Stop Saying you'll pray

February 18, 2016

Stop saying you’ll pray

Last night I had a dream about some friends of ours.  In my dream the husband told us first of his horrible sickness before he told his wife.  In the dream we were doing everything we could to distract our sick friend from his illness and dwelling on it or thinking about it… I was using my phone to show him all of the projects around my house that I was planning to paint….(maybe I spend too much time thinking of ideas of things to do without ever doing them?)  I woke up and realized, thankfully, this was just a dream but was perturbed at myself that my first reaction to a trial in a friends life was to try to distract them vs actually doing the one thing that could be effective…PRAY. 

So many times someone will tell me of something that is going on with them and I say, “oh, I’ll pray for you” …mind you, my intentions are always good, I really mean to pray…sometimes two weeks go by and I realize I feel guilty because I forgot to pray…SO I think I’m going to try to get in the habit of no longer saying “I’ll pray for you” and instead saying, “lets pray right now” even if I’m at the park, the grocery store, sending a text, or my kids school …in doing that I will invite Jesus right into the situation, invite him to be who He is- peace, comfort, healing, restoration, forgiveness, Joy!

Not by coincidence I read a devotional this morning from James 1:2 Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy.

The author went on to explain that the way to have Joy is only in Jesus

J- Jesus

O- Only

Y- You

SO the next time someone tells me their trial, the thing that the enemy is using to steal their Joy, take their mind off of Jesus. Instead of me offering a distraction of my own to take their mind off of their current circumstances I’m going to attempt to point them to Jesus, to lead them to prayer. 

Jesus Only You are the answer.

Jesus Only You can overcome.

Jesus Only You lead to unspeakable JOY!