At the time of sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed: “O LORD, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. Answer me, O LORD, answer me, so these people will know that you, O LORD, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again.” 1 Kings 18:36-37

Elijah had people douse his altar with water three times. He dug a mini moat around the sacrifice, and then he prayed a 20-second prayer. Twenty seconds. The prophets of Baal and Asherah spent the equivalent of at least 5000 man-hours praying for their god to consume the sacrifice. God’s response must have startled the prophets and the people. They probably expected loud, long, and eloquent prayers.

The story goes that a farmer entered a prayer meeting, and all the attendees were complaining about the heat and the lack of water for their crops. The man bowed his head, then said, “Lord, sure is hot.” The rains came soon after. Whether it actually happened is irrelevant, but the point is taken: you don’t need long and flowery prayers for God to answer.

Starting today, pray what I call “Tweet Prayers.” Twitter, is based on the question: what are you doing now. You have 140 characters to respond. The paragraph up to the last period was 145 characters. Tweet prayers are quick, to the point and helps us to keep our focus on the important thing in life.

Your prayers don’t need to be long, though they can be. If you pass an accident, offer a tweet prayer for the drivers involved. Someone you haven’t seen in ages pops up on your “radar” screen, pray a tweet prayer for that person right then and there. As your children go off to school, pray tweet prayers throughout the day.

We probably already pray tweet prayers but now they have a name.