“There is a vast difference between saying prayers and praying.”
—Author unknown
“Did you write about this yet?” a friend asked, referring to a weekly “prayer list” I distribute.
“No, I haven’t.”
It started years ago. I don’t remember when exactly. There was a need. I e-mailed a few people and an online prayer community developed.
“It used to be prayer circles consisted mostly of people who knew one another,” she stated. In this case we gather together wherever we are through e-mail.
Another friend shared a similar thought. The “online church” as she refers to it, “is a way for all of us to band together and through prayer and thoughts ... connect with folks that we might not have known about prior.”
It’s an online community of people who are connected by a common need, prayer. It is a church without walls. “We are gathering over the airwaves and through the pipes. The message is being spread beyond the walls,” an electronic church member said.
We pray for a former pastor whose wife, Susan, is in hospice, and their three young children. We pray for the family of a loved one who recently died. We pray for those about to have surgery and those whose time is nearing an end. We pray. We celebrate. We give thanks.
Once a person asked that his name remain on the list, as he felt a need for continued prayer. We prayed for the miners trapped in Chile and the earthquake victims in Haiti.
And we respond to requests like this from a college friend: “I have been going through a number of storms over the last few years that have really challenged my faith. Please keep me in your prayers, and I will pray that God will continue to bless you in all your endeavors.”
“Now that’s the power of prayer!” another friend told me recently. She reminds me that she really likes a quote I used by C.S. Lewis: The prayer preceding all prayers is this: “May it be the real I who speaks. May it be the real Thou that I speak to.”
That’s important.
The names on the distribution list have increased over the years. None of us know all of us and that’s the beauty of it. You don’t have to know a person to pray with and for him or her. We pray because there is a need.
Sometimes a request is added because a person may have seen some success coming through the prayer requests on the list. “Maybe my prayer request just might get through!” my friend noted.
“I have never met most of the folks on the list, but I know them,” she continued. She knows Susan. She has prayed for her, her husband and their three children.
“I thought of her and her family over Christmas. I wondered if the children were okay. I wondered if her husband was able to carry the weight of this enormous situation and if he was faring okay.
“I know Donna and all her caretakers. I see them coming on their ‘shift’ as they walk into the door to care for their friend who’s suffering from cancer. I hear their greetings and their conversations.
“I know the Rich family (missionaries in Kenya). I see them in Africa as they get excited, disappointed. I see their hope. I see their new daughter (they are hoping to adopt her).
“This electronic church has taken me to places and introduced me to ‘friends’ I would never have gotten to know,” she concluded.
Another friend sums up the online prayer community: “Folks who are members of the ‘online church’ are dedicated to helping others, either through prayers, or literally helping with food and shelter. I honestly believe that we have all been blessed by the online church, I know I have.”
What are your requests?
Nigel Alston lives in Winston-Salem. He can be reached at nalston1@triad.rr.com.
You don’t have to know a person to pray with and for him or her. We pray because there is a need.
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