A long time ago I was given some very sound advise, whenever I offered to pray for someone, actually do it. Do it right then and there so that you don’t forget. Since that day, that’s what I do. If I say the words, “I’ll pray for you” then I will, heck, I am… at that moment. Now, what about you?
Unfortunately, if we all prayed as much as we claimed we did, I can’t help but think that this world would look a bit different. Not because a magical fairy would essentially grant wishes, but because in prayer… we the believers should be prompted to do, and act.. to be the hands and feet of the one we are praying to.
Don’t get offended just yet, there’s more ….
To an unbelieving world seeing comments like, “my thoughts and prayers are with you and your family” seems flippant, easy, and a bit heartless. It’s the equivalent of seeing someone hungry or thirsty and saying, “I’ll pray with you” but never offering them a glass of water or food to eat. It’s the perceived inaction that astounds an unbeliever. Now, geographically, we can’t be everywhere and a genuine prayer, pleading to the Lord to grant the situation His grace and His guidance, may be the only thing we can do, and it IS powerful. As believers we know how very powerful prayer is. What I’m writing is that unfortunately, it cannot translate to unbelievers.
Think about it… school shootings… right? Lots and lots of thoughts and prayers… but the majority of people who show up and are marching and are being activists (are being seen physically present) are actually unbelievers or self-proclaimed agnostics or atheists. Unfortunately, what an unbelieving world sees is that the people that should be showing up to comfort, to support, to stand next to/ with the hurting, aren’t the “thoughts and prayers” people.
Maybe school shootings isn’t the example that sits well with you… ok, let’s look at a harder topic… government help or assistance. I am convinced that the need for help/assistance to the hurting and poor from the government is a direct result of the church neglecting or compromising on the mandate to care and feed the poor. This is difficult, right? Because people abuse things and others … and … is there abuse? OF COURSE… “the heart is deceitful above all things…” Jeremiah 17:9, but regardless of our treacherous hearts we are told to, “visit the widows and orphans”… “visit” … not electronically send your thoughts. We are told multiple times in scripture to be generous, give bread to, feed the poor, etc… 100 verses mention feeding the poor. I mean… come on church. Did the world simply step-up to a vacuum we left?
Don’t feel too beat up, this is an obstacle to me as well… I don’t really know how to do this either, but I just want to challenge all of us to see that our inaction and only using our words helps fuel the fire of disbelief. How can we, claim to follow the Lord who came to sacrificially give Himself away for us… a bunch of sinners… and still justify why we do nothing except extend thoughts and claim we’ll pray?
We are called to be peculiar… to die to ourselves… to serve. We aren’t called to sit in our warm comfortable homes and look just like the world. We don’t always have a way to get to every hurting person on the planet, I don’t pretend that we do… but we do have access to the single moms in our neighborhood, the military families, the people the don’t know HIM, the kid with a negative lunch balance, the husband who was abandoned, the elderly that can’t get around as easy as they used to, the person who got injured and can no longer care for their home. Why not serve? What is holding us back? I get it… none of us want to feel like we’re taken advantage of, but… if we are doing everything as onto the LORD then… where others hearts are should be of no concern to you, right? God didn’t wait for me to be “just right” before HE saved me. HE saved me at my lowest.
I just desire that the church resembled the bride of Christ a little more. That we stopped just talking about it and instead being about it. That when our neighbor tells us a story of the difficult time they’re having … right then and there, we pray with them and heck… bake them cookies, or offer to take their garbage out. Whatever. When we’re hurting the slightest kindness is AMAZING. Pay it forward, not because the person we’re serving is necessarily worth the service, but because who we’re ultimately serving, is.