As a kid I remember hearing somebody respond to a need with, “Well, I’ll be praying about that with you.” I usually thought, “What good will that do?”
Big deal. It wasn’t that I was disrespectful or doubted God’s ability. I didn’t know very much about Him, so didn’t understand. After all, when you’re a kid and somebody mentions ‘God’ do you, who’s the first person who pops into your mind as your focal point?
Yep. Dad. “You just wait until your dad gets home!”
So I guess you could say I never knew what I never knew.
How little I knew. Since then and across the years I’ve learned a thing or three about God and the way He works through situations and people.
- Prayers have NO expiration date. Grandpa may have died, but his prayers didn’t. Your mom may have been gone for years, but those prayers she wept over are just as close to God’s heart as ever. Prayers have NO expiration date; they’re like the famous pink, fluffy bunny in shades: they literally keep going and going and going and going and going . . . you may shut the pray-er up; but you can do precisely zero about those faith-filled prayers.
- Praying, “God, Your will is what I want in this matter” instantly aligns your heart, mind and spirit with that of God. Jesus never prayed that because Jeraldo and his camera crew were standing by wanting sound bites for the next morning’s Fox & Friends. According to the Bible, insisting on God’s will in any specific issue never fails to get His undivided attention. You instantly remove any and all restrictions, enabling Him to answer how, when, what and where He knows will make the most difference.
- There’s something about being around a prayin’ man or woman. They’re almost conversational and sometimes it takes a minute or two to realize they’re talking to God and not you. They come in all shapes, sizes and colors. They’re not in and of themselves imposing–until you get close enough to really listen to what they’re telling the Holy Spirit.
- Since those prayers never expire, it’d give me some serious second thoughts if I heard veteran pray-ers begin mentioning my name and/or situation and telling God, “Whatever You know you must do, Lord, they’re Yours. My hands are off.”
- And for the same reason, it would give me incomparable encouragement to hear that same caliber of prayer warrior lifting me and my issues to God and asking Him for yet more grace, blessing and empowerment to do His will and be His man.
Yeah, I’ve watched God work in response to both kinds of intercession. From both perspectives, I continue to be stunned by how God bends to hear and attend to the praying of such men and women.
It makes me want more and more to be known as one of them.
© D. Dean Boone, June 2014