Sunday, February 01, 2009

Prayer Request


A few weeks ago I posted about my Epiphany word for 2008 - Compassion. Since then I have noticed that word working its way into my life more so this year than last.

The ladies in my online Bible study group two Saturdays ago challenged and prayed for each other that we would step out of our comfort zone and respond to opportunities that God presents to us to show His love.

This past Saturday one of the group members mentioned that she was unaware of a need that she could have responded to, simply because the person in need did not make the need known to her. Now, I realize that God's plan could have been to fill the need in the way that it was filled, but her point was that we do not make our needs known to others who could at least be praying for us.

My pastor gave a sermon today on "Unquenchable Compassion." The words that stood out most to me in his message were "Everyone we come into contact with needs us to show compassion." (OK, maybe not his
exact words, but that's the note that I wrote down.)

I think that one of the most frustrating things for someone who is given a heart of compassion is to not know what another person's needs might be. Why do we assume that God will make us omniscient in that respect? One of the best ways to know of someone's needs is to simply ask the individual how we can be praying for him (or her). In many instances, there is nothing more compassionate or powerful that we can do for a fellow human being.

Which brings me to this:

How can I be specifically pray for you this day?

1 comment:

northwoodspaul said...

How easy it is to neglect to ask someone how we can pray for them. Sometimes I think we tell people who are having problems,that we are praying for them and then we either don't or we dont pray effectively because we haven't sought a specific path to pray. Thanks for that reminder. How can I pray for you?