A Remembered Prayer

A Remembered Prayer

The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.

I spotted Grace across the room, a friendly face in a sea of people who were mostly strangers. She smiled in acknowledgment, then turned to listen to the speaker who had just arrived at the front of the room.

At the event’s next break, I found myself standing next to Grace in line, and she introduced me to a childhood friend of hers that she’d known since third grade. As we chatted about the event, she suddenly asked me a question: “Remember that church yoga group we did years ago?”

“Yes!” I exclaimed. “I was hugely pregnant with Ashlyn and thought I would fall over at any moment. My balance was nonexistent.”

Grace told me that she had just been telling her friend about the group and one evening in particular that stood out to her. On that night, our church’s small group leader had challenged us to pair up to pray for one another. Pulling our mats close together, Grace and I shared honestly about the challenges we were facing in our lives, then bowed our heads to pray, ignoring the roomful of other people quietly whispering in order to focus on each other and the presence of God.

Almost five years later, she still recalled with perfect clarity that single prayer I had prayed for her. And as we touched on some of the topics that arose that night—how my husband and I had made it our practice to pray together every day, as well as how and why that habit began—I realized how much that prayer had touched her.

As friends, it’s important to reflect our care for others in our words and actions, but it’s even more important to consistently make time in our prayer life. Prayer has the power to encourage us, to alter our perspectives, to influence our decisions, and ultimately to change our lives. In typical God-ordained timing, we may never know how profoundly our heartfelt words, prayed in earnest for a friend, will stay with them long after we part ways.

— Kristin

— Today’s Act of Friendship —

Write a short list of friends you’d like to pray for regularly. Then, call one in order to pray with her.