Are the people on Facebook real? I’ve had so many people tell me that virtual friends aren’t real people. Well, I have a Facebook friend that I’ve never met. She lives in an exotic country I’ve never visited. But one day she was going through a crisis in her life and was asking prayer over Facebook. I began praying for her every day.
Suddenly God woke me up in the middle of the night to pray fervently for her; then I went back to sleep. The next day I told her on Facebook that God woke me up to pray for her, and another Facebook friend said God had woken her up at the same exact time. The odds that this would happen is impossible. This woman I was praying for was making a major life decision at the exact moment we were praying, and since the country she lived in was on the other side of the world, God used two American women to pray for her in the middle of the night by waking us up. We had synchronized prayer. The woman we prayed for decided to recommit her life to Christ, after having gone through an agonizing decision.
You see, God considers my Facebook friend a real person, or He wouldn’t have used me spiritually in her life.
This is not to justify spending hours upon hours on Facebook, neglecting the flesh and blood people in our lives, especially our spouses and children. Facebook can be idolatry just like anything else. The key is to ask God what you should be doing at each moment. If you feel guilty that you’re not doing something, for heaven’s sake, get up and go do the thing that you know you should be doing.
Tags: facebook, prayer, social media
Thank you for the prayers Susan! Xx
It’s God that prompts me and gives me the urgency to pray for people, so God alone deserves glory for that. And it’s easy to pray for the people I care about. 🙂
I am often woken up in the middle of the night with someone on my mind. I always shoot up a quick prayer before returning to sleep. Sometimes sleep is elusive and I find myself laying still in bed and talking with my Father.
That’s great, Sheila! Well, it’s not great that you have trouble sleeping, but that you spend that time praying. That’s always time well-spent.
What a neat story! Sounds like you all were meant to be FB friends!
I know. That happens with a lot of people I meet online; I love them even though I’ve never met them.