It's Time To Pray

 Greetings to  you all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,

     Hebrews 4:16 says, “Let us, therefore, come boldly unto the throne of his grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

     I find that my daily schedule is now far less than it was in the past. Years ago, I longed for the day when I would be able to sit back and relax in retirement but it isn’t what I thought it was going to be.  My wife and I have become part of the five percent of people that end up in a facility such as this assisted living one due to some hospitalization issues and Diane’s dementia.  I quickly found that my only way of getting out was for a doctor’s visit and the VA now has a home based primary care which means that the primary care people come to me.  At least , I get some time to talk to someone other than the residents and the bath lady.   I found that I now had time to write the devotion every day instead of the five days I did it for 20 years.  I also found that I now have enough time to pray longer and for more things than before.

      I have always been thankful for the above passage of Scripture as it gives all of us a promise that we can now approach the throne of grace to find help in time of need.  I often think, “Who isn’t needy in the world today?”  My home health nurse sent me a text recently saying, “I hate to bother you with this, but I have a prayer request.”  Sometimes, my nurses think that it is an imposition to lay another burden on me but that’s what I do.  It  is not only for me but for every believer to spend time in prayer for the needs of others.  I have been involved in several weekend prayer vigils where someone was praying around the clock for a couple of days.  We would all have thirty minutes and during those times of prayer I found that I would be done praying in about ten minutes and then struggle for the rest of the time to come up with something to pray for.  That is not the case now.  Most of all, we need to pray for the salvation of all those around us and not just once but to have a burden for their eternal destiny.  Some may have the attitude of saying, “Turn or burn.”  They might  feel that is enough.  They warned them and now it is up to them.  The ball is in their court.  I have found that I keep praying for an individual because I sometimes think they just tell me what I want to hear in order to keep me from pestering them about it.   Even after salvation, there are the needs of life which include disease, surgeries, jobs, family issues and death.  Prayer is our line of communication with God the Father, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit.  Praise God today that you can go to Him any time, anywhere.