Thoughts About Prayer Big And Small
We often pray and look for answers to prayer. Answers for our needs both big and small. Issues of our hearts and minds. In our families and in our lives. Issues of health and direction, finance and wisdom. Prayers for many areas and we look and wait and hope for answers. We have heard messages on prayer and read many books about prayer. If we pray this way, or, if we pray that way, God will hear our prayers and move on our behalf. We bring two or three together, we go to altars and we look and we wait and we pray.
How many times do we pray to be an answer to prayer?
On a recent trip with Firstlight International and Frontier Harvest Ministries to Myanmar I experienced this. One of our purposes was to visit different churches, preach the Word, and pray for people.
During the service in a small village church in Kalamyo, there was a time when people could stand and testify to what God was doing in their lives. There was a moment of silence and an elderly saint stood up. With much emotion she started to speak. As the translator worked, tears came to my eyes. She gave thanks to God that in her lifetime she was able to see missionaries come to her church. That we were the answer to a prayer she had been praying for decades and she was so thankful to the Lord and to us. I was in stunned silence and reverence to God to be part of this. Her praise brought a sense of humility to my heart and soul as well as a new level of perspective to the ministry. It still continues.
Throughout our days, there are people who pray prayers that we can readily answer. Prayers for fellowship, prayers for compassion, prayers for understanding, prayers to know that they are not alone. Taking time to listen, to walk with someone a mile, to share a visit. These are very real needs that God is desiring for us to answer. We are His body; we are his people. Let us be His family to the world around us. Let us be His answers to the prayers of the world around us.
~ Scott Gourley
