While I was in seminary, I took a class entitled “Introduction to Spirituality.” As a first-year student, I didn’t have a great deal of leeway with my course selection, and I figured at the time that this class might become a helpful one. On the first day, after going through the logistics of the class such as the syllabus and textbooks, we began to talk about prayer. Looking back on it, this class should have been entitled “Introduction to a Life of Prayer.”
Since I began my tenure at Peachtree, Paul’s words to the church in Philippi have become words I have attempted to hold in my heart throughout the day: “I thank my God every time I remember you.” Whenever I receive an email, I pray for the sender. (When these messages are not ones where the sender is happy, I usually pray for guidance and peace before responding to it.) Before I walk into a hospital room to visit a patient, I pray for the words which our church member might need in that moment. Whenever the Lord puts someone on my heart, I pray for that person.
It may seem like a small act: to pause in our lives and pray for someone, especially when we realize that we can lift up these prayers anytime and anywhere like when stopping at a red light, or while reading over the news, or during any of the myriad activities that make up our normal days. However, when we lift up our prayers to God, great things can happen. As we pray for one another, we do so with the understanding that everything we do should seek to offer worship and praise to the glory of God.