’ note cards in it. My goal is to write a prayer request on a note card as it is presented to me. Then as I walk by my dining room I can take one out and pray. Then put it back and do it again when I walk by next time. The idea is that sometimes we have so many different prayer requests and praises that we can’t remember them all at one time. This keeps me God and people focused all day long and makes sure no one is forgotten. I ask that you all help hold me accountable for this and make sure I have written prayers down within the next week.