May 23, 2022
Could it be that the size of our impact is reflected by the size and the persistence of our prayer? Hi, I'm Mike Henry Sr. with Follower of One. Thanks for joining me again today on the Follower of One podcast. I was reading 2nd Timothy 1 today in verse three, just kind of jumped out at me. And so I wanted to talk about that today on the podcast. Here's the verse. "I thank God whom I serve with a clear conscience, the way my forefathers did as I constantly remember you in my prayers night and day." And that's from the New American Standard Version of the Bible.
I was struck by how Paul constantly remembered not only Timothy, but so many other people. I've been reading the letters of Paul for several weeks and. It seems like he's constantly remembering people in prayer, and that he pray's regularly night and day. And I wonder sometimes if my impact and the church's impact, isn't limited by how weak and how little we pray. I think about this because I'm not too sure. I constantly remember many things in my prayers. I have to be reminded. I maintain prayer lists and I do different things to try and remember to honor the commitments that I've made to people, to pray for different things and to pray for them. I'm constantly going through the lists of people that I know and trying to remember to pray for them.
And I just thought this morning, But even the people that I email, the people that I send text messages to the people on my calendar and the people that I interact with are all opportunities for me to pray. I can pray that we each move one notch closer to Jesus that we each draw closer to him. And that we do what Paul actually goes on to pray for Timothy here , that we would draw closer to God and allow God to work through us in the world.
I may talk about those verses in the coming days. I'm challenged by this whole section, because this is Paul's final letter. He's writing this final letter to his son in the faith, Timothy. And he's reminding him that there's so much riding on what we do and our prayers matter.
They keep us in the game. When we remember others in prayer, night and day, we take part in their work, in their impact. We become part of this bigger picture where God is working to save his people in our world. God will not come up short. He will accomplish his work. And we have that going for us.
We get to take part in his work and join that to agree that we can remain engaged. And I wonder sometimes if I don't just sleep through or if I don't go through the motions such that I miss out on the joy that I could have, because I'm praying for others today, I want to challenge us as marketplace believers. What is it that we constantly remember in our prayers? Is it anything at all? Is it all selfish or are we doing it for someone else? I think the more that we can pray for others and get outside of ourselves and put God's goals on our agenda, the greater the impact of our prayer and our faith will be today.
Let's walk in that. Let's ask God to put us to work. Ask him to help you be more constant and remember your friends and the ministry that you have to your sphere of influence in the world. Today and every day, let's ask God to put us to work. Thanks so much for being a marketplace minister. Thanks for considering our responsibility as Jesus followers.
Let's be people who bless those around us, so that Jesus is glorified and that others get to move one notch closer to him. If you'd like to be part of a community that's committed to this particular type of goal, then check out Follower of One, go to https://community.followerofone.org and create a free profile and become a part of our online community where we encourage one another to live our faith every day.
Thanks very much.