An enlightened prayer
On my way home from North Carolina Sunday on my motorcycle I was listening to a sermon given at Seattle Pacific University by a man named Bill Hinson. (If you don't know about iTunes University, go check it out. I've found a great number of wonderful things from SPU including a series on Tolkien and C.S. Lewis.)
The sermon was about the people who support us in times of need. The short version is that without Onesiphorus (2nd Timothy 1; 16-18), Titus (2nd Corinthians 7; 5 -7), Barnabus, and Silas there would have been no St. Paul. The assertion is that without our dear friends to help us through the difficult times of life, any of us might give up too soon, or just not have the strength to reach our goal.
The final prayer was something a little unexpected by me. After such a sermon somewhere else you might hear a prayer that we be lent the strength to be that support for those people in our lives who need it. Instead it was more proactive. It didn't just ask for the strength or wisdom to be a help to those in need around us. It asked God to send us someone who's already in need so that we could encourage them and support them.
It's not just a vague hope that I be ready just in case something ever comes up and I happen to be paying attention but a sincere prayer that I be shown someone now who needs the support and encouragement I can provide in order to make it through their difficult time.
Lord, we all struggle from time to time, we get down and we hardly know where to turn.
We thank you today, God, for those insightful friends who have a way of coming just at the right moment like Onesiphorus came for Paul and just loving us and standing along side us. They make the difference.
Lord, we want to be like that... We want to let you use us to make a profound difference in the life of other people. Would you send us somebody today that we might encourage them, that we might love them with the very love of Jesus Christ. We know that as we do our own souls will be enriched and we will be blessed.
Amen.
The sermon was about the people who support us in times of need. The short version is that without Onesiphorus (2nd Timothy 1; 16-18), Titus (2nd Corinthians 7; 5 -7), Barnabus, and Silas there would have been no St. Paul. The assertion is that without our dear friends to help us through the difficult times of life, any of us might give up too soon, or just not have the strength to reach our goal.
The final prayer was something a little unexpected by me. After such a sermon somewhere else you might hear a prayer that we be lent the strength to be that support for those people in our lives who need it. Instead it was more proactive. It didn't just ask for the strength or wisdom to be a help to those in need around us. It asked God to send us someone who's already in need so that we could encourage them and support them.
It's not just a vague hope that I be ready just in case something ever comes up and I happen to be paying attention but a sincere prayer that I be shown someone now who needs the support and encouragement I can provide in order to make it through their difficult time.
Lord, we all struggle from time to time, we get down and we hardly know where to turn.
We thank you today, God, for those insightful friends who have a way of coming just at the right moment like Onesiphorus came for Paul and just loving us and standing along side us. They make the difference.
Lord, we want to be like that... We want to let you use us to make a profound difference in the life of other people. Would you send us somebody today that we might encourage them, that we might love them with the very love of Jesus Christ. We know that as we do our own souls will be enriched and we will be blessed.
Amen.