"This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us" - 1 John 5:14 (NIV).

Those who are in the habit of keeping prayers list have something positive going for them. First as the year draws to an end it is a chance to go over the various prayer requests shared through the year. It can be amazing and truly uplifting how many prayers answered one can find. For sometimes in a haste one may not have realised the awesome nature of God in answering our prayers. But now is an opportunity to tick one by one and what a beautiful exercise to find how God hears our prayers.

Because of this one's faith is strengthened. And for those prayers where the answer may not be so clear it does not mean God did abandon one. As we know through his servants like Abraham and Sarah who gave birth to a child in old age God has his time (Genesis 21). Once Moses desperately desired to liberate Israelites on his time but had to wait another forty years, when he had almost forgotten, and God called on him (Exodus 3). So those prayer requests which may not be ticked at the end of the year as long as there are before God there are in safe hands!

Keeping a prayer list is not to keep a tab on God, negatively. Such a list is a powerful testimony to all that matters that issues which weigh on one and brought before God matter to Him just as well. It shows to the sceptic that the Almighty God we serve is not alien to our needs, but indeed cares.

While we may not find a place anywhere in the Bible urging believers to keep prayer lists, it is a highly commendable practice. For those who do, certainly know how such has blessed them in their faith journey through the years!

Prayer for today: Lord Father God of Abraham, maker of heaven and earth, as I look back through the year and go over a list of my prayers answered, I thank you and look forward to presenting you all my needs, as you have commanded, for you care, this I pray in Jesus's name.