I like to mentally send prayers to people.  I learned to do that in my career of 31 years.  The results were astounding.  As I silently prayed over my students, behaviors changed and concepts seemed to be learned easier.

            I like to greet others with a smile on my face and a prayer in my heart.  I may not see or hear a reaction but that’s okay.  That’s not what I’m after.  I strongly believe that every prayer we pray for others will be answered in unusual ways and I may never know it.  1 Thessalonians 5:17 states, “Pray without ceasing.”  This tells me the importance of prayer in our lives.  I read somewhere this statement, “Be nice to everyone you meet because you do not know the battle they are waging!”  I wonder how I would be coping in life if I were in their shoes.

            Many times in my life I could not pray for myself, making me totally dependent on the prayers of others.  One of my friends had the same experience.  I received a call about her one Sunday morning.  She had just been wheeled into the operating room for lifesaving surgery.  I was about to go out the door to church when I received the call.  My friend’s vital signs were not good and the emergency surgery was called “high risk.”   I mentally interceded in her behalf.  Of course, I know others prayed for her too.

            After church, I received a phone call at home that my friend had somehow miraculously stabilized just before the surgery had begun.  The combined prayers of family and friends had saved my friend’s life.  That happened several years ago and every time I see her at church I thank God again for healing her.  To me that was a miracle!

            Medical doctors have agreed that patients who are prayed for recover more quickly than those who are not.

I have come to know another avenue of sending prayers.  I guess you could say I also have a “helicopter” ministry.  The medical helicopter flies over my backyard transporting critical patients to a larger city.  I don’t know who the patients are, but I do know they need prayers.

            Prayer has been so important in my life.  Prayer sustained me through my husband’s five major surgeries.  Prayer sustained me when our oldest son was in a mowing accident.  The mower cut a piece of guy wire and landed in his liver.  Prayer sustained me when our middle son was in a butane explosion.  Prayer sustained me when a swamp air conditioner fell on our youngest son’s head.  Prayer sustained me when my dying mother said, “I see the heavenly lights.”

            Prayer does matter because Jesus is in the “people” business.  He soothes, comforts, redeems, and saves.  One of the most important things we can do in life is to pray for others.

            You can send prayers anywhere.  I mentally send them to others if I’m in the doctor’s office, at football games, on a city sidewalk and even from my swing when cars drive by.

            Begin to send prayers to people.  You will be surprised by joy.  Sometimes they will suddenly look at you and smile.

            Lose yourself in others.  Those prayers will come back to you someday when you need them the most because prayer has power!   Let’s remember. “The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective”  (James 5:16 NIV).

            Abraham Lincoln has been quoted as saying, “I have frequently been driven to my knees by the conviction that there was no where else to go.”  I agree with him!

            Let’s be thankful for the privilege of prayer.  We can pray every day for others committing and trusting them to a loving God.