I pray for you

Have you ever thought about the statements: I pray for you, or I am praying for you, or I will pray for you?

I have heard people say, and have said myself, "is there anything I can do besides pray? I'll pray for you but can I do more?" We say this as though it is a last resort, a last ditch effort to get something done, as though all hope is already lost. These are said as words of comfort when nothing can be done. In reality, prayer should be the first AND the last thing we do.

I usually say I'll pray for you. This is a promise to sometime in the future pray for you. Sometimes I write it down to do it later. Sometimes, I stop what I am doing, as soon as I am done with the conversation that prompted the promise, and pray. Sometimes, it is more constant, or regular, like part of a daily prayer added to a list of other situations and people to pray for.

Today as I think of the sentence, I pray for you, I think of 1 Thessalonians 5:17 (ESV) "pray without ceasing" (actually I had to look up with chapter and verse) It is an on-going statement. "I pray for you" indicates that I prayed for you, and I will pray for you, and I pray for you a lot."

Does this sound arrogant? That you NEED prayer all the time and somehow I do not? I don't think so. It simply means that you are in my thoughts frequently and when you are in my thoughts, I say little prayers about you. Those prayers might be "for" you because perhaps you have some issue or problem that I know about. Then there are prayers thanking God for you. Prayers might be general in nature, i.e. "Father, be with this person today."

To be honest, I do not have a ritual for prayer, like sitting each morning and going through a list of situations and people. I pray a lot during the day though, and frequently at night when I wake up. I pray that people will feel God's peace, that God's will be done, that people accept whatever they are going through with peace and comfort knowing that God loves them, that people are encouraged, etc. I don't read all the email forwards that contain prayers. I found that I was really just reading them and not really praying them so I stopped reading them too.

Just know that anytime I say I pray for you, or that I will pray for you, I will do it. I will be earnest and sincere in the prayer. I will ask God to take care of you in the way that only He can. He is not our last resort, unless we treat Him that way. I try to think of Him first when I hear of prayer-needing situations. I don't always succeed but I certainly try. If we can think of God first, perhaps we can expect great things before it becomes needing Him as last resort.

Dear Lord, Healer, Creator, Sustainer, Thank You for being our last resort and thank You that You are there from the beginning waiting to be asked in..... if only we would remember to ask You first. Create in us a dependence on You so that You are constantly in our thoughts not just in our thoughts of last resort. It may be that I am stretching this too far. Perhaps I shouldn't ask that You create dependence on You for others but Your will be done. Do with me what You will. In your powerful, wonderful name, Amen.

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