How many times have you said those words? Now how many times have you acted on it. These words have been a constant failure for me. I say it and sometimes I do it and other times I don’t.

Prayer is the right response to anything good or bad. Prayer has power but prayer is hard. Even if I say I will pray for someone I often find myself shooting up a quick prayer (which is good) but I fail to follow up or pray about it again.

Recently I felt super convicted about this. I said I would pray for someone then forgot about it. A week or two later it dawned on me that I forgot to pray about it. While it may not have directly affected anything in my heart I knew it was something to get better at.

Lately, I have been pumped because I have been good about it on small and large scale things: From a coworker whose kid has been sick, to a student who took a huge bail skiing and went to the hospital. And I am proud to say that I have even followed up on these things.

Saying you will pray for someone can really turn their day, week or even year around. All some people need is a prayer and we have the capacity to help them with that. The problem is we need to do it.

For many people this isn’t a particularly profound step. You are likely thinking good job covering the basics. But I truly believe that anytime we make an improvement in our disciplines God is smiling down. While I may not be anywhere near being called a prayer warrior yet, I sure hope to get there before I die.

Kyle Corbin has been serving youth as a volunteer or pastor for over 10 years. He is currently the youth pastor at the Bridge Church in North Vancouver B.C. You can follow his blog at: kylecorbin.blogspot.com or Twitter: @CorbinKyle.