WHO PRAYS FOR WHO
Posted by: bigguyhereagain <bigguyhereagain@...>
I went to church this morning,
I heard the organ play,
I bowed my head, as the preacher said,
And listened to him pray.
When he finished up his sermon,
I felt a little blue,
For he had posed this question:
"Who's there to pray for you?"
That opened up my thinking,
It made me search my mind,
I wondered who'd speak up for me,
Just who would take the time.
I haven't many relatives,
My friends are very few,
The question still preys on my mind,
"Who's there to pray for you?"
Now for myself, I pray a lot,
I seek answers from above,
I ask God for the things I need,
I ask Him for His love.
My prayers are filled with "I, my, me's,"
They overflow with self,
I wonder if the time has come,
To place "poor me" up on the shelf.
Perhaps before I question,
"Who'll pray for me?" anew,
It's better t! hat I ask myself,
"Just who should pray who?"
For how dare I ask another,
To bow his head for me,
If I don't go to God for him,
And get down upon my knee?
When there's a string of corporate meltdowns, Wall Street gets a very bad
case of the jitters. The sudden discovery that a major company we thought
was doing well is actually in big trouble doesn't exactly inspire investor
confidence. In some cases, some unusually "creative accounting" can
conceal how bad things really are for some time. Of course, the
fundamentals of financial viability never really change. Your outgo and
your income, your losses and your gains have to at least balance. And
it's management's job to, of course, be sure that they do.
"Heaven's Balanced Books."
When you open your heart to Jesus Christ, it would be appropriate to hang
a sign that says, "Under new management." You step down and the One who
should have been your Chief Executive Officer all along takes charge. And
you can be sure He's committed to balancing the books in your life,
keeping a loving balance between gains and losses.
In the midst of horrendous personal losses, Job was still able to see this
balancing work of God in his life. In Job 1:21, our word for today from
the Word of God, he says, "The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may
the name of the Lord be praised." Later, Job would have this balancing work
of God more than proved when, as the Bible says, "the Lord ... gave him
twice as much as he had before ... the Lord blessed the latter part of
Job's life more than the first." (Job 42:10-12)
In God's deep love and infinite wisdom, He knows that we just can't stand
to have all blessings or all burdens, all happiness or all heartaches. That
may be why the writer of Proverbs 30 prays, "Give me neither poverty nor
riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much
and disown you ... or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name
of my God." (Proverbs 30:8-9) Solomon assures us that, in God's great
management of our life, "There is a time for everything, and a season for
every activity under heaven ... a time to tear down and a time to build
... a time to weep and a time to laugh" (Ecclesiastes 3:1, 3-4)
Maybe right now you are particularly focused on a lot of bad news, some
losses you're experiencing. This might be a good time to step back and
look at the big picture of what heaven's CEO is doing in your life. It's
time to review the blessings that are there side-by-side with the burdens.
God has this incredible way of knowing just how much loss you can handle
and how to balance that with some good news ... how much victory you can
handle and how to balance that with some struggle.
This loving God, who knows exactly what you need and when you need it, is
working this very day on His gracious, life-building balance. At any given
moment, you will have something discouraging, but always something
encouraging to offset it and make it bearable. At any given moment, you
will have some wonderful answered prayers and some yet-to-be-answered
prayers. You can be sure that until the day you see Jesus, you will
always - I mean, always - have plenty to thank Him for and plenty to trust
Him for. That's how spiritual babies become spiritual adults. That's how
spiritual wimps become spiritual warriors.
So, don't miss the good things God is doing because you're nearsightedly
focusing on the hard things. You have a Savior who is always balancing
the gains and the losses to make your life more profitable than you could
ever imagine.
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