A New Prayer List
Jesus said to the crowds, "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?"--Matt. 5:43-47
"Chaplain pray for us..." is a phrase I hear a lot. Many times it's spoken when someone is worried or messed up or just joking around. You hear it too. The spam e-mails where someone who is severely handicaped or in a bad accident needs your prayers. We have prayer calendars where we remember certain ministries, people, groups, etc. on a certain day, flooding God with petitions on that day. We take all these things and turn them into prayer lists where we flood God with our needs and the needs of our friends and neighbors. We then spend our prayer time remembering those who are "worse off than we are" and count our blessings by remembering those who don't seem to have as many as we do. It's the "Christian" thing to do.
But is it really? My wife and I took a yoga class once a week for a couple of months (yeah, yeah, yeah...make fun of it all you want, but I could touch my toes by the end of it. Some of you probably can't even SEE your toes.) Before one of the classes, there was a horrible accident on a nearby freeway with deaths and many serious injuries. As we gathered for class, hearts were heavy as we talked about the incident. As we began class, the teacher encouraged us to spend a few minutes "sending our positive energy" to the people and families involved. I just assumed a yoga posture and prayed. But how is the action of this yoga class different from the actions of many Christians? "Do not even the Gentiles do the same," Jesus asks.
So, today, I am proposing something new for my prayer life. In the course of my daily prayers and meditations, I am going to pray for my enemies and those who persecute me. There are some people that I have some issues with in my life and I am going to pray specifically for them. I'm going to pray that their lives are blessed beyond measure. I'm going to pray for their relationships. If I'm brave enough, I'm going to find out what their needs are and pray for those as well. And, through this process, I am going to hope that two things happen.
First, I'm going to hope that God answers my prayers and gives them abundance. I'm going to pray that the sun and rain fall on them in right proportions to give them more blessings than they know what to do with in the hopes that they will realize it comes from God.
Second, I'm going to hope that God changes my heart. So many times the people I see as enemies are merely people who have a different point of view. I'm going to hope that, through this prayer, God will give me their point of view so that I might understand why they are the way they are. If I can understand that, I can speak Christ to their situations and maybe change their lives.
I'm going to give this a shot, Jesus, because it's what you did on the Cross: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they are doing." Thanks for forgiving me when I don't know what I'm doing, too.,
"Chaplain pray for us..." is a phrase I hear a lot. Many times it's spoken when someone is worried or messed up or just joking around. You hear it too. The spam e-mails where someone who is severely handicaped or in a bad accident needs your prayers. We have prayer calendars where we remember certain ministries, people, groups, etc. on a certain day, flooding God with petitions on that day. We take all these things and turn them into prayer lists where we flood God with our needs and the needs of our friends and neighbors. We then spend our prayer time remembering those who are "worse off than we are" and count our blessings by remembering those who don't seem to have as many as we do. It's the "Christian" thing to do.
But is it really? My wife and I took a yoga class once a week for a couple of months (yeah, yeah, yeah...make fun of it all you want, but I could touch my toes by the end of it. Some of you probably can't even SEE your toes.) Before one of the classes, there was a horrible accident on a nearby freeway with deaths and many serious injuries. As we gathered for class, hearts were heavy as we talked about the incident. As we began class, the teacher encouraged us to spend a few minutes "sending our positive energy" to the people and families involved. I just assumed a yoga posture and prayed. But how is the action of this yoga class different from the actions of many Christians? "Do not even the Gentiles do the same," Jesus asks.
So, today, I am proposing something new for my prayer life. In the course of my daily prayers and meditations, I am going to pray for my enemies and those who persecute me. There are some people that I have some issues with in my life and I am going to pray specifically for them. I'm going to pray that their lives are blessed beyond measure. I'm going to pray for their relationships. If I'm brave enough, I'm going to find out what their needs are and pray for those as well. And, through this process, I am going to hope that two things happen.
First, I'm going to hope that God answers my prayers and gives them abundance. I'm going to pray that the sun and rain fall on them in right proportions to give them more blessings than they know what to do with in the hopes that they will realize it comes from God.
Second, I'm going to hope that God changes my heart. So many times the people I see as enemies are merely people who have a different point of view. I'm going to hope that, through this prayer, God will give me their point of view so that I might understand why they are the way they are. If I can understand that, I can speak Christ to their situations and maybe change their lives.
I'm going to give this a shot, Jesus, because it's what you did on the Cross: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they are doing." Thanks for forgiving me when I don't know what I'm doing, too.,
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home