I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now --Philippians 1:3-5
When things go wrong in our friends lives--a family member is sick, things are crazy at work, the stress is just to much--we often say, “I’ll be praying for you.”
I do this often. But I’m not always great about actually INTENTIONALLY lining these prayers out. I say I’ll pray about it, and in my heart in that moment I will send some thoughts up to God, but I usually don’t follow up. I usually don’t write out a prayer for that person.
I do the same thing with my own prayer requests. I don’t always pray as specifically as I could for my husband, my best friends, and my family members. While God knows what’s in my heart even if I don’t always fully verbalize it, that’s not really the point.
C.S. Lewis once said, “I pray because I can’t help myself…--it does not change God--it changes me.”
Prayer is so much more than just God hearing our requests. It’s an opportunity for God to communicate with us, comfort us, and transform our hearts.
Prayer does matter. Pray intentionally for your loved ones. Not because it changes God, but because it gives God the opportunity to change YOU.
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