Prayer Snacks

Prayer Snacks are the yummiest treat I have ever had!  In fact, they almost taste like manna!  Every once in a while an idea strikes me that is so amazing it just has to have been inspired by God…Prayer snacks are one of those ideas.  Recently I finished the book by Eric and Leslie Ludy called Wrestling Prayer.  This book is one that I will revisit several more times.  In the book, they describe how they gave up all forms of entertainment in order to pray more.  Pretty radical, right?  Well last week I asked the Lord what He would like me to give up to pray more.  I had a dilemma because I already don’t watch TV so what could I really give up?  I know, some of you are thinking I should have asked if I should give up the Internet…but really, that isn’t an option for me with the ministries I’m involved in.  So what was left?

Sigh…Snacks.  That is what God said He wanted from me.  I heard it pretty clearly too.  The Holy Spirit was quick to answer my question.  He said, “Vicki, I’d like you to give up snacks.  Instead of sneaking on a carrot while you cook…” (Ok, since I’m being super honest about what the Holy Spirit said, I’m not going to lie now…it isn’t always a carrot…it is chips, cup cakes, cookies OR carrots) “While you cook or at 4:00pm, that piece of chocolate your Gap Sister gave you that you have stashed away, I want you to PRAY.”  I let the water run over my head…(this is another reason I know it was a Holy Spirit conversation…I seem to have these talks in the shower – not sure why but for some reason, He answers my questions in the shower.)  So I stood there drenched and considered what life without snacks would really be like…it sounded about as dreary as life without ever seeing another movie…ever again.  (Wrestling Prayer)  As I turned off the water the Holy Spirit whispered, “Do Mighties have time for snacks?”  (Another concept from the book…being one of God’s “Mighties” – like King David).  I had to admit; most battle scenes I’ve watched in movies do not show them with a snack bag of chips!  So right there, with a towel in hand, I threw in the towel!  I signed up.  I told God I would do it…I’d give up snacks in order to pray more.

And then of course, I went to my facebook to see what every one was up to!  I mean, at least God didn’t take away the Internet, right?  HA!  It turns out, the Lord speaks to me even when I’m NOT dripping wet!  He whispered, “Make your friends and family your Prayer Snacks!”  WOW!  Now that was a new idea!  Right away I set to work.  I printed out all 42 pages of my friends…yup, 485 names.  Then, as I listened to my little guys read, and as we did math, and as we made lunch, AND as we slogged through the rest of their schoolwork I put the names into SNACK BAGS.  Yup, each of my friends and family members has their own snack bag.  This way, when I reach into my cookie jar (where else do snacks wait to be eaten?) as I am cooking, I won’t get the name all slobbery  while I “eat” that snack!  And that was the day I stopped having physical snacks between meals and I started praying for my friends every time I wanted to pop something into my mouth between meals.  I think I prayed for twelve friends my first day!  THAT WAS EYE OPENING!  No wonder the belt of truth had stretched so far!  I wasn’t looking at it anymore!

Here is the most amazing part of this new journey…I am blown away at how the Holy Spirit has been directing my snacking!  My first day, I was reading names as I put them in the snack bags.  I came across a name that was not at the tip of my tongue.  In fact, I wasn’t sure how I knew the person.  This is not unusual because I have some friends that are actually friends of my kids or I know casually from church.  So I decided I would make him my first “snack”.  I also went to my friend list to see how I knew him.  I recognized him as being someone from church and he and I share about 20 mutual friends…but here’s the great part…he had JUST POSTED A REQUEST FOR PRAYER FOR HIS MOM!  It turns out she had just gone to the hospital and was in the intensive care unit!  WOW!  How very much like God is that!  God reached into a jar of 485 names and told me, “FOCUS ON THIS PERSON RIGHT HERE…HE NEEDS PRAYER!”  All week it was like this.  I would go to a friend’s page and read that they were not feeling well…”Please pray for me”…or “I need wisdom…please pray for me”.  Not every friend had a direct request for prayer but it is not coincidence that out of 485 people about 2/3 of the snacks I had this past week were REQUESTING prayer!  I have to believe that the other third – NEEDED prayer, they just didn’t realize they needed it!

The great thing about praying Prayer Snacks (well, actually there are several great things but I’ll list a few more in a second) is that you don’t really need to KNOW they need prayer before you pray!  See, a Prayer Snack is just that – a snack.  You can just whisper off a quick prayer for blessing or whatever the Lord brings to your mind at the moment and move on with your day.  It’s like a snack, really.  I mean, when you eat chips, do you really try to make a meal out of each chip?  I know I didn’t.  No, I would inhale a handful and never give it a thought.  This is the delicious part of praying for your friends like this.  You don’t have to get your prayer journal out and write down what you are praying, labor over it for minutes or hours…you are snacking…you just whisper their name to the Lord and wait for a second for the salt to settle into your taste buds.  Then, whatever thought you are having…you pray that and move on.  For example, I pulled out the name of one of my daughter’s friends.  I don’t even know where he is going to college right now so I just prayed a blessing over him.  Then, in an after thought (like swallowing)…I prayed, “Lord, if he is facing a decision today would you draw Him to seek YOUR counsel?  Would you help him by directing His path?”  I don’t know whether that applied to him that day but that is what the taste buds were thinking as I chewed on that snack so I prayed it!  I think when I see the behind the scenes video of spiritual wrestling matches I’ve fought unknowingly when I get to heaven, I’ll see that one and the Lord will point it out.  He’ll open the map of that young man’s life and Jesus will say, “Vicki, see this little bunny trail right there?  He was going to go down that one and that little whispered prayer averted it.  Look over here, this is where he ended up instead.”  I’m planning to have a “high-five moment” with the savior then too.  Or maybe we’ll do the Snoopy Dance.  No, that is NOT sacrilegious!  I think Jesus is a great Snoopy Dancer!  (ask my friend, Matt Campbell, He’ll tell you the same thing!)

Another great thing about Prayer Snacks is that they help you focus on the upcoming meal…both the physical one and the spiritual ones.  I found that by the end of the week, my tent-of-meeting meals were really rich.  And the physical meals I ate – WOW, did I ever enjoy those!

I’ve also discovered that Jesus is really smiling on this project.  I am having a delightful time reading the names of my facebook friends and thinking about them.  With 400+ friends I don’t take the time to always think through their names or go to their pages.  I don’t have time for that – especially since the Holy Spirit has already addressed that subject a few months ago and I’m more “utilitarian” on facebook now.  So getting to actually FOCUS on my friends, yet not be on facebook while I do it has been liberating!  It’s like I am realigning myself with getting the main thing to be the main thing again!  Really, isn’t facebook about connecting with your friends…so praying for my friends like this is connecting me with them like reading ABOUT them doesn’t accomplish.  It’s way deeper.  It’s like a secret Jesus and I are sharing and it’s a really fun secret.  The joy that is welling up within me is new, and fresh and DELICIOUS!

I can honestly say I agree with the Psalmist when he says, “My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you” Psalm 63: 5