Prayer: A Covenant With God – Sunday Thought For The Day

Are we really faithful in prayer?  Do we understand the meaning of faithful prayer?  Are we committed to prayer?  Our answers to these questions will tell us a lot about our walk with Christ, but more importantly the answers will tell us about ourselves.

In November 2013, I was a guest on a national television talk show.  The show flew me from Florida to Hollywood to appear.  The limousine driver responsible for greeting me and taking me from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) to the Roosevelt Hotel was pleasant and we chatted in route to the hotel.  The following day a different driver took me to and from the Hollywood studio where the show was aired live.  The day after that the limousine driver charged with returning to LAX  for my return trip back home to Florida, was the same woman driver I had upon my arrival.

As we talked, she revealed that she was owner-operator of the limousine service.  I asked her about her faith and whether or not she was a Christian.  She was not, albeit she professed belief in God.

The morning of my first day back home, I added the woman to my prayer list based upon what she had shared, which included family, business, and health concerns.  When I had told her I would be praying for her – I’m certain she took my comment with a grain of salt.

Yesterday was July 17, 2021 and as I prayed for the woman that morning I noticed it has been nearly 8-years that I’ve been praying for her.

Specific to that point, the woman has no idea she is being prayed for; while I have confidence that my prayers for her and her daughter haven’t been in vain; I do not know her current situation, and having no  way to find out isn’t a reason to break the covenant I made with God on her behalf when I felt the Lord leading me to pray for her.

I don’t mention her to make a public display of praying for her.  I mention it because this August, will be my 40th year as a Christian, which brings  a special memory to mind.  One Sunday as we were returning home from church I saw a gentleman I had met years before.  He was standing in a church parking lot admiring its architecture, about a mile from our home.

We turned around; pulled into the lot, and as I sprang from our automobile approaching him, I heard myself shouting “Norm I’m saved.”  We hugged and shared how good it was to see one another again.  He accepted our invitation to join us for dinner at our home.

I had been saved less than a year at that time, but the Lord had already called me into the ministry and I had begun attending bible college in preparation for ministry.

After dinner we sat talking and praising the glory of God for the way our meeting had happened.  It was then that Norm shared he had been praying for my salvation for 6-years.  He said, that one day those years before, I had expressed interest in God.  He had silently prayed for me in that moment and later that evening he added me to his prayer list.

The point here is that we may be praying for someone a long time, but that isn’t a reason to stop praying.  I know at least one other person who was praying for me, but they were family.  Norm had been only a casual acquaintance and yet he undertook to pray that I would come to know Christ as my Savior.  Realistically speaking, he had no idea if he would ever see me again, but that didn’t hamper his prayer for me.

I’ve no idea if I will ever meet the woman limousine owner-operator again.  But that’s not why I’m  praying for her.  I remain faithful in prayer for her, because I shall never forget the man who took my glib words to the Lord and remained faithful to the covenant he made with God that day he was led of the Lord to pray for me.

Have you made a covenant with God to pray for someone?  Whether the Holy Spirit prompts us to pray for a person or someone asks us to keep them in prayer; we enter into a covenant agreement with God when we accept to pray for said person(s).  The length of time we pray is inconsequential.  The important thing is for us to pray in faith, believing God will answer that which we pray – in His time, in His way, and to His glory; even if the answer appears to be different than what we are praying.  Thus the reason we include “According to thy will oh Lord” in every prayer we pray.

Have you been praying for someone to be saved or healed for what seems a long time?  Perhaps for decades.  Do not despair because your prayer(s) haven’t been answered according to your time frame and/or your schedule.  “No, wait, not now, and keep praying” are answers to prayer as well.

READ:
1 Timothy 2:8 KJV

8 I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.