Saturday, January 22, 2005

Evidence of Much Availed

"Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.

Confess your trespasses
to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much." James 5:13-16 (NKJV)



I've had many opportunities to pray for other people this week. Some have been related to illness or tragedies, while others have been more upbeat, such as praying for my friend's job interview.

I tend to receive a lot of prayer requests, either from friends and family directly or second-hand through other people. Many times I'm asked to pray for people who I don't know, who I've never met and perhaps never will meet. One of my spiritual gifts is the gift of intercession, and God keeps sending prayer requests my way to give that gift a good workout!

Sometimes I wish I were better at following through on prayer requests. I do pray, but sometimes I'll pray about a certain situation and then soon forget to follow up to see how things turned out. (I do realize that there are many prayers that I won't know the answer to until I'm face to face with God.)

There are certain friends and family that I keep on a "permanent" prayer list, praying for them on a regular basis, even if I don't know specifically what they need at that particular moment. But there are many other people who I forget to ask about the outcome. I've tried keeping a prayer journal in the past, but I've yet to achieve a real consistency in keeping track of those prayer requests. Maybe I need to try it again.

Any ideas?

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