What Does Geography Have To Do With Prayer?

This past week, I was beyond blessed to have spent the week in New York City with a sweet friend. Our purpose was to encourage and help one of our missionaries with spreadsheet designs and other clerical things he needed. You know it is a "God thing" when you have not signed up for a mission trip of this nature, but have been asked and then the leader splits your cost of the trip with you!

Our week began on Tuesday, with spreadsheets of information that I did not understand, but God in His infinite wisdom began to work on me throughout the week. Being a homeschool mom, I am big on my children knowing their geography. One of the spreadsheets contained information about the Alliance of Small Island States. WOW, there are so many islands that I did not know existed!

The Small Island States is just where God began to work on me. We all know and have been told that there are millions of people who have never heard of Jesus, but the reality of this statement became real this past week. For instance, there is a small island in the Pacific, call Niue. This particular island has about 1,400 hundred in population. Have they heard of Jesus and what He did for us? Has anyone ever prayed for them?

Well, a new homeschool class is being developed in our household (Jenny Beth will be sooooo excited)! We will study a different country every two weeks and pray for the people of that region. We are commissioned to go and tell, but we are also commanded to pray. James 5:16, "Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working."

Sometimes my prayer life revolves around "my four and no more"! But, there is nothing like God using a missionary and his need for a spreadsheet to help shed light on my weakness. I stand in awe how God has used the past 7 months to mold and convict me in the area of prayer, although, I did not realize it until this past week. I am a little slow, so he had to show me in a more profound way (through black and white excel spreadsheets).

Everyone of us have people in our life that are prayer warriors. This became evident to me when our two oldest went away to college. So much encouragement came from these warriors. There has not been one week that has gone by that we have not had someone send us a message or call us just to let us know they were praying for our family. What a testimony! Every time we would get a call, I would think, "I want to be just like them when I grow up"! Little did I know that God was using them to prepare me for what He had in store for me throughout my week in New York.

Prayer is such a vital part of our relationship with God. He tells us in 1 Thessalonians 5: 17 to pray without ceasing. My favorite is found in Matthew 6:6, (MSG) "Here is what I want you to do, find a quiet, secluded place so you won't be temped to role play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God and you will begin to sense His grace." A lot of molding and scraping took place on this clay of mine this week, but I am so thankful that God loves me enough to keep molding me to be just like Him!

Father, Abba, help me to focus on you and your grace. Give me your eyes and heart for others of the world that do not know you! Mold me into a prayer warrior, give me a boldness to share you with others.

Are you wondering where you can go, to find out more information about countries that you can pray for? Here are a few you can start with:

http://joshuaproject.net
http://www.operationworld.org/a-countries
https://www.persecution.com

 A city that NEVER sleeps!