TODAY IS…

a great day to be a squeaky wheel.

“Never stop praying.”  1 Thessalonians 5:17 NLT

In the 1800’s, a man quite a few of us have never heard of, wrote something that most of us have. Josh Billings, who wrote under the name Henry Wheeler Shaw, penned the familiar words, “The wheel that squeaks the loudest is the one that gets the grease.”

This is, by no means, a suggestion that we all raise the level of our voices when we pray. The Lord has an incredible ability to hear us even when we pray silently, or when we whisper.

It is, however, an admonition to each one of us to make sure that we do pray frequently. Some of us may say, “But everything is OK; I don’t need anything.”

Yes we do.

We need to thank God that everything is OK and let Him know that we appreciate the calm in our lives.

We need to praise Him and tell Him how much we love Him.

We need to confess our sins, letting Him know that we are aware that not a day goes by that we all fall short in some way.

We need to pray for others and let Him know that we are concerned about them.

The list goes on, and on.

Prayer is how we communicate with the Lord, and communication with someone we love should consist of everything that is happening in our lives, good, bad, or seemingly inconsequential.

Paul summed it up perfectly in his Letter to the Philippians. He said, “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank Him for what He has done.” (Philippians 4:6 NLT).

It is really pretty amazing when we take the time to consider it: at any time, night or day, and in whatever place we may be – at home, at work, at play, even in jail – the Lord will hear us when we speak. It gets even better than that, because not only will He hear us, but He will never tell us that we are silly when we express doubts, concerns and fears. He will never laugh at us if we say something that is incorrect. We will never be ridiculed for confessing something we have done wrong. We will never be looked down upon, frowned upon, or ignored.

No matter how large or how small our request; no matter how sad or distraught we are; no matter how lost we may feel; each and every time that we pray, we have the complete attention of the One who gave us life on earth and the promise of eternal life to come.

Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, God is available to hear what you have to say. He never takes vacations, never goes out to lunch, never sleeps, and He is never too busy.

So go ahead.

Be the squeaky wheel today, tomorrow, and every day. It’s a safe bet that God will hear you.

Remember Paul’s three simple words. “Never stop praying.”

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Taken from “TODAY IS….A Gift From God”, (C) 2013 Tony Casson