DID YOU FORGET TO PRAY

7 23 12 Don’t forget to pray. Ask God for insight and an understanding of his Word. This insight or enlightenment is a work of grace and a ministry of the Holy Spirit. Pray you will have eyes to see and ears to hear the marvelous ways that God is showing his love to all his creation but especially to his family of believers.

Scripture:  Philippians 4:6-7 (NIV) "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

Note: I read the following article in dismay. I kept looking around to see if anybody was watching my reaction. Surely this is a joke. But no…it’s for real. I should have known in the day and age in which we live, it was just a matter of time until someone would offer this type of service; a prayer service for all those who are too busy or forgetful to pray. For a fee an “Information Age Prayer” will pray for you on a regular basis. This way prayer will not interfere with your busy daily schedule.

This is the description of what this company will do for you, or in your behalf.

“Information Age Prayer” is a subscription service utilizing a computer with text-to-speech capability to incant your prayers each day. It gives you the satisfaction of knowing that your prayers will always be said even if you wake up late, or forget.

We use state of the art text to speech synthesizers to voice each prayer at a volume and speed equivalent to typical person praying. Each prayer is voiced individually, with the name of the subscriber displayed on screen.

At Information Age Prayer we think our service should be used like a prayer supplement, to extend and strengthen a subscriber's connection with God. Traditional prayer is an integral part of this connection and should never be forgone, even after signing up. You can subscribe for yourself, or you can purchase a subscription as a gift to friends or family."

Subscription rate for a discounted package deal is $19.95 a month. The Protestant Prayer Bundle includes, The Lord’s Prayer, The Morning Prayer, 5 Get Well Prayers and a Prayer for Peace." [If you want to check it out, go to:  http://talkingthewalk-cal.blogspot.com/2009/04/information-age-prayerwhat-will-they.html]

Can you believe it? The Bible text for this devotional (reread if necessary) indicates that prayer is personal. The person praying is told to not be anxious about anything. A prayer service I’m sure is not anxious about anything especially when it comes to praying the way in which God would want us to pray. Individually, we are told to pray about everything and our prayers should be in the form of praise, petition with thanksgiving. We are to acknowledge our needs, our concerns, our joys and our sorrows. A believer’s prayers are filled with praise. We praise God for we believe in our heart that he is able to answer our prayers that we share with him, everything that concerns us. When we pray with thanksgiving, the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will be ours. This is God’s peace not the peace of the world. Only God’s peace is able to guard our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus. This type of praying sounds like a pretty good deal to me.

Often our prayers are based on emotion; the emotion of love, the emotion of God’s presence and the emotion of God’s keeping power. No one but you and the Holy Spirit know you in this way. It was the apostle Peter who encourages all of God’s children to: “cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7). Beloved, this means all your anxieties, all your cares, and all your challenges. Are we smart enough to start doing that today? I hope so for my sake and for your sake.

Did the Lord speak to you today?  Why not write it down and claim it for His Glory. 

 Prayer:  What do you need to pray to the Lord today? Listen to your heart. He loves you!

If you are not interesting in receiving these devotionals please let me know and I will remove you from the list. I hope you enjoy them and that they encourage you to faithfulness. david