You Want Me to Pray for What?

I taught my preschool Sunday School class about the angel breaking Peter out of prison in answer to his friends' prayers, emphasizing that friends pray for each other and God answers their prayers.

We divided into small groups to pray for our friends. My group went around and shared the names of their friends. Then I asked how we can pray. One little boy spoke up: "When our friends are in prison, we can pray for them!"

"That's right," I answered. "We can certainly pray for our friends if they're ever in prison. When else can we pray for our friends?"

Not to be sidetracked, he continued, "Some people really are in prison right now."

"That's true," I said.

His face lit up. "Let's pray right now that God will break them out of prison!" (Don't you love concrete minds?)

So I prayed, "Dear God, please set all those rapists and murderers free right now in the name of Jesus..."

Of course I didn't. But we did pray that the people in prison would come to know God and His love and that they would become more and more like God as they got to know Him better.

This wasn't exactly how I had pictured our prayer time going, but God does hear and answer prayers, and maybe He was using that little boy for a specific purpose. I pray that I too will be open to pray for what God lays on my heart and that I'll become more and more a person of prayer.