Prayer Part 3

Continuing the story from yesterday…

The next thing that happened was that Ben woke up around 3:00 a.m. and wouldn’t go back to sleep (which for him is not normal). I nursed him, and eventually he did go back to sleep. But, again, where did I turn?

To prayer.

I immediately prayed for him because he wasn’t himself and seemed to be in pain. Yet, as I lay back down to sleep I pondered my reaction. Was prayer necessary? Maybe he would have gone back to sleep anyway. More than likely he would have, so why pray? Was/is his sleeping/not sleeping even important to God? Doesn't He (God) have more important - read that "bigger"- things to worry about? Starving children in Africa?

But, maybe my praying wasn't just about calming down my little son...maybe there was/is something else going on...something more.

Pray without ceasing (1 Thess. 5:17)…these words kept echoing through my mind throughout the night and into the morning…along with...pray like breathing…never ceasing. Constant.

You have said, "Seek my face."My heart says to you, "Your face, LORD, do I seek."
-Psalm 27:8

What if I didn't have this option? What if prayer was not an option - ever? Or only an option for "big ticket" issues. And how would I know what qualified as a "big ticket" issue? What might seem big to me might be little to God.

Hear, O LORD, when I cry aloud; be gracious to me and answer me! -Psalm 27:7

P.S. Last night (Monday) I went in to check on Ben before heading to bed and he was hot with fever. Even as I ministered to his physical needs I prayed over him again and this morning his fever was gone.

Jesus went on from there and walked beside the Sea of Galilee. And he went up on the mountain and sat down there. And great crowds came to him, bringing with them the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute, and many others, and they put them at his feet, and he healed them, so that the crowd wondered, when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled healthy, the lame walking, and the blind seeing. And they glorified the God of Israel. -Matthew 15:29-31

And they glorified the God of Israel. -Matthew 15:31 (And they were Gentiles.)

You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. -Isaiah 26:3