Pick 5…
Photo by Jan Kahánek on Unsplash
Several months ago, I began praying for 5 college students by name.
A couple of these kids I know pretty well, and a few I do not.
It was a burden that The Lord put on my heart one day as I was sitting on my back porch praying.
I wrote their names down in my prayer journal, and looking down at them, I wondered…”Why these names, Lord?”
I did not hear a reply.
Yesterday, as I was sitting in church, our pastor told us to pick 5 people to pray for every day.
My heart fluttered…Yes! I am doing this, Lord!
Having two kids in college, I see the need for prayer over these kids. Living right outside of Athens, Ga…a huge college town, I desperately see the need to pray.
Both of my children had some serious faith struggles at some point in their life. I have posted about my son’s publicly, with his permission. You can find it here.
I knew that if these kids of mine, being raised on a foundation of faith, surrounded by a loving family, could have doubts about faith….ANYONE COULD.
So, back to these 5 college kids.
God seared their faces on my heart, and I wrote their names down.
Daily, I pray over them.
Sometimes, I wonder, “Lord, will I ever know how this will turn out? Will I ever see the fruit of these prayers?”
Just as soon as I ask that question to Him, I am reminded of passages of Scripture regarding long awaited answers to prayer.
I think of Elizabeth and Zechariah, who must have spent most of their lives praying for a baby.
Well along in years, surely they must have thought it would not happen.
Until it happened.
Sure enough, Elizabeth would give birth in her old age to John the Baptist.
Read Luke 1 for the whole story!
I think of Abraham and Sarah…same story. They prayed for years on end for a child..
Well into their 90’s, (YES NINETIES!) the child came.
My friend, Beth Crowley, wrote a chapter in her book about answer to prayer.
She tells of a picture that she loved of her husband. She took it into a photo shop, this was many years ago before digital, to have it blown up to a larger size.
Days later she returned to the photo shop and to her utter dismay they had lost the picture.
Beth was devastated! She prayed and prayed that picture would show up…it didn’t.
Many years later, she was cleaning out some boxes, and at the very bottom of the box was some film negatives.
She held it up to the light and lo and behold…it was that picture of her husband!!
The first thing she thinks of, as tears of joy are running down her cheeks, is this…
“God never forgets our prayers.”
Wow!
My hope is that one day I will see the fruit of these prayers of these 5 college kids.
One day, I hope God will show me. Yet, even if He doesn’t show me this side of Heaven, I know He is still working and answering.
No prayer is ever wasted.
God’s Word says in Isaiah 49:15b..”I will never forget you!”
My challenge to you on this Monday morning…
Pick 5 people to pray for every day. If you are not sure who to pick, ask God, He will show you!
Write their names down on a piece of paper and put it somewhere you will see often.
Pray for those 5.
Every day.
As long as you can.
Wait, and see what God will do.
It may take years and years to see the answer to those prayers.
But, we serve a faithful God, who “in the fullness of time”, answers prayers.
Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. Mark 11:24
Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. Colossians 4:2
And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him. 1 John 5:15
praying over my 5,
jill
