Prayer

When I was a child, prayer was a part of our lives since my dad was a pastor. I learned to pray early in my life. Little prayers, like "God bless mommy and daddy." Then I tried the more eloquent prayers like the ones I heard in church. I was never good at that. The short sentences were more to my liking. After reading the Yada Sister books, I started praying Scripture along with my requests and praises to God. This has been my help and aid in the past few weeks.

But I wanted to talk about prayer partners. When I was a child, if I WANTED something, I would ask Aunt Blanche -- a prayer warrior, Sunday school teacher, Good News Club leader -- to pray for that "something." Aunt Blanche always got her prayers answered the way I wanted them answered. I learned later that what I wanted was not always what God wanted, but that's another lesson and story.

So when I was in Runnemede I had Aunt Blanche to help me in my praying for things in my life. Oh yeah, I had my mom and dad, but Aunt Blanche was the one I went to first. Then when I left Runnemede, after I got married, my husband was my prayer pal. I didn't have a woman friend that I felt I could ask to pray for things with me, but I could still call on Aunt Blanche.

When we moved to Cincinnati I met a woman, my age, and her children were my children's ages, who was a real pray-er. I latched on to her like white on rice. And she has been faithful to pray for me and listen to my cries and pleas for over 30 years now. She also has been my best friend and doesn't care how awful I am, how nasty I am, how sick I am, or how much of a leech I am. She listens, then she prays -- not necessarily what I want her to pray, but she prays what she believes God wants her to pray, and her prayer is loaded with God's own Word.

This past week has been a very bad week for me and Alan, physically. We were travelling home from Florida, a 24-hour drive with three stops for dinners. I was having a very painful fibromyalgia event, and Alan was weak as a kitten, plus he had a really bad cold, for which he was given antibiotics by the ship's doctor. So, I became me and Alan and on the trip and had to do what he normally does and what I normally do -- both jobs. Well, I called Nancy right away and told her to pray for me and since it was an answering machine call she didn't know what to pray for, so she just prayed for a "safe trip", which was exactly what I needed her to pray for me and Alan.

On day two of the trip I developed a migraine which I'm still fighting after three days. I called Nancy again, and this time I talked to her in person. She had been awakened the same time during the night with a headache which she never gets, and knew she had to pray for me for a headache. The headache was just dull enough that I could drive, then hit hard again after we stopped for the night. It let up again in the a.m. for drive time, then hit again when we got home.

Now what is the point of this epistle? Well, God knows what we need before we ask for it or even think about it. I pray that a lot, you know? "God, you know what I need right now, so Please supply that need." And God is good all the time. I think of the Apostle Paul often and while I don't know what his physical problem was, he does mention it, so it must have been something, because he admonished us to pray without ceasing and we are told to rejoice in the Lord always.

I'm not the Apostle Paul, nor do I ever think I will attain the spirituality of that man, but his God is my God, and his God is faithful to those who love Him.

So, today, if you have time, pray for someone you know. Pray that God will supply their need for this day.

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