What Should I Pray For Today?

Philemon 1:1-21

Every morning I spend a few minutes browsing through my Facebook feed to see who is doing what or how people are doing. I really enjoy Facebook for that particular reason: it helps to keep in touch with many people at the same time.

Social media allows for one to see expressions of people's feelings ranging from anger to happiness to sadness to peacefulness. I'll see pictures and posts from people that talk about being thankful for the day God has given them as well as political opinions that go from extreme right to extreme left. Pictures showing meals for the day, children on their first day of school, and babies doing baby things sit alongside recipes, descriptions of what's happening in line at the DMV, and moments of "I just hate/love it when..."

Inevitably there will be requests for prayer. Just this morning I read prayers for a family in crises, a classmate who is going in for surgery, and a family member looking for guidance. On other days, and throughout the day, I see prayers for healing or guidance mixed in with thanks to God for the day they've had, the job they just got, the ability to unconditionally love a child or spouse, or some other joyous milestone. I'm sure if I spent more time going through every line on my news feed and every page of the friends on my list I will see more requests for prayers of some kind.

All of these prayer requests make me think, "What do I pray for?"

The truth would be I pray for all of that and more. I pray for peace in my life and the lives around me. I pray for the healing of friends and family in crises. I pray for those close to me living in pain that the pain might be lessened or taken away. I pray for love and understanding. I pray for guidance. Sometimes I even pray for the rain to stop so I can get outside to trim a few trees.

I don't think there's a single one of us (among those who believe in prayer, anyway) who hasn't prayed for just about everything and anything. Prayer is an amazing thing. Prayer has a way to bring us the peace and affirmation we're looking for as we engage in conversation with our God. Prayer is truly a way for humankind to unite as individuals toward a common cause; the presence of God in our lives.

So, today when you pray remember this one thing: Paul writes to Philemon to say that when he remember's Philemon in his prayers it's because Philemon has found a way to keep alive the passion of the saints. Paul is saying that because of whatever it is that Philemon is doing, Paul is thanking him for moving forward the teachings and examples of Christ and Christ's followers.

As we pray for the healing of a friend as she reels from the pain of losing a loved one, as we pray for the guidance of a family member who just lost a job, as we pray with joy at the birth of a new baby let's keep one thing in mind: to thank God for the opportunity to be in God's love and that we trust in that love to help us do what is best in showing that love to others.

Amen