Living the Message

Praying in All Circumstances

Today at Monroe, Pastor Henry talked more about prayer – the emphasis being on prayer in all circumstances. My mind went immediately to that clever someone who said, “I only pray when I am in trouble, but I am always in trouble, so I always pray.” Wouldn’t that be great if we could always recognize the trouble we are in and immediately pray about it? If you think about it, even if we think that the good things happening are because of us instead of responding in thanks, we are already in trouble because these things are from God and we could be thinking too highly of ourselves. A righteous person, as Pastor Henry says, is someone who is in “right relationship” with God: they know that God is God and they are not. And James said in one of the texts (James 5:13-18) we read today that the prayers of a righteous man are powerful and effective. There are 3 reasons in this text why we should pray constantly:

1. Life is like a box of chocolates (You never know what you’re going to get.)
2. Prayer is powerful and effective.
3. Anyone can do it. (Elijah was just like us, and look what he did.)

During the sermon, I thought of the Steven King movie we saw last night: Desperation. In this movie, a very possessed cop had caught several people in the Nevada desert and brought them to his jail in the town called Desperation. The spiritual element in this movie was the best part as we watched a young boy pray throughout the story about the desperate situation they were in. And in the end, like Elijah, this is what saved them.

posted by Jewels @ 5:19 PM