José had the reputation as a faithful sweeper long before he had the reputation as a faithful prayer advocate. But only one of those changes lives for eternity.
“They had confidence in me because I would do the work and be on time,” José said of his sweeping jobs for stores near his home in Mexico. And this faithfulness translated to an effective prayer ministry spanning several decades and affecting countless lives for God.
Stacked Prayers
It began when his church in Mexico reached out to the drug addicts and alcoholics who lay passed out on the streets and sidewalks of the red light district. “After seeing how some fell away after coming to God … God gave me the desire to pray for the people on the streets,” José said. And as the church branched out into missions at home and abroad, José’s circle of prayers expanded.
His reasons behind being a prayer advocate are simple. “I pray a lot because in the book of James it says that if we know to do good and don’t do it, that is sin. That’s the first reason. The second reason is that I feel compassion. Knowing that I’m saved, how can I not pray that the rest of those in the world be saved?”
And he’s not haphazard in how he goes about it. José has a stack of index cards and each one has a name. The name of a single missionary or a couple or a family. Beneath the names are detailed prayer requests garnered from correspondence with the missionaries. José does not pray in generalizations. He prayers specifically. Methodically. And faithfully.
Expanding Our Circle of Prayer
“I wake up at one o’clock in the morning and pray … for more or less one hour,” José says. “I pray in the early morning because there is less noise than in the day. In the day there are many interruptions. There is a lot of noise and one can’t concentrate on the Lord. It’s hard to pray from the heart when you’re preoccupied, when you’re wondering what’s happening beside you or outside.”
José’s faithfulness means a lot to the missionaries he prays for. Missionaries like Amelia Orrostieta, a single woman sent out from his church who works with the Triqui tribal people of Mexico.
Speaking of his church family, José said, “We are prayer advocates. We spend a lot of time in prayer.” There was a sadness in his eyes when he admitted, “And there’s not a lot of that in churches today.” José sees the impact that prayer makes. He couldn’t help but conclude with this challenge: “We need more participation in prayer on a worldwide level.”
That’s a challenge we’re thankful you’ve accepted. Could you expand the circle of prayer by inviting a friend to sign up for NTM’s Weekly Prayer Bulletin and Daily Prayer Reminders? Thank you for your participation in prayer.
