Give Me a Heart for Prayer, Lord

God Calling's today is about the power and importance of prayer in our lives. Our prayers not only affect our lives, but the lives of others. I've tried to keep myself in a state of "prayer readiness." When I become aware of a need, I pray immediately. Some days I do better than others. That's one of the things that birthed my morning prayer. That way, everybody who might have a special need that day is already lifted up in prayer. I don't have to encounter them or necessarily even know their need.

Pray is a powerful, powerful force. It changes things a million miles away, it averts dangers, it saves lungs, hearts, livers, kidneys-lives. You can wrap your arms around someone on the other side of the world with a prayer. I don't know how many people it would take to literally, physically lift everybody on the planet. I imagine the task would probably be impossible. But I lift them all each morning in just my two hands through prayer. We, if we believe we belong to one another, out to do as small a thing as pray for each other. A small task, and yet what a great thing! What a powerful force to set in motion.

Prayer paves roads, opens doors, and makes ways where there have been none. As co-habitants, we have a civic duty to one another to pray for the greater good of all-to pray for the kinds of events, laws and leaders who will bring positive changes and serve to promote that greater good.

We need to pray consistently, persistently, and insistently. There's a song, "One Prayer Away." When I first heard it, the thought struck me: What if the next prayer that I don't pray is the one that would have saved someone's life? It gave me a quite different outlook on the importance of persistent prayer. Prayers needn't be long and complicated. It's as simple as one loving thought of any particular need being met or situation being changed, directed toward the person with the need. He hears before we speak. There are also three words that are very powerful. They are simply, "God bless you."