Call to prayer

     You've likely heard quite a bit on prayer lately - or I hope you have - with the National Day of Prayer coming Thursday. Whether it's about missions like at our church (with the missions conference the weekend before last) or for our nation, we need to recall how wonderful it is to pray and use that opportunity.

     Prayer is so easy, unlike the Internet - I (Doug) am still presently the only one of our staff savvy enough with this to blog effectively, but e-mail us and check out our website with your questions and we're all good enough at e-mail to reply. :-)






     The simple explanation we give in our Sunday School and AWANA - you can pray anytime, anywhere, about anything - is  easy enough for children to learn, yet so amazing. God isn't like the false gods whose systems require such precision - He is a personal God who inhabits each believer. Sure, there are times we pray amiss, but that doesn't mean we can't do it, it's just that He's going to say "no" or flat out not hear us if we're harboring sin as we pray.

     Prayer is about letting God change us on the inside, but it's also about fighting a spiritual battle. It's about interceding for others, for his will of course but also for needs that are so personal and can be so small in some eyes. But, that bus kids who 10-12 years ago asked to pray for a lost puppy or kitten, I forget which, needed their faith to be built somewhere, and it may be that they were able to pray for something a lot bigger because God used that one smaller incident to work them up to something great. Just like He used a lion and a bear threatening the flock to prepare David to slay Goliath.

     That personal relationship with God is so awesome, it's something our contacts so often need, becasue some have let religion chase them away when in fact it's *never* been about religion, but always been about a relationship with Jesus Christ.
     It can be great to ask someone if they would like you to pray with them as a means of witnessing, too! Of course, some will know you are just joining them in prayer - I had one in my online missions program, in fact, who just had what seemed like the start of a possible major positive answer, though it will still be a difficult road. But, for others, we need to help them realize that they can speak with their Creator and Saviour themselves, and He will hear them.

     I hope you will recall the National Day of Prayer and get out and seek God's face for all the many needs in our communities and especially in our nation. We are in great need of repentance revival, but where there is life, there is still hope, till God calls us home. And, till we see Him face to face, we can always go to Him in prayer.