1-13-2014

Good Morning to All,

    1 Timothy 2:1; “First of all, I encourage you to make petitions, prayers, intercessions, and prayers of thanks for all people”

     Probably the greatest gift that God’s gives to his people is the gift of prayer.  I think this because no matter who you are, whether you are 8 or 88, you can pray.  God hears all prayers, whether you are the richest person or the poorest person, the most educated or the least educated, it doesn’t matter God hears you.  You can pray for someone in your house or someone who is half a world away.  It can be your bestest friend or someone whom you have never met.  The wonderful thing about prayer is that it is between you and God; the people that you pray for are the beneficiaries of your prayers.  Prayer is about the ongoing dialog with God; it is the life sustaining rhythm of God speaking to us and we are speaking to God.  So how should we pray?

   One way that I learned to pray as a child was called the “hand prayer”; some call it the “five finger prayer”.  The thumb is the closest to your heart so you first pray for those closest to you, like your family, friends, co-workers, etc.  WE pray for their safety and health and that God would keep them in faith.

    The next finger is the “pointer” finger.  Here we pray for those who point the way for us.  Here we pray for teachers, preachers, missionaries.  This is also where we pray for the right and proper use of God’s Word and the expansion of the Church.

    The next finger is the tallest.  Here we pray for our leaders, the president, governor, judges and legislators.  We would also add community leaders, police, firemen and our armed forces people.

    The next finger, the ring finger, is the weakest of the fingers on your hand.  So here we pray for the weakest ones.  We pray for the sick, the homeless, those who have suffered a great loss like the death of a family member or those who had a disaster like a hurricane or tornado.  We pray for little children who are abandoned or abused.  We pray for broken families and the pain that is there.

    The last finger is the pinkie finger.  It is the smallest so this is where we pray for our own needs and wants.  It is the last and the least because we are to put others ahead of ourselves.

    This is a simple way to pray.  You can teach it to your kids and grandkids.  It is not fancy but that is the point.  God doesn’t want fancy; he wants you, just as you are, to come to him in prayer.  He wants you to pray for others as part of the ongoing holy conversation that he wants us to engage in.  So if you need a guide to prayer, this is one way but whatever way you choose, choose to pray.

Father of all tender mercy, you call us to pray for others.  Too often we are lax and fail to pray for others.  Lead us to see the greatness of the gift of prayer.  Lead us to use it often as bring the cries of others before you and into our minds.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret