"Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, Ephesians 6:19 NIV

The Apostle Paul is asking his friends to pray for him? If Paul needed prayer, how much more do we. This wonderful man preached all over the ancient world, but he still wants prayer for words.

I suppose if anyone knows about fear, it would be Paul. I don't know what he has faced at this period of his life, but he had some very painful, near death situations during his lifetime.

All of us need to pray however we can in our circumstance. I shared about speaking out loud the other day, but I want to tell you why I know the silence kind are important too.

We can be in places where it's not appropriate to pray!  Have you ever prayed to silently in a doctor's office? I think most people have. We can be sick and not know what words to say. I am recovering from a sinus and ear infection, and I prayed silently a lot this week!

Thank God we can have hope in our Father who hears even when we don't speak. We can get to know Jesus, and who He says He is, when He answers those silent prayers. No one knows but God himself what your request is.

I read Luke 11: 1- 13 last night. You are probably familiar with verses 1-4. It's the Lord's prayer. What I didn't realize, just after this, Jesus shares the story about the traveler who comes at midnight. The house he enters doesn't have any food, so the host runs to his neighbor for bread.

The neighbor doesn't come to the door because the man asks him to, but only comes after much persistence from the host. This man wouldn't give up knocking, banging and so on. Jesus relates this to a father who is good, and wouldn't give his son a snake if he asked for a fish. You can read the rest for yourself.

What struck me was the goodness of the fathers in this story. Of course Jesus is relating this to the goodness of our heavenly Father.
We belong to God, and his love for us is deeper than we can ever imagine.  Verse 13 of Luke 11 reads, "If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"  Not one of us can say we have enough of the Holy Spirit.