One morning, weary after a week of the endless news cycle filled with reports of mass school shootings, I grew discouraged and despaired of where our world was heading. In the latest incident, a teenager fatally shot another young man, a recent high school graduate who had several minutes before walked across the stage to receive his diploma. And if that wasn’t tragic enough, the shooter also killed the victim’s father and little sister.
Dejected, I trod downstairs to log in to my 6 a.m. biweekly prayer meeting. I had prayed with this group of sister-friends since March of 2020 after Covid hit our world. Three years later, we continued to meet. The Lord impressed us to pray for the youth, so we did. With passionate cries to heaven, each woman prayed for a move of the Holy Spirit among the youth that would bring revival.
On my drive to school, I lamented to the Lord that the enormity of our youth's situation made me feel as if our prayers were just a drop in a bucket. Instead of being rejuvenated and hopeful from our time of prayer, I felt dejected.
At once, I felt the Lord whisper, Daughter, aren’t buckets filled one drop at a time?
“Yes,” I replied.
God’s impressions continued, Your prayers are added to the prayers of others, and together, they fill the bucket that causes My hand to move. Keep praying.
Encouraged, I felt a release from the heavy burden that was never mine to carry.
John, the beloved disciple of Jesus, described a scene in heaven. The four living beings and twenty-four elders prostrated themselves before the Lamb at the throne of God. Each held a harp and golden bowls filled with incense, which are the prayers of God’s people throughout the millennia of time.
Our drops of prayer fill those bowls daily. From the brief “Help me, Jesus” to the long intercessions, from the silent cries of our heart to the groans without words, God hears and answers them all. Every drop of prayer is significant and needed to fill up the bowls of heaven.
Keep praying and don’t give up. Keep adding your drops to the bowls.
(Photo courtesy of pixabay and 5598375.)
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Daphne Goodman was born and raised in Liberia but has lived in the US for the past forty-two years. She is married to her husband Tony and is a mother to three young adults. She is a passionate intercessor and worship leader in her local church. Daphne loves God, His work in the lives of people, and the stories that flow from that. She is currently writing a devotional book based on Psalm 23, chronicling her journey with the Good Shepherd.