“Let my prayer be counted as incense before you…” Psalm 141:2a
I saw a small boy with his mother. She was texting on her phone, and he was trying to get her attention. He put his hand on her arm. No response. As she continued to text, his touch became a harder pat, and several harder pats, and still no response. Eventually, he smacked her. This, of course, got her attention, but not in a good way!
1 John 5:14 tells us, “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.” What an awesome thing—God hears us! We don’t have to lash out at him, and we don’t need to vie for his attention with anyone or anything else. He-hears-US!
I meet weekly with a group of ladies for prayer. We share things that are on our hearts and pray for one another. After two years of meeting together, we’ve become close friends. Recently, when a family member had a health emergency, I immediately notified the ladies in this group, and within minutes, they began praying!
Our group is called Koinonia. Koinonia means communion or fellowship in Christianity. It’s the bond that unites people with each other and with God. Sometimes, we’ve prayed for healing for people who have eventually died. We’ve also prayed for people to be cured of diseases, but the healing hasn’t happened. So, have we stopped praying? Absolutely not! We know when we pray, we lift our concerns, and God hears us!
When we meet, we offer thanks for all God has done. We ask for His help and His guidance in certain situations. Through weekly prayer sessions, we’ve connected on a deeper level with God and each other. We’ve shared our faith, worries, hurts, and tears.
In Psalm 145:18, we are told, “The Lord is near to all who call on Him…” When we come together and pray, we feel God’s presence with us in a big way! The ladies of Koinonia view prayer as extremely important. Prayer is one of the “Most Important Things”. How wonderful it is to know that God hears us and when we pay attention, we hear Him!!!
And back to what I learned from watching the little boy with his mother…another “Most Important Thing” is to put our phones away when we’re with those we love! We can all work to make our relationships with people a “Most Important Thing”, instead of our phones! Ouch!!!!!
Susan Meharg, Assistant to the Executive Team
