Have you ever heard something as simple as one sentence or one question and had it make a huge impact on your perspective of something? You know when someone does a card trick and you are completely mystified by it until they finally show you how it’s done? Like that “Ah hah!” moment? That happened to me recently when my Sunday School leader asked us something about the impact of prayer. I’m paraphrasing a little, but this was how it went…
He asked, “Think about the prayers that you usually pray. Who would be most affected by your prayers? The poor? The sick? The unreached?’
One girl responded, “I hate to say this, but I guess my typical prayers would really only affect my family members.”
Another said, “I try to think of others, but I’d say that I don’t think of strangers nearly as often as I should.”
His point?
“Imagine if all of your prayers that you pray every day suddenly came true. Imagine those prayers never had to be made again. Now… think about how that would make an impact on the world.”
The room was quiet.
Funny how a question as simple as that made such a large impact on the people in that room, including myself. I knew I could relate to the two girls’ statements and I realized that my prayers for the world are far less common than my own selfish prayers.
He had asked this question during a message about global missions and the many unreached people around the world that have never heard the Word of God. Don’t they need prayer as much, if not more than we do?
How would your prayers impact the world?