“There’s my prayer partner,” said an older lady at church to me. “I pray for you every day.”
These words of faithful prayer on my behalf were so encouraging to me as you can imagine. What I was really suddenly struck with as I thought on her words, though, was the spiritual accountability for my day that her prayers placed upon me. Obviously every moment of my day is accountable to God, but to know that every day L**** is praying for me, made me feel that my day should not be wasted.
As I continued to think about her words, I thought specifically about her calling me her “prayer partner.” At first I thought she was talking about someone else, someone that she prayed with regularly, but I realized she was talking to me. I thought about the phrase as we often hear it. Missionaries will talk about churches partnering with them in ministry financially as well as partnering in prayer. In that sense, I think L**** was telling me that she was partnering with me in my day by praying for me.
Isn’t that just the loveliest, most encouraging thought? Sometimes we can feel so alone in our daily lives. Sometimes the mundanity of everyday life can be overwhelming. Or it can cause us to fritter away our time. Or reduce the importance of little moments. But to know that someone is partnering with you means you are not alone. They are invested in you. They care enough to spend time before the throne on your behalf.
That being said, within the past few months I have discovered an app that has revitalized my prayer life. I have found prayer a very difficult thing to be consistent at. If I don’t have a system I fail miserably at consistency. I don’t like prayer journals, because I’m a bit of a perfectionist and don’t like not being able to rearrange things. And I don’t like paper sitting around.
Enter PrayerMate. This app is wonderful. It has a basic layout that allows you to pray for family, church, missionaries, etc. It can sync with the contacts on your phone to make it even simpler. You can upload photos to add a face to your prayers. You can add categories. It includes prayers from the Bible to pray, and it has many options. I now regularly pray for everyone in my church, along with our missionaries, other ministry couples, friends, and extended family on a regular basis.
Not only has this been an area of growth for me, but I have seen how it has been an opportunity to encourage others (along the lines of being a prayer partner). I will often take a screen shot of the person I prayed for, along with the list of the specific things I’ve added to his/her name and text/message the person I prayed for, letting them know that I prayed for them that day. This has seemed to be very encouraging from the feedback I’ve received.
As an extra bonus, it has also given me a great “small talk” question that opens the door to talk about deeper things. I’ve started several conversations with people that look a bit like the following: “Hey, I’ve got an app on my phone that I use to pray for people. If you ever have a specific request that I can add to my prayer list for you, let me know.” And I believe every time I’ve said that, the individual has immediately given me a request and opened a door for a good conversation.
Prayer is such a multi-faceted experience. We bring our requests to a God who commands and desires to hear them. He graciously answers, according to his will, giving only good gifts. We depend on God to meet our needs. We partner with others before God for their needs, which in turn glorifies God and encourages others.
“Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving” (Colossians 4:2).