Get up!

I am grateful that I was raised by the kind of parents that I was. My mom is the type of person that will look at her child who is lying across the couch crying and say, "You know what? It's not all about you. Get up, get to work and start thinking about somebody besides yourself." Now, my mom is not stern or unfeeling. She just has a keen ability to sense selfishness and not put up with sin that she sees in her child's life.

Well, I haven't recently laid across the couch and had a fit. Nor have I recently heard my mom's prodding words. But somehow that concept that was impressed on me as a child still remains deep in my thoughts and at the center of my conscience.

Wednesday night I was praying and basically having a fit. I prayed in frustration and muttered, "That's it God. I'm done trying. This is hopeless. I'm done." I knew that my decision was dead wrong but I was determined to do it my way. It was senseless to pray to my Lord because I was being a fool by saying, “No God.” The Monday prior to this I had been asked to share a devotional about being a pray warrior in our family and church at a girl's retreat. Don't you just love when you prepare to share something with others? For me it always means a process of conviction and repentance. I started thinking about my own prayer life and I was immediately convicted. Sure, I can talk to the Lord throughout the day about my struggles, fears, temptations, etc. Really, how easy is that? Your struggles, fears and temptation are usually at the front of your thoughts naturally. But praying for others is the self-sacrificing prayer. It means that you have to think about your church family and your unsaved family members and your national leaders that often frustrated you. It doesn't "relieve" you or give you sense of direction for your own day. No, for once it's not all about you. It's about others in the body of Christ and those who are still outside, and sadly on their way to hell.

Somehow all my hopeless and frustrating problems faded into the back ground. I began to think about my friend who has a difficult family life, my other friend who has incredible pressure and responsibility on her shoulders, my cousin who is unsaved and my grandparents who have no direction or joy in their life because they don't know Christ. What of our nation has a whole? Now it rips me apart to see a young boy trotting through the store, trying to keep up with his dad who clearly views having his child with him as a bothersome activity.

By the way, I am not trying to indicate that it is wrong to pray openly and honestly to the Lord and tell Him about your struggles! What kind of a relationship can you build with God if you don’t talk to Him about life and the decisions that you are facing? How can you receive direction in your life from Him unless you implore Him and His Word? Yet, my purpose is to point out that often we get so overwhelmed by our problems that we are not obeying the instructions in Scripture to support our fellow believers in prayer. What must it look like to God when I ask Him for direction and yet do not heed the instruction that He has already clearly given me in His Word?

So enough of this pitty party! I do not have the liberty to sulk or give up. People are going to hell, Christians need to be supported in prayer, believers are being persecuted, and our nation is going down the drain! I shouldn't have time to think so much about my puny problems. God is sovereign. All that I need to do is obey His voice and then get to work supporting and praying for others.

I can almost hear my mom's voice saying, "You know what? It's not all about you! Now get up, get to work and think of somebody besides yourself!" Ah, sound advice!