Fourteen Hundred Pennies

Let your requests be made known to God.

Philippians 4:6

In his book Master Secrets of Prayer, Cameron V. Thompson says we should pray specifically. He wrote that when his daughter, Joy, was a small child, she set her heart on a certain present. Asking her sisters how many pennies it would take to buy it, she prayed for fourteen hundred pennies. A few days later, some friends came by with a jar of coins they had been saving. It contained slightly more than fourteen hundred pennies.

“Vague praying is lazy praying,” said Thompson.

We must let our requests be made known to God and then remember to thank Him when the answers come. Toward that end, many Christians keep a prayer list or devotional notebook to record their prayer requests. Others use the flyleaf of their Bibles for this, though one soon runs out of room.

Make specific requests to God for your husband or wife, your children, your financial needs, your job, your friends, and for those who don’t know Christ. Pray specifically for our local and national leaders. Pray in detail for the needs of overseas missionaries. As Philippians 4:6 says in the Phillips version: “Don’t worry over anything whatever, tell God every detail.”