Prayer and Connection

When we, as the people of God, realize that we are not alone and that God is with us and available for us to call on, we can know we have the capacity to see Him do incredible things. In Matthew 18, Jesus taught:
18 Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
19 Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven.
20 For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them."

The believer in Christ can kneel in prayer and bow before the Maker of the Universe, the Ruler of Heaven and Earth - we have been granted that access and authority to align ourselves with the Word of God and the Holy Spirit, as well as with fellow believers. When we cooperate and connect as the body of Christ, there is great power that can be released; in our agreement, God shows up and faithfully responds in order to do according to His will.   

+++++

There is great spiritual power available to the believer in Christ, and we access the resources of heaven as we seek God's face and call on His name. Paul wrote in Ephesians 6:
17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God;
18 praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints--
19 and for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel,
20 for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.

We are on the eve of the National Day of Prayer, which galvanizes people to join together physically and spiritually together in agreement for different areas of our society.  Events will be occurring around the nation and throughout the Faith Radio listening area tomorrow, as communities and churches will be coming together to pray in a more normal fashion than we experienced last year during COVID.

The COVID-19 pandemic altered the way we celebrated the National Day of Prayer last year and it gave rise to a new prayer feature on social media.  ReligionNews.com reported recently on a new feature that Facebook is testing out: "Prayer posts. The function will allow members of Facebook groups to ask for and respond to prayer requests."

The story, which refers to a Facebook spokesperson who confirmed this is in the testing stage, states: "The idea for prayer posts grew out of the myriad ways users have connected over Facebook while distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the spokesperson."

Nona Jones, who is the head of Global Faith Partnerships at Facebook - yes, that is a real position, believe it or not, states: "Our mission to give people the power to build community extends to the world’s largest community; the faith community..."

The article goes on to say:

In its Year in Review, Facebook noted that the week of Easter and Passover 2020 — which fell in early April, about a month into lockdowns across the country — saw the most group video calls ever on Messenger, Facebook’s private messaging app. It also saw the most Facebook Live broadcasts from “spiritual” Facebook pages.

Again, this is in the testing stages, and the article gives some insight into how it will work, stating:

Group administrators must opt in to allow members to use the feature, which gives members the option to post prayer requests in the group.

Other members can then click a “pray” button to let the original poster know they have prayed for their request. They also can choose a reaction, leave a comment or send a private message to the poster.

Christianity Daily, in reporting much of the same information about the new feature, did point out that: "The move comes after backlash over Facebook was accused of censoring conservatives...The tech giant claimed, however, that 'the right is better at connecting with people on a visceral level,' as reported by Politico."

Much of the discussion over Facebook's alleged censorship centers around government protection it receives under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. The National Religious Broadcasters website quotes NRB CEO Troy Miller: “Much has changed since Section 230 was written in the 1990s. It has essentially protected Big Tech from lawsuits regarding content removal and has certainly been abused, in particular regarding conservative and religious content. As such, it needs to be reexamined in light of its original intent,” adding, “We look forward to working with Congress, the administration, and tech companies to ensure that our members can continue to preach the gospel uninhibited.”

Bottom line: we love Facebook, we use it, but there are Christians who have found themselves suspended or banned from the platform.  There are those that would blame it on the algorithms, but there is legitimate concern over some speech that is consistent with Biblical values that has disappeared from the platform due to its content.  

But, to its credit, Facebook is seemingly making an effort to accommodate people of faith by testing out its prayer feature. And, we know how social media and texts, complete with emojis in some cases, can be encouraging to people who are in need of prayer.  It's not that Facebook has found religion, but it is wise to not alienate a sizable portion of its user base.

Finally, we can always be reminded to pray for one another.  And, let one another know that we are doing so. We don't need to throw around the words, "I'll pray for you," and not do it; we should follow through and perhaps even let the person know we have done so.  In the body of Christ, we are family, and we can bear one another's burdens and go before the Lord in prayer.