Big Boy Prayers

Did you learn prayers like these when you were a child?
God is great, God is good. Let us thank Him for our food. Amen.

A friend of mine, when first learning to pray, said, "shank sho for our food." The story goes that some time when he was in Jr. High that he said his prayer, "shank sho for our food" and then looked up and said, "Why do I say 'shank sho' ?"

Another phrase often tacked onto the end of a prayer is "and God bless the missionaries." Have you prayed that? I'm certain God hears our prayers and that God does "bless the missionaries," but I know that in our prayers there is so much more God is willing and waiting to do. It's time to put away our childhood prayers and do some big boy praying!

God wants us to be involved in His kingdom work both physically and through our prayers. God is not limited in what He does by our prayers, but I also know that as we pray God's power is seen in great ways. For some reason God lets us in on the wonderful things He wants to do so we can share in the work.

 God answers prayers - not so we can say, "oo, look at this. I prayed for something and it happened." but so that He will receive glory.

Let me try this another way. Which prayer and answer will give God more glory.

1. Prayer - "Lord, bless the missionaries." Answer -  God does something really great in some part of the world.

2. Prayer - "Lord, I pray that an affordable place will be found in Palo Verde in the east part of  Caracas, Venezuela so the four small groups of Christians near there can join together and form a church to be a witness in that part of town. Answer - an affordable place is found and a new church is formed and they begin reaching that area for Christ.

Obviously if you had prayed the second prayer you would join many in rejoicing about the new place and church start and would give God the glory for an answer to prayer.

The prayer request #2 I gave as an example above is an actual prayer request from Ed and Pamela who are part of the Barrios Caracas mission team. Here is a link to a web site from that mission team that tells you about their work and how you can pray. http://www.caracasforchrist.com/

Will you join me in praying for them? Will you pray your childhood "bless the missionaries" prayer or will you pray a "big boy" prayer?

I will update you when I hear an answer to the prayer request and we can give God the glory together as we see Him at work!