Good Morning 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
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