Talk to God every day and be blessed

A friend of mine took his small son with him to town one day to run some errands. When lunchtime arrived, the two of them went to a familiar diner for a sandwich.

The father sat down on one of the stools at the counter and lifted the boy up to the seat beside him. They ordered lunch, and when the waiter brought the food, the father said, "Son, we'll just have a silent prayer."

Dad got through prayer first and waited for the boy to finish his prayer, but he just sat with his head bowed for an unusually long time.

When he finally looked up, his father asked him, "What in the world were you praying about all that time?"

With the innocence and honesty of a child, he replied, "How do I know? It was a silent prayer."

My friends, whether you realize it or not, God has given each of us a tremendous gift - the opportunity to pray. Prayer is good for so many things in our lives. God uses our prayers to help accomplish his will. But prayers are also used to change our lives and the way we view our circumstances around us. But just knowing that God uses our prayers to accomplish the things he desires ought to make each one of us value prayer even more.

Never have we needed to use the opportunity to pray to God more than we need to use it right now. The next time you cross a river or a creek, look down. I guarantee you that you will see as much sand as you will water. So what do we need to do about this problem? Is the answer conservation? No! What we ought to be doing is praying that God will send down his showers of blessings on our county. Now none of us deserve to have rain fall on our yards or on our gardens. Jesus said in Matthew 5:45, "(God) sends rain on the just and on the unjust." But you know what? If God's people would get on their knees and pray, I promise you that the skies would open up!

So what else do you and I need to pray for? We need to pray for our upcoming elections. I hope that when you enter the voting booth in November you will vote for the man or woman who best represents God's morals and his character. Don't cast a vote for a Democrat or a Republican. Instead, vote for the person who will lift up the name of Jesus Christ through their life and their example. But before you mark your ballot, you need to pray. Ask God to give you discernment as to who to choose. Then vote for those who will make a difference for the cause of Christ.

There are so many other things we need to pray to God about. We need to pray for the safety of our soldiers and their families as they protect our freedom. We need to pray our economy might get straightened out. We need to pray that God would forgive America of our sins, and that he would heal our land.

But most importantly, you and I need to pray to God every day, thanking him for the gift of his son. Without Jesus and his life, death and resurrection, you and I would have no hope in this life. Jesus truly is the best gift that any of us could ever receive, and we need to thank God at every available opportunity that he loved us all the way to the cross!

So friends, how is your prayer life? If you do not spend time praying to God on a daily basis, you are missing quite a blessing. Won't you take time right now to thank God for all he does for you? And while you are at it, ask him to make you into the person he would have you to be.