Arrow Prayers

As Christians, we often berate ourselves and feel bad about not spending hours in prayer, pleading mournfully over world situations or the needs of people we know. Of course, there are some who are called to be intercessors, who do spend many hours at a time in prayer because God has given them a burden to pray for these things and to keep praying until there is breakthrough. For the majority of us though, we throw up a prayer here and there as we think of something, or see a need, and might expect that God is not very pleased with that. We call these arrow prayers.

Now, remember that the Lord made the physical universe and the laws that govern it… We cannot see light waves as such, but we can see everything else because of them. We cannot see air, but we can feel it when it’s windy. When an arrow is fired, the split second it is released from the bow, the arrowhead has an effect on the air molecules in front of it, pushing them out of the way. Very simply put, as the arrow speeds towards its target, millions of molecules have already been affected and some of the energy that was transferred from the bow into the arrow is transformed into heat from friction, and will be released into the air around it. We wait for the arrow to hit the target, but we do not see the effect it is having on its way there.

Father God does not despise our arrow prayers. Even as we are thinking or speaking them, they are already having an effect in the spiritual realm that is not seen by us in the natural. Sometimes we may never even see whether the target was hit, but we do know we have a loving Father whom we can trust. When we pray, however simply, His ear is inclined towards us and His desire is to bless.