Praying
I was asked to present to my Jr. High girls a dealy on prayer. Wow. Prayer. Quite a vast topic. Anyhoo, I was trying to figure out what I wanted to talk about, doing all the research, yadda, yadda.
So, when the girls were over, I had them all draw a little dude. I gave mine the name Powder Puff Paul, just because I like alliteration. So I asked them what kinds of things they would pray for or want prayer for. These are the things that they listed: medical needs/health, food, water, shelter, happiness, and relationships with friends & family. Then it dawned on me that so many people pray for physical things that, in the long run, don’t have a major spiritual impact.
We proceeded to look at various examples from the Bible where people were praying and talk about what they prayed for. In John 17, Jesus prays for awhile (and I consider Jesus to be the grand master super champion of prayer). We looked at what he was praying for…and he did not pray that physical and relational needs be met. He prayed for souls.
Wow.
So, on our charts we made a list of other things we could pray for when praying for others. We drew little arrows pointing to body parts that related to what we were praying for. Some of the things we came up with included:
Brain – pray for God’s wisdom to infiltrate our minds
Eyes – pray for discernment, that we would be able to see the difference between good & evil
Mouth – That we would speak only the words that glorify God
Ears – That we would hear God’s truth
Hands – That we would become servants, even if others don’t recognize us
Hearts – That our hearts would be made pure and holy, and that God would seal our hearts to keep evil out
Feet – That God would light our path so that we go where he desires us to go
What a refreshing discussion. (I just had to share it). I think I was blown away though that we come to God when we have physical needs, or when others have physical needs. But do we pray for each others souls? I don’t know a soul out there that doesn’t need to be lifted up and protected by God.