HONORING GOD BY PRAYING FOR OTHERS & OURSELVES By Steve Swigert
I can remember not too many years ago when I
on in our lives. Prayer allows us to admit to God that He belongs in the driver’s seat of our lives. thought praying for Sunday meals and in times of • We can communicate our real feelings about a emergency was good enough, and that I didn’t think I situation. Prayer can give us a safe space to consider needed any help taking care of my family and respon- our thoughts and feelings. Are we ready to give God sibilities. But, that all changed when my wife and I control of your lives? We are under God’s protection were in the NICU of a hospital with premature twin in His safekeeping. Over time, as we pray, we will feel daughters that I didn’t know how to help. Thankfully able to bring the real me to your moments with God. a local pastor came by and offered us prayers for their • We trust that God is with us. When we pray, we health and our peace of mind. With those prayers and understand that we believe that someone is listening. the God given skills of some great doctors, our daugh- The more we trust in God as we pray, the more we ters have grown up, are married and now have daugh- will learn to trust Him with the outcomes. ters of their own. • We will feel inspired to take steps of faith. Praying That event kick started my understanding of what for that person is a step of faith in itself, because God prayer is. I have now figured out that it is OK to pray may invite you to be part of the answer to your own any time. Because I’ve learned that prayer isn’t a ritual prayer or the prayer for others. "I used to believe that prayer changes that depends on closing our eyes These are just a few of the things, but now I know that prayer changes and putting on holy faces. We things to think about when prayer us and we change things." don’t have to kneel or sit. We can is involved, whether you have - Mother Teresa pray while walking, driving, or prayed significantly for many years working. God responds to a two word cry for help in or whether you are like me, when I didn’t think my the middle of a busy afternoon, just like He does to family or I needed prayer. For me, prayer provides an a focused prayer time after reading Scripture in the opportunity to talk to God about my struggles, weakmorning. Praying doesn’t have to be complicated. nesses, the future, and desires and it also provides the God delights in any simple words we offer Him. opportunity for me to pray for others. Prayer is just talking to God, and we can talk to Prayer can be a mysterious activity because, in God any time about anything and for any length of prayer, you choose to humble yourself before sometime. Prayer can help us deal with the problems we one you cannot literally see, hear or touch. But I can are experiencing. Prayer is also for the big challenges tell you that without the prayer of others and my as well as the smaller ones. The viewpoint that I like is prayers, life would look different to me through the “If a problem is big enough to worry about, then it is struggles of the past few years. big enough to pray about.” At Great Plains Kubota, we acknowledge the imGod invites us to pray in all circumstances, and the portance of God in our lives and we know that comBible encourages that prayers can have a powerful ef- municating to God through prayer is an important fect on the world. What can happen if we pray? way that we can honor God in all that we do. As a • We recognize that we are not God, so in other result, we have developed a prayer team here and we words, we need something more, someone else and want to offer our prayers to all that need them. If you that we can’t do it all on our own strength are in need of prayer for anything, please email us at • We gain strength from God Himself. Prayer is a prayer@gpkubota.com . We would love the opportuway of inviting God into our lives, to be there for the nity to pray for you and with you and these prayers struggles in this complex world. will be kept in confidence. • We realize that the world does not begin and end “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everywith us. It is humbling to realize that you can’t fix thing, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, preseverything, and that God is needed to bring about ent your requests to God.” -Philippians 4:6 change or relief from pain or the many other chalWhen we pray, God hears more than we say, anlenges that can happen to us and others we care for in swers more than we ask, gives more than we imagine this world in His own time and HIS own way. • We surrender control to somebody else. We crave control to one degree or another for the events going 22
GPL Winter 2021
