Pray more

As I wrote about before, I spend an hour each week at the church in prayer. I pray often throughout the week, but I want to be more intentional about praying. I want to spend longer periods of time praying during the week, not just my hour at church.

Recently I posted on Facebook offering to pray for my friends. I had several responses both on the post and through private messaging. I prayed for every one of them! I have also tried to make a point to pray any time I see someone post on social media asking for prayer. This is quite a challenge! Some of these prayer requests are for immediate needs, some are for more long term issues.

I decided to start my own prayer list at home, like one that we have at the church. I have a box with index cards in it. One prayer request on each card. Whenever someone asks me to pray about something, I can add a card to the box. Each day that I pray for these requests, I mark it with the date. My hope is that as these requests are answered I can move them to an "answered" box, to remind me of answered prayers. I may, perhaps in some cases, even give the card to the person I was praying for after the prayer has been answered.

The picture below is of the stack of index cards I am going to use, along with my prayer journal that I write prayers in (not all of my prayers, but some). It is on my bed near my pillow. I spend a lot of time in bed because of fatigue and pain, but it is a great place to pray!

I don't want to be sick, but I can see how God has used my illness to teach me and grow me, and I am very thankful for that. I have learned things through illness that I don't think I would have learned any other way. Praise the Lord!

My prayers aren't anything special, just me talking to God, but if you would like me to join you in prayer for something, feel free to let me know, and I will be happy to pray!