Welcome to today's encouragement from our daily bread.

I'm James Banks, and I called our reading today devoted to prayer.

I've been praying for you for 50 years, said the elderly woman.

My friend Lou looked into her eyes with profound gratitude.

He was visiting the Bulgarian village that his father grew up in and left as a teenager.

The woman, a believer in Jesus, lived next to his grandparents.

She began to pray for Lou as soon as she heard about his birth

a continent away. Now, over half a century later, he was visiting the village on a business trip,

and while there he spoke to a group about his faith. Lou hadn't become a believer in Jesus until he was almost 30, and when this woman approached

him after he spoke, he wondered about the impact her persistent prayers had made on his coming

to faith.

We'll never know the full effect of our prayers this side of heaven.

But Scripture gives us this counsel.

Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.

When Paul penned those words to believers in the small city of Colossi,

he also asked for prayer himself,

so that God would open a door for his message wherever he went.

Sometimes we may think, I don't have the spiritual gift of prayer.

But of all the spiritual gifts listed in the Bible, prayer isn't among them.

Perhaps this is because God longs for each of us to pray faithfully

so that we may see what only he can do.

Today's Our Daily Bread Devotional Scripture reading is from Colossians chapter 4, verses 2 to 6, and 12 to 13.

...