"Prayer Changes Me"
"God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you." I Samuel 12:23
A boy in our church youth group really bugged me as a teenager. In my opinion, he did not take his walk with the Lord seriously, and he was not a good testimony in the school we both attended. I complained to our youth leaders hoping we could “fix” him. They told me to pray for him. “Every time you feel like complaining about him, just pray.” I thought they should chew him out instead, but I prayed anyway. Suddenly, he didn’t get on my nerves anymore. I quit thinking about his negative actions. He didn’t change at all, but my judgmental attitude was gone. I learned a valuable lesson about prayer; praying changes ME!
Sometimes I still forget that prayer is vital. Recently, I felt stagnant and discouraged in our women’s ministry. I taught Sunday school, but I was only going through the motions. I went to monthly ladies’ meetings just to give my little spill and check the meeting off of the list of things I was supposed to do. Yes, that’s horrible and heartless, but anyone can get cold in their Christian walk and ministry. At a leadership meeting, I requested prayer for the women’s ministry, and our assistant pastor prayed for us ladies to “feel the closeness” that was lacking. It encouraged me to pray the same prayer! I also prayed for God to help me teach instead of depending on my own knowledge and strength. I prayed for each lady and her family. On Sunday mornings, as I was getting ready for church, I would think about each lady in my class, imagining what she might be doing at that moment: getting her children ready to come, preparing a meal to be ready when she got home, or dealing with a stubborn husband who refused to come to church. I would pray for those who weren’t faithful to have the burden to come.
I don’t know if our ladies have changed very much since I began praying more earnestly for them, but I have. Things that used to frustrate me and hinder my lesson don’t anymore. The ladies were WONDERFUL to begin with, but praying for them has given me more love and compassion for them. There will always be those who aren’t as faithful as I would hope or who do things I don’t understand, but God has given me the grace and wisdom to meet them where they are. I have been more sensitive to their struggles and the effort it takes for some of them to participate. I am genuinely happy to see each on Sunday mornings, and the closeness that has been missing for so long is there.
God’s Word has so much to say about prayer. Countless commentaries and books have been written on its power. I am not a scholar, but the one thing I know is that prayer changes ME.