A Challenge

I was recently visiting with a lady who had just gone through a very ugly divorce after discovering that her husband had repeatedly committed adultery with numerous women. I wasn’t in the happiest or most content of places when she asked me to pray for her and though I wasn’t too enthusiastic, she insisted so I prayed—and in a way only He can do—the Lord chose to speak through me.

“I believe the Lord is saying that He wants you to pray for your husband. You know him better than anyone and you know how far he has fallen away from the Lord. You are also deeply wounded by him, and by praying for him, forgiving him and blessing him, you’ll receive your healing and the Lord will use your prayers to bring him healing and recovery also.”

A friend with whom I was praying for the lady later told me that the prayer was straight from God (though I sure didn’t feel much when praying!). My friend said there was someone in her life about whom she could utter not one positive word—so she decided to act on what I’d said to the lady for whom we were praying. As she spoke, I quickly realized that there were people in my life with whom I was mentally wrestling pretty helplessly. And rather than praying for them, I was complaining to God and others about them—a lot!

I told my friend that perhaps I should heed my own words. She repeated that these weren’t my words, but from the Lord. (She was very kind to not point out that I, indeed, needed to pray for those with whom I was struggling!)

So in the morning for the past couple of weeks, I’ve begun to pray for them—blessings, not complaints. I try to pray according to what I know their struggles to be, in an opposite kind of way.

For example, if I’m struggling with someone who consistently ignores me, I ask God why she does that and pray from that place. I almost always discover something about the pray-ee: that she/he is hurting, feels rejected, or is insecure, perhaps. Then I can pray for her/him to feel loved, accepted and confident of whom she/he is in Christ. If I don’t hear anything from the Lord, there’s one sure-fire, no-holds-barred way to pray: “Lord, please help them to know how high, wide, deep and long Your love is.” (Eph 3:16-18)

You know what? Since beginning to do this, I actually feel better about the people and the situations. I’m no longer struggling whenever someone mentions them and feel positive when I think of them. Yay, God! Isn’t He amazing??

So here’s the dare, dear reader: Begin today to pray for the one who challenges you the most, be it your spouse, child, the president, friend, boss, co-leader, etc. Pray every day for a week and see what happens. And if you’d be so kind, I’d love to hear the results; please feel free to post a comment!