Listen to this article
prayerPower
by Mervyn Morelock, Lt. Colonel –
A friend sent me an email the other day: “We remembered you in our devotions today. We both want you to know you were especially remembered by us in prayer.”
In his message, he said that he and his wife keep a prayer basked in which all the Christmas cards are placed each year. Each day when they share in devotions, they take out a card and pray for that individual or family. Then they email a message to let the individuals knows that they were included in their prayers that day. It’s a very special feeling to know that you are being prayed for!
A few years ago, our appointment as territorial evangelists was based on our belief that our ministry would falter and fail unless we were supported by daily, continuous prayer. We wrote to 120 friends and family to enlist their support as prayer partners for our ministry. Each month we sent out a letter with information about where we would be sharing the Good News and asked that they pray for us and for the people to whom we would be ministering. That’s really how the territorial “Call to Prayer” ministry began.
What a glorious time we had! We never felt alone. God blessed in every corps, large and small. The reason? Because our strength was coming from the Lord, and people were praying for us! The knowledge of those prayers lifted our spirits when we were on the road to some small corps in one of the many isolated places in the territory. We knew God would bless our ministry—and he did!
How about you? Do you regularly pray for someone, and do you let him or her know? It doesn’t have to be a flowery or long prayer, but remembering to pray for an individual or situation is a powerful way God has given us to bless and encourage others.
I like my friend’s idea of using Christmas cards as a way to remember people in prayer. I think it’s a tremendous way to receive a double blessing—once when we receive the card, and once when we pray for that person.
Our friends, Majors Neil and Beth Saunders, recently sent us a note that they had drawn our card from their basket and were praying for us. Included in their note was this verse from God’s Word:
Every time you cross my mind, I break out in exclamations of thanks to God. Each exclamation is a trigger to prayer. I find myself praying for you with a glad heart. I am so pleased that you have continued on in this with us, believing and proclaiming God’s Message, from the day you heard it, right up to the present” (Philippians 1:3-6, The Message).
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we all kept our Christmas cards this year as our “trigger to pray?” You may not receive 365 cards at Christmas, but you could recycle them. I don’t think our friends would mind being prayed for more than once a year!
And when you have prayed, tell them about it. With so many having access to email, it will only take a minute of your time but will pour out an abundance of blessing and encouragement to those who receive it. It has been so for us!
