ACT 9: GENEROUS PRAYER

MARCH 14, 2022

Acts 2:42

“And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.”

Matthew 5:44

But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you

1 Timothy 2:1-3

First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior,

Galatians 6:2

Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

We begin this week’s devotions with a story about Helen. Helen was a member of a previous church that I Pastored, and each week at our Wednesday night Prayer meeting, when we were putting our prayer request list together for our prayer time, she would often request prayer for some unknown person. What I mean is, not even Helen knew the person. For example, on the way to church she would see an Ambulance, or Fire Truck on their way to a scene, or she would see an accident that had just occurred on her route to church, and she would ask for prayer for these situations. I can remember thinking that her requests seemed odd, I mean, why pray for people or circumstances that we do not know about. Truth is I learned a lot from Helen about prayer on those Wednesday nights.

Today’s generous act is all about setting in motion the gift of prayer. Wait, what? How is prayer generous, you ask? When we pray, we spend time talking to a God who lives and moves and acts with power and presence, in response to our prayers. The Bible tells us “ask anything in my name.” Re-read our verses today from the Bible, notice “they devoted themselves …. to Prayer”, there is this invitation/Command to pray for those who are cruel to us, to pray for politicians, yes even the ones we disagree with. Don’t miss that it says this kind of praying for others pleases God. Prayer is generous because we are asking the creator of the universe to do a good thing for someone else. That’s Powerful stuff. That’s something that Helen understood, that I did not, and that she taught me about Prayer.

Don’t you find it remarkable that God is interested in us and wants us to have honest conversation with him? Here is the thing, we do not need any special skills or “high-level” clearance to get in contact with him. In fact, there are no barriers (except perhaps those we put up ourselves). Wherever we are, whatever we’re doing, day or night, we can talk to God. We can tell God what is important to us, what we are concerned about. We can acknowledge what we are grateful for. You could … well, just be honest. Here’s some space to do it …





Praying. Think about it, millions of people around the World do it: believers, sceptics, young people, people who are desperate and people who are not. Do you know something, this is astounding, God responds!!


So here is a thought: who could you offer the gift of prayer to today?


Go to your local news source, Paper or on air media, or click open your Facebook/Twitter etc newsfeed. Just offer up some brief prayers for the stories, or the people in them that you see listed or hear about there.


One person I was reading suggested that we schedule a regular time throughout the day to pray for newsfeeds or our relationship circles and Community.



Why not share the gift of prayer with others today?

“We never know how God will answer our prayers, but we can expect that He will get us involved in His plan for the answer. If we are true intercessors, we must be ready to take part in God’s work on behalf of the people for whom we pray.”                                         Corrie Ten Boom