Skip to main content

Prayer Requests and Sitcoms

Dear God, here before and unto you we submit our prayer request


Each week I give time for my teens to write down things for which they would like prayer. It keeps me from having to write them all down when I ask if there are any special prayer requests, plus I don't have to rely on my memory, which is clearly storing much-needed information about my wife; birthday, anniversary, credit card usage (Yikes!).

So the teens write them down and put them in a Baggage Check box we made. We do this at the beginning and then they can focus on the discussion, knowing they have been heard. (By the way, I stole this idea, a practice I highly recommend...stealing ideas, and praying.)

Now perhaps it was a weak moment the next day at the office when I was reading through the list of prayer requests. But while praying for certain requests from my youth, I sighed, because it seemed that I had seen several of these requests before. I was discouraged that they haven't moved on from that need. After all, didn't we pray for that just last week?

It's not that the prayer requests were bad. Although I'm not sure praying for Justin Bieber to notice your comments on his videos is really something to discuss with God. It was just that these similar requests did not represent any progress.

It was then I was reminded that life is not like a television sitcom, where all our problems are neatly solved within 21 minutes, leaving time for commercial interruption.

So how do we remind ourselves that if they took the time to share a request, we should take the time to pray it forward? And how do we help them without going insane ourselves?

Offer hope. The need may appear to be the same every single day, but it won't last forever. As Mark Lowry used to say, 'It came to pass. It didn't come to stay. Either it will pass or you will.'

Offer peace. Whenever I find myself lying awake at night, I notice that I am stressed or afraid. Dreams about cookies and milkshakes rarely wake me from my slumber. But once I am awoken, my mind has this habit of shifting straight to the problems in my life. Before I know it, an hour of sleep has been lost. However, when I have remembered to pray, I fall asleep rather quickly. 

I'm not promoting prayer as a means to more sleep. (That could backfire when you're in church or a Bible study.) But clearly giving matters over to God leads to peace. 

Offer purpose. The reason we submit our requests to God is because we believe God can do better than we can. Whether it is something we continue to struggle with or something we can't figure out, by giving it to God, we're trusting He will do what we cannot.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Accountable

I recently officiated a wedding. The ceremony was simple, lovely, and ended with another couple professing to keep the covenant of marriage. But it all started with a clarification...from me. At our first premarital counseling session, as I have done with every couple I have agreed to marry, I clarified a couple of matters. First, I officiate Christian weddings, where both spouses-to-be are professing Christians. I firmly believe that marriage is difficult enough, without adding disagreements about God into the mix. Second, as a minister of Jesus Christ, I believe the pastor’s role in a wedding is to represent the blessing of God on that union. So we have several sessions of premarital counseling where we discuss married life. It’s not that I have this imaginary card in my head, with a picture of me on the front and my stats on the back. (You know, like a baseball card.) Ok, I do picture cards. Pastor cards! And being a competitive guy, I want my stats to look good. The number of coupl
Post a Comment
Read more

Patience

I am more than halfway through the last year of dropping one of my children off at school. It's my eighth grade daughter, for anyone keeping track of my family.  See, next year she will be at the high school, and her brother will drive her. He says that it's not cool for seniors to drive their freshman sister to school, but I bet it's cooler than being dropped off by your mom in a minivan.  So rather than groan about this daily responsibility, I've been reminiscing about what the drop-off line used to look like, way back in elementary school. Once our children were about halfway through their elementary years, the drop-off line became a test of patience.  Do you know which group you do not want to get caught behind in the parent drop-off line at an elementary school? The kindergartners. These little ones are barely able to walk, but now we put them in the high-pressure situation of trying to unbuckle their seat-belt, grab their backpack (which might be as tall as they a
Post a Comment
Read more

Jury Duty

I was recently summoned to jury duty. I know, groan. Except I didn't. I had never experienced it before and was curious to see what it was like.   When the day to report arrives, they separate you into groups, asking various questions to decide if you will be selected to serve. Do you know the accused? Do you have conflicts that would keep you from serving? Can you stay focused?  I wanted to answer well, if only because my kids kept wishing me luck the day before, telling me they hoped I made the team. After all, who wants to be rejected? It occurred to me that there are things you probably shouldn’t say right away if you’re wanting to serve on a jury. I know, I know, people don’t typically want to serve on a jury. But that list didn’t seem nearly as humorous to me. Here are the things you probably shouldn’t say if you want to be selected for jury. I hold myself in contempt. You can’t handle the truth. We find the defendant guilty. I believe the judge looks pretty in his robe. I’d
Post a Comment
Read more