The Privilege of Prayer

 Lately I have found myself awake and praying early in the morning.  It begins with this inner wrestling match at about 5 a.m.  I try my hardest to get back to sleep, but God's not having it.  There are people who come to mind that I know need prayer and I lay there, thinking about them and praying for their situations.  Once that begins, I'm up for the day. 
This morning I was thinking about a friend who will be having pre-op today for shoulder replacement surgery tomorrow.  I began to think about this special friend and all of the people God has placed in my life who have prayed me through a great deal of health issues. 
After I had the twins I was in ICU for 6 days.  I had acute renal failure and my body was shutting down.  I remember one morning after my mom had spent the night with me in ICU, Hubby came early to see me and he was so exhausted that he took a wrong turn in the hospital and ended up in a different wing.  As he began to realize he was in the wrong place, there was a lady mopping the floor who asked if she could help him.  He explained that he was looking for ICU and she said, "Hey, are you the man whose wife just had the twins?"  He said yes.  She said, "Please tell your wife we are praying for her and for those babies too."  I didn't know this woman, never met her, yet somehow throughout the hospital, people had heard about us and were praying.  God put people in our path throughout this incredibly hard journey who let us know they were praying.  Once I was released from the hospital and could go to where the twins were in the NICU (an hour and a half away) it was the same thing.  The receptionist at the hospital there would ask me every time entered or left.   "How are those babies?  I've been praying for y'all."
When I had my first surgery in 2006, our church in Georgia had Prayer Pagers.  The number of the pager was published to our church community as well as friends and family.  The idea behind it was that whenever someone was praying for me, they would call the pager and I would know that someone was praying for me.  I never dreamed that pager would go off so much!  It was such a comfort to know there were people praying for me,  I didn't know who, just someone who had thought of me at that time.  At night I would awaken to the vibration of my pager on the table, and it would amaze me that when my side of the world should be asleep, someone was up praying for me. 
This morning I was thinking of all of the countless prayers prayed on my behalf and it changed my heart.  I have always known the importance of praying for others and have felt privileged that God would give me such a heart for people, I just thought that praying at a more awake hour would be nice.  This morning God brought to mind all of those times in the middle of the night that my prayer pager went off and how good it felt to have people I didn't even know cover me in prayer.  It is my privileged to pray any time of the day or night and especially at those times when most of my side of the world is asleep.  Perhaps when it is dark and quiet, those are the times when others need those prayers the most. 
Today I thank God for the privilege of prayer.