Prayer by Proxy

 

I’ve come across some interesting articles on prayer that I wanted to share with you this week.

The first is titled Prayer by Proxy and was in the last issue of World Magazine. It seems that the online company – InformationAgePrayer.com will now pray for you.

Prayer by proxy
While some Europeans are cyber shopping for certificates to renounce their baptisms, an American website is banking on a “better safe than sorry” approach from those stateside. For those without time to pray, but yet unwilling to ditch religiosity altogether, the website InformationAgePrayer.com offers the soft apostasy of prayer outsourcing. Users of the site may subscribe and let the company’s computers recite prayers for them using text-to-speech software. Protestant subscribers can pay $3.95 per month for a computer proxy to recite the Lord’s Prayer each day for them. And the site encourages Catholics to “Show God you’re serious” by purchasing “The Complete Rosary Package”—a purported value at nearly $50. The site has prayers for Muslims too, and a promise to point their speakers toward Mecca. World magazine

Yes, this is indeed a real site – check it out for yourself; however I wouldn’t encourage you to sign up.

Then there was an article by Catherine Marshall. She holds a special place in my heart because my husband read me most of her books before we were married. He was a student and neither of us had much money, so we spent many evenings together while he read aloud to me. There were a few other interesting dates, like washing his car and watching him texture a ceiling. Reading Catherine Marshall was by far my favorite.

Prayer of Relinquishment
by Catherine Marshall

Like most people, when I first began active experimentation with prayer, I was full of questions, such as: Why are some agonizingly sincere prayers granted, while others are not?

Today I still have questions. Mysteries about prayer are always ahead of present knowledge—luring, beckoning on to further experimentation.
But one thing I do know; I learned it through hard experience. It’s a way of prayer that has resulted consistently in a glorious answer—glorious because each time, power beyond human reckoning has been released. This is the Prayer of Relinquishment.

I got my first glimpse of this power many years ago. I had then been ill for six months with widespread lung infection, and a bevy of specialists seemed unable to help. Persistent prayer, using all the faith I could muster, had resulted in—nothing. I was still in bed full-time.

One afternoon a pamphlet was put in my hands. It was the story of a missionary who had been an invalid for eight years. Constantly she had prayed that God would make her well so that she might do His work. Finally, worn out with futile petition, she prayed, “All right. I give up. If you want me to be an invalid, that’s Your business. Anyway, I want You even more than I want health. You decide.” In two weeks the woman was out of bed, completely well.  Read the rest of the article here

This one I can highly recommend – read about it, and put it into practice.

Last, I wanted to mention a recently published devotion book. I was blessed to meet the author, Teresa Nuckols, and have an opportunity to page through her first book which is titled, Consider the Lilies: A Girl’s Quiet Time with the Father. It is fresh and delightful and would make the perfect gift for your daughter, or even yourself.

Consider the Lilies: A Girl’s Quiet Time with the Father will transform the way you approach your quiet time, bringing fresh life and vitality in your walk with the Lord.

See more about it and the author here at Lilac Meadows Publishing.

Finding Joy in the Journey,
Phyllis
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Phyllis Sather
Proclaiming God’s Faithfulness at:
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© 2009 Phyllis Sather
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