James 5:16
Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that
you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and
effective.
Sometimes on my morning walk God hits me with a
thought.
As I admired the orange and red leaves on the
trees in our neighborhood, they reminded me of the many people I wanted to pray
for. When I wandered through my mental list of friends and family and sought
God's attention, I pictured two ordinary white plates. One empty and one full.
The full one was piled with slips of paper where I'd scribbled the needs of the
folks I wanted to pray for. Some had more writing than others. The empty plate
showed me I had taken the needs before the Father.
But, here's what sometimes happens. I say
"Yes, I'll pray for you." Then I mentally place the prayer request on
the serving dish to offer up to Jesus later. Then I forget about the plate and
it piles up. Some might even fall off. That's a fail for me.
On my walk, God reminded me to empty my plate. Kind
of like when a you're kid and your parents tell you to clean your plate. In James, we're told as Christians to pray for one another. Prayers for our friends,
family, or enemy will be heard by God. Our prayers are fueled by the
power of the Holy Spirit.
I don't know about you, but I want my prayer plate
to be empty. I desire a prayer life that pours the needs of people out to the
heavenly Father. He wants to hear our simple and humble words. Seek him and
speak from the heart. He's all ears.
