Names

Being "old school" the way that seems to work best for me at present is to keep track of things I pray for is on index cards, such as the one in the picture.  One of the things I do after church on Sunday afternoons is to update the cards I will use for the next week.  One of the cards will have the names of the people who came forward to prayed over for healing.  Another one will have the names of the people for whom prayer was asked for during worship.

The card for healing prayer is the hardest, in that I have to remember who came forward that day.  Occasionally I have to ask Robin, telling her that I counted ten people but can only recall nine names, and see if she can help me recall that last person.  The other card is easier, because I wrote all those names down as the requests were made, so my index card is done by copying the names from one place as I write them down from another list.  

This past Sunday there were ten people who came forward to be prayed over for healing.  There were also 29 names given to me of people to pray for during our congregational prayer.  With the cards I can more easily keep these people in prayer during the week.

Names.  Names are usually the only thing I have as I pray.  Occasionally people ask for prayer for this person and that concern, but usually they only give the name.  As far as healing goes, again, I occasionally know something more specific, but most often all I know is that some person feels the need to be healed of something and they ask me to lift them up in prayer.

Are the names enough?  I believe so.  Absolutely, I believe so.  Psalm 139:16 says,

"Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them."

We pray to a mighty and powerful God.  There is nothing about us he doesn’t know.  There is no situation in our lives he doesn’t have power over.  We may not be able to understand why he allows certain situations and circumstances to come into our lives, but we need not doubt that he cares for his children and that when the timing is right, from his vantage point in the story of our lives, he will answer our prayers.

The names I pray for vary from week to week, but the God I lift them to does not change in any way whatsoever.  If a name is all I have to lift to God, I can lift it with confidence and faith, knowing that the name itself is more than enough.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.