A New Year of Prayer

A New Year of Prayer

I love caller-ID.  It identifies, dates, and time-stamps every phone call you receive.  In addition, you can save that information.  When our boys were in college, I saved every record of their last call.  I loved remembering when we had last talked and when they had last cared enough to initiate the call.  I must confess that, in the frailty of my humanity, I was not above using that information to my own advantage.

When it had been weeks since they had called, especially if it was getting close to time for me to send them some cash for living expenses, I just might call and leave a message, introducing myself as their mother who had not heard from them in three weeks, five days, and seventeen hours, and who probably would not remember to send them any spending money until I verified that they were still in school, remembered my name, and loved their mother.  Power is a giddy thing!

On the other hand, how precious it was to see that caller-ID when a son was calling to simply say he loved me or to ask about what was going on at home or to ask for encouragement or help with one of his struggles.  Such a tiny thing could make my day sing with joy for weeks – just because my son called me.  I always know that they love me, but it is so sweet to hear them say it.

Prayer has been called the breath of the soul.  So, I would like to ask you to perform a tiny exercise.  Note the time on your watch.  Take a deep breath.  Hold it as long as you are able.  Now, look at your watch.  How long was it?  Probably, not nearly as long as you thought or it felt.  How wonderful it felt to fully inflate your lungs, as you took that deep breath of life-giving air!  That is exactly how prayer should feed and inflate our souls.  That, too, is how shriveled and desperate our soul can become apart from the sweet communication with our Father that comes with constant and consistent prayer.  I wonder if God should happen to keep a formal record of caller-ID, time and date stamp, what our records might reveal about how, when, and where we pray to our Father.

As we begin this new year, let’s purpose to keep our names constantly on God’s called-ID, following His commandment in I Thessalonians 5:17 to pray without ceasing.  I don’t want my called-ID record to reveal that I only call when I need something.  I want to know my Father, intimately.  There is no better way to do that than to talk with him, constantly.  He loves our prayers far more than we can value the calls of those whom we love dearly.

We might save the record of the call, or, to the chagrin of my phone providers, I even save voicemails from sons, daughters-in-love, grandchildren, husband, and siblings.  I always want them transferred to new systems and new phones.  I want to be able to reply a granddaughter, crying over her kitty who died, asking me to call her, or a son who left a message telling me he loves me and wishing me a happy Mother’s Day.  Yes, I save those messages as long as I can with the flawed technology of the world.  Yet, did you know that God saves your calls to Him?  Revelation 5:8 tells us that God loves you so much that He saves your calls in golden bottles!

This new year, my heart’s desire is to increase the number of golden bottles that God can save filled with my prayers of not only needs, but also of love, adoration, and praise.  How many golden bottles have your name on them?  The first, and most important, is your prayer calling on Jesus Christ as Savior, confessing your sin, asking His forgiveness, accepting His blood as payment for your sin, and following Him as Lord.  From then on, God saves the calls of His children as love gifts to Him.  May I love Him more in the coming new year!

© 2011 Gerry Sisk

(01/19/11)