Today's "thought" comes
from the Blog of Melissa Edgington entitled: yourmomhasablog.com In light of a month that has seen so many needless shooting deaths and
injuries, this post caught my attention. I know I sent out a thought on prayer
last week, but I would like to follow it up this week with another -- dealing
with the rush to pray (or at least promises to pray) AFTER heartbreaking
situations occur. I read Melissa's post and felt it was worth
sharing. I trust you will find it true and challenging. Enjoy.
The
Time to Pray is Before the Shooting Starts
I’ve noticed a disturbing trend among Christians. We
are not a praying people. Oh, we love the idea of prayer. We
love sharing memes about it and ranting on social media about prayer in
schools. We love organizing prayer vigils after some awful tragedy has
struck. We follow the same predictable patterns of making prayer a low
priority until we have absolutely no other recourse but to turn to the God of
the Universe.
As His children, we must start examining what it is
that keeps us from prayer. Is it that we really don’t believe that God is in
control? Or do we just not care what He does until He does something that
negatively affects us? Do we really think that the best time to pray is after
the mass shooting?
At most prayer meetings, only a fraction of the church
takes time to attend. It isn’t a time issue. Parents and grandparents alike can
make it to every little league game, anytime, anywhere, with three or four kids
in tow. In most cases it isn’t a matter of limited mobility or poor health. The
majority of us are perfectly able to meet together to pray. We just don’t want
to.
Imagine how our communities and churches and schools
might change if we approached the throne of God with an expectation that He
will hear our prayers. With an excitement about what He will do with the pleas
of His people. Consider how things might be different if we had eyes to
see how He uses our prayers to accomplish His will, if we had the faith to
believe that prayer really matters.
Imagine if we weren’t afraid to humble ourselves
before our God, before our family and friends and fellow believers, if we
marked prayer meetings on our calendars in ink, making it clear to our children
that we make prayer with fellow believers a priority in our homes. Instead,
most of us hear the words “prayer meeting” and tune out. Not for us. Not
important. Not worth our time.
We spend so much time worrying about the world our
kids and grand-kids are growing up in, so many hours scheming and planning ways
to shelter them, and so little time talking to the One who can actually change
things. If you want to know the truth, it isn’t the youth of today or the evil
governments or the wicked schemes of man that make me fear for the future. It’s
the empty prayer meetings.
“The Cinderella of the Church today is the prayer
meeting. This handmaid of the Lord is unloved and unwooed because she is not
dripping with pearls of intellectualism, nor glamorous with the silks of
philosophy, neither is she enchanting with the tiara of psychology. She wears
the homespuns of sincerity and humility and so is not afraid to kneel.” –
Leonard Ravenhill
After
learning of the latest statistics on how few Christians there are that
regularly share the gospel, or spend any significant time in prayer, a friend
of mine once said (somewhat tongue-in-cheek, of course, regarding what
motivates people): "The only mistake God made was that he didn't
offer to give us five dollars for every person we share the Gospel with, or
contract to pay us an hourly wage for time spent praying. Or better still, that
He didn't make our salvation dependent on doing both." I
do often wonder how many more people would do those two things
if they were financially reimbursed for the time and efforts.
Those
are some pretty encouraging promises to be given from the One who has all power
in heaven and earth! Yet, given the commitment to prayer on the part of
many Christians, you would never know Jesus had spoken such words! Yet He
did, not only because He intends to make good on them, but also to encourage
and move us to pray. One must ask: What will it take to get us to do
so? Could the carnage be stopped if God's people would flood the throne
of grace with petitions for His intervention to prevent them, instead
of prayers of comfort for those who have lost loved ones after the fact?
Because I believe Melissa is spot-on - The Time to Pray is Before the Shooting Starts.
"Be
joyful always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances, FOR
THIS IS GOD'S WILL FOR YOU in Christ Jesus." (I Thessalonians
5:16-18)
Pastor
Jeff
