Technology has changed the way we communicate with people. It's estimated that 2.8 million emails are sent out every second! We can send messages, post pictures, and share songs and attachments instantaneously around the world.

And some are changing their way of communicating with heaven. For centuries people have traveled to Jerusalem to pray at the Western Wall of the Temple Mount, and many write their prayers on paper and stuff them into the cracks between the stones of that wall. Well, today you can email a prayer to Jerusalem, and someone will print it out and insert it for you. Or you can use Twitter, or an app for your iPhone.

It is estimated that the average person spends 43 minutes per day managing email. Question: How much time does the average Christian spend per day sending "knee-mail"--praying to God? Some surveys have reported it's about three to four minutes a day, max.

Here's what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount. "Ask," (note, that's a command!) "and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you." Then He notes that even sinful humans provide what their own children need, so "how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!" (see Matthew 7:7-11).

The Bible tells us we can come boldly to God, not fearfully like Dorothy approaching the Wizard of Oz. The writer of Hebrews reminds us that our great High Priest, Jesus Christ, is able to sympathize with our weaknesses, and that we can "come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need" (see Hebrews 4:14-16).

How do you view "knee-mail"? George Műller said, "Prayer is not overcoming God's reluctance, it's laying hold of God's willingness." I believe that. God is willing. Jesus is commanding, "Ask, seek, knock, and it will be done for you. The door will be open." So, on this first week of the year, let's make our declaration of dependence (not independence) upon the Lord for 2013.

Thirty years ago, when our little weekly Bible study was outgrowing the place where we were meeting, somebody asked me what we were going to do next. I said, "I don't know. I've never been here before." So we began a special weekly prayer meeting, to ask the Lord's guidance. And that's how this ministry started, by seeking the Lord with the question "What's next?" to, in Jesus' words, ask, seek, and knock.

Charles Spurgeon said, "If God be near a church, it must pray. One of the first tokens of His absence will be a slothfulness in prayer." Where will God lead us in 2013? Let's be people of prayer, and see what blessings He has in store for us!