Friday, October 3, 2008

Meeting New Friends and Influencing People

So here's something new that I have been doing lately. I didn't think of it myself, I got it somewhere else. At least the initial idea. If anyone knows let me know so that I can give credit where credit is due. I read too many great blogs.


Oh yeah, the thing. Check this out. I'm always looking for opportunities to further God's Kingdom right? I think one of the best ways for me to do this is prayer. But what to pray for? I'm not real good at long, elegant, intricate prayers. I can do a little short, sweet prayer pretty well though. Here's a great way that I found to find prayees. Ya know, the ones to be prayed on or over or however we go about doing that.


I go to http://search.twitter.com/. It's a search engine for twitter. I type in the word "pray" into the search window. Guess what happens? A whole list of people to pray for! How cool is that? Of course some of them are like "pray that the Cubs win today." That of course is a prayer that I will have to reject. God does NOT love the cubs.


I say a prayer for or about anyone that needs a prayer on the list. After I do that, I look for the ones that look like they REALLY need some prayer. The ones who you can tell are hurting. Like I have been hurting before. How is it described in the Bible? They moaned? Yeah, those guys. Maybe it was groaned... hmmm I guess I could look it up. Wait, I digress.


These people, these moaners or groaners (which I mean with all due respect, I believe the original meaning of the word was something along the lines of a physical cry to God for help which a lot of times I am too prideful to utter, although I have) I click on their little blue link button. Because most people on twitter are geeks like myself, they have a link on their profile to their website or blog. I then proceed to their website (usually a blog) and leave 'em a little note saying Hey and let them know that someone indeed is praying for them. Again, as long as it's not a prayer for the Cubs, Raiders, Yankees, Broncos, BYU, Dodgers, Giants, Diamondbacks, Rockies, Chiefs ummm anyway, you get the point. That's the meeting new friends part.


The influencing people? I think that when you are praying for someone or something you are giving the best influence that you can. Asking God for something for another person is as real an influential thing as it gets. I wish I could take that last sentence back, but you know what I'm talking about even if I can't get the words out of my fingers correctly.


Thank you God for the opportunity to be of true service to people with my little acts of prayer. I know that you are listening to your people as you always have and through your kindness and love for us answer them whether it's what we were asking for or not. Help me Lord to be an instrument of prayer so that others may come to believe that You are. Amen.


How do you find people and events to pray about?

4 comments:

Brenda said...

Hi, it's me again. I love to comment and answer your questions! Well, I always seem to have a ton of people to pray for. Of course, my family, friends, church, etc. And since I've been blogging there are new people to pray for. (Some with very serious requests). You just happen to be one of the new regular friends I'm praying for now. :)

Sometimes out in public I'll be talking to a complete stranger and they'll share something serious with me. I like to let them know I'll be praying for them. Even if they don't believe the same, it seems as though they really appreciate that. I always hope it will cause them to start considering doing the same. And I'm always hoping it will start up a conversation about believing in God and I can share a little.

Bub, I think that's awesome what you are doing with twitter. God is using you in a creative and important way. How thoughtful of you to desire to pray for complete strangers!

Changing the subject..... just curious.... who are you rooting for in the playoffs? My dad is a huge Angels fan and they aren't doing too well now. God bless you.

Todd Tolson said...

just a fantastic idea, Bub!!!

bub said...

Brenda- That is such a good question! Definitely the Rays, who knew that changing your name could turn a team around like that. I love the underdog story line so that's who I will be pulling for. There's a small part of me that's rooting for the Dodgers (when I was a kid I was a huge dodgers fan, it wasn't until I was a teenager in high school that I switched my allegiance over to the Pads!), although it's a very small part, something the size of my pinkie or my brain, whichever's smaller!

Brenda said...

bub-
You're funny. When I was growing up the word Dodgers was a dirty word in our house. :)