Answered Prayer

Yesterday morning I had a good chunk of time to read my Bible. Lately I've been studying the Bible using a devotional on prayer, and it always inspires me to pray more.

My mind started wandering yesterday as my Bible was open on my lap, and I remembered a prayer list I had when I was traveling with Youth Encounter. On this list, I would write down the things I was praying for, the date I started praying for them, and when they got answered. It was a great way to remember what I wanted to pray for but also to see how God was moving.

Without writing down prayer requests, it's easy to think that God doesn't hear me, or God is not answering my prayers. But when I write it down, keep a record, and pray regularly, it's amazing to see how He's working.

As I spent time yesterday with my Bible, I had the urge to begin writing prayer requests down again. I searched the loose papers in my Bible to find a scrap I could use, and I stumbled upon the very prayer requests I had recorded 7 years ago! It was so special to read them again, see how many more have been answered, and remember the people and things I had been lifting up in prayer at that time. What a treasure.

If you want to be more diligent in writing down your prayer requests, check out Echoprayer.com. This free website is a great tool where you can input your prayers and it will send you either a reminder via email or text message. You can set the reminders to come as frequently as you want. Echo Prayer also has a button you can click to mark the prayer as answered, or to make notes to yourself about the item you're praying about. I just logged on to my account again this morning and read all the answered prayers. It reminds me that God is faithful.

Let's decide together that today we will write down the names of those people we want to pray for regularly. When someone says, "Hey could you pray for me about..." let's add them to our list so they don't fall off our radar. If we say we are going to pray, then let's really give it our all and do it!