Hey, Facebook Be Keepers Followers. I have a secret to confess: I've been praying for you behind your back.
I launched Be Keepers one month ago today and I have prayed through the list of 350 followers since that time. I do not take it lightly that we know each other or that you "liked" Be Keepers. God has a purpose in bringing us together. I want there to be a benefit to knowing me so I lay our acquaintance at Jesus' feet and allow Him to work it for our good. There's a gospel song called "Make Me a Blessing". It doesn't mean it in the sense of "make me a sandwich" but in the sense of make me TO BE a blessing to someone. A life lived to bless others is the most satisfying life there is and the greatest way I can be a blessing to you is to pray.
I get along well with most everyone, but there are those with whom I have had differences. I haven't grabbed anybody's hair in a throw down, but we have disagreed, probably without your knowing or possibly without my knowing. If I ever loved you, I still do. No doubt we all are trying our best to do what is right and I mess that up and you do too. The Bible tells us to pray for our enemies. Hopefully no one considers someone an enemy who simply disagrees with him, but if that were all it took then I suppose we would all be enemies. If we all agreed on everything, this world would be pretty lopsided. All that to say I wish the best for everyone and watching your life is a testimony of God's working. It's a slow-playing miniseries that I catch glimpses of every now and then. It's fascinating and I am eager to see good things come to you.
I do have an organized prayer life, but I also switch things up sometimes so I do not burn out. For the last month, I prayed for at least ten followers per day. I knew the first hundred so I was able to pray according to what I knew about them, but after that I had to go to your Facebook page to learn about you--children, relationships, interests. Fewer than half of the followers are listed by name. I suppose some have your Facebook set to hide your name when you like a page. That is perfectly fine. I prayed for you anyway.
I learned that it is easier to pray for someone that you know. What made it easy to pray for people I do not know is that we all need the same things: safety, health, relationship and financial help, wisdom, and most of all Jesus.
As I called each one of your names out to God, I became excited to see you and to see you thrive and prosper. I saw your Facebook posts and wanted to say "I prayed for you today!" I hope I had some part in your success. It was neat to see things that happened. I prayed for a lady and her family and found out a few hours later that her daughter had her baby that day. A couple of times I prayed for people and then found that it was their birthday. Several other times I saw that the ones for whom I prayed that day were going through a difficult time. I've said before that I do not fully understand prayer from a human perspective, but it is easy to see the benefits to the pray-er and the pray-ee when I obey God's command to pray.
Loren Crisp
Prayer is just talking to God. He already knows everything you know, but a relationship is developed through communication, and if you do not have a relationship with Almighty God, you are missing out on the most amazing experience life has to offer.
The development of my prayer life usually comes from desperation. When you are at the end of your rope, you end up uttering a humble, childlike prayer to God--and that is prayer at it's best! When you make a habit of just admitting to God where you have gone wrong, laying out your burdens to Him, and thanking Him for what He has done for you, a sweet understanding of your dependence on God enters your constant awareness and you have a Friend with you at all times, and an all-powerful Friend at that! I wouldn't want to live any other way. If you have never begun a relationship with God, you can begin that with a prayer of turning away from a life of sin and accepting Jesus' sacrifice of His perfect life to pay for your sins to be forgiven. After making Jesus the Lord of your life, God will hear your prayers as His child.
I jotted down some of the things I prayed for you. If you want to learn to pray, you could use these prayers as a starting point. I use "her" since most of my followers are women, but I prayed these same prayers for the men.
Lord, help her to maximize her opportunities for serving others as a single woman.
Keep her pure.
Give her wisdom as she rears those children.
Encourage her in the work You have given her to do.
Help her to draw near to You.
Comfort her heart as she misses her loved one who has died.
Thank You for the encouragement and example she has been to me.
Help her as she studies.
Thank you for her faithfulness to church.
Help her have the time to practice her instrument and have opportunities to use her ability.
Thank you for the time I got to spend with her.
Give her strength to meet the needs of her special needs child.
Help her to keep her vows to her husband.
Allow her business to prosper.
Raise her and her husband up to be leaders in our church.
Thank You for giving her that husband. OR Thank You for NOT giving her the husband she thought she wanted.
Thank You for all she taught my child.
Help her to flourish spiritually. Give her a taste of what could be.
Give her joy.
Be with her as her child is in college/the military.
Help her as she teaches. Help her message to get through.
Keep her healthy.
Give her wisdom, courage, discretion.
Mend the broken relationships in that home.
Help me to be more like her.
Protect her from accident, crime, illness, disease.
Give her an excitement about her relationship with You.
Thank you for her upbringing.
Heal her husband of cancer.
Help her to show Christ to her coworkers.
Thank you for her influence on my daughter.
Give her wisdom in making decisions about her parents.
Help her and her husband to make a priority of their marriage while they rear their children.
Give her wisdom to know if she should marry the young man she is dating.
Help her to take the next step spiritually.
Thank you for her spunky spirit that encourages others.
Help her as she adjusts to being the mother of an adult.
Give her a ministry where her gifts can shine.
Please don't allow her cancer to come back.
Let her children be a blessing to her.
Help her relationship with her husband reach a new level of unity.
Help her leadership qualities to be used for Your glory.
Please give her children if it be Your will.
Please help my joy to be obvious like hers.
Let her minister to body and spirit as she works as a nurse.
Thank You for her beautiful voice.
Thank You for helping them through their child's surgery and recovery.
Thank you for allowing her to serve faithfully in our church.
Help her not to be lonely.
Help her with the challenges of being a military wife.
Increase his desire to know You more.
Keep their marriage strong.
Bring salvation to this home, whether it's for the parents or the children.
Draw them to you.
Heal the heartache.
Stabilize the emotions she is facing today and help her to be calm and at peace.
Help her to turn to You and Your word for the answers to her problems.
Show her the emptiness of sin.
Allow one of Your children to reach out and show Your love to her today.
Help her heart to be tender.
Make her marriage what you want it to be.
Give her patience with her children.
Help her to thirst after righteousness.
Help her to be disgusted with sin and turn to You.
Let her know how much You love her and that her value comes from You.
As I prayed through the list, I realized that I am in the company of some incredible people! You may think you are just living your life unnoticed, but you are an encouragement to me. You are a survivor. I know some of your trials whether they are family issues, disease, or death of a loved one. Even if you haven't had some life-shaking challenge, you have relationship and financial problems, and you need wisdom and emotional strength. Just living life is a challenge. It's hard to be a person, but you are making it with help from the Lord. We need as much of Him as we can get.
May we seek and trust God to make the most of our lives. God bless you all and thank you for following Be Keepers. I will continue to keep you in my prayers.