And pray in the Spirit on all occasions
with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always
keep on praying for all the saints. Ephesians 6:18
I’ve
come to the place where I have had to stop telling people, “I’ll pray for
you.”
I
simply know that despite my good intentions—and these promises are almost
always spoken with good intent—I know that nine times out of ten I just don’t
remember to follow through. Not until maybe a week or two later, and then I
feel guilty that I forgot. I don’t like promising something I probably won’t
live up to. You know how these stories go: someone you care about tells you of
their pain, need, or struggle, and you respond with, “Oh, I’m so sorry to hear
that; I’ll pray for you.” But then, most of the time, we never do. If all the
prayers that were promised were actually prayed, this would be a different
world by now.
So
instead of promising future prayer, what I try to do nowadays is stop, right
there in the moment, and pray. Right then and there. It’s funny how many
Christians this actually throws off guard. “You mean, right now?”
“Yes—absolutely. Let’s pray.” In the restaurant, in the car, on the plane,
wherever. If it’s a text or e-mail request, I’ll start praying as I type my
response, typing out a prayer for them right then and there. Not only does it
help me follow through, but it helps them to agree right along with what I have
prayed, and agreement is mighty powerful as we know.
No comments:
Post a Comment