Living in icloud Cuckoo Land?!
Friday, 20 April 2012
Over the past few weeks, since being introduced to a new iPad, I have entered a brave new world ( yes, I am determined to not be held back in any way by technophobia). I am starting to get to grips with Evernote, Pages, diaries synching (or not), emails, reminders, apps and…most mysterious and amazing of all…iCloud.
iCloud is something I do not understand. Somehow, documents, pictures,music or anything stored on one device owned by me will be automatically available on another at the touch of an on-screen button.
In my mind, being blessed with a vivid imagination and a complete lack of understanding as to what actually happens to all the millions of bits of precious information that must be floating around somewhere in cyber never-never land, I have a mental picture… I imagine there is some ethereal, otherworldly storehouse, like an extra-white Apple store in the clouds somewhere, possibly guarded by Internet angels, ready for dispatch at the speed of light when asked for!
And it got me thinking…Does God, who, after all, has thought processes infinitely higher and greater than the inventors of any computer system, past, present or future, have a sort-of iCloud?
What about the prayers we pray? Is it time and energy wasted? When we don’t see immediate answers, what is happening? Are they being ‘held’ somewhere in the divine iCloud?
I have been thinking of the long-term impact of prayer. A prayer is a seed. For a season, it may disappear into the ground, but it will never be lost, and will bear fruit that lasts forever and will impact the future.
Like labelling documents for storage and retrieval or choosing to plant seed in the right soil and the right part of the garden, I have become convinced that specific, intentional prayers are essential. As one great church leader said: ‘God does not answer vague prayers.’ I have been challenged to reactivate specific promises and prayers for specific people and situations and to determine to keep praying them until the matter is ‘ prayed through’.
How long that will take is an unknown, but I do know that in God’s iCloud these specific prayers are marked ‘high priority’ and that each one is held.
Roll on the day when He says, as He did to Daniel:
The moment you began praying, a command was given. And now I am here to tell you what it was, for you are very precious to God.
Daniel 9:23
with love,
Written on my ipad!
Susan x