Did You Pray About It

The pressure was on some months ago while I was faced with situations that had me stressed, frustrated, discouraged, anxious, and disappointed. The pressure was so thick it was affecting me physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. I was totally drained! Never in my life have I experienced anything like it before. It seem like crying was a daily occurrence to the point my wife and family were really worried for me and my well-being.

During this time, two of the most precious people within our church were dying together, husband and wife. Never seen nothing like it before in my life. And then, family members died. In all within a 3 month time period, 6 people passed away. Never seen nothing like it before. During the funeral of one of my members, I tried to keep it together but when I stood to preach my last sermon for the member who passed and members of the church, I completely lost it. Weeping uncontrollably! Thank God for sustaining grace which allowed me to pull it together and complete my assignment.

During these most difficult months I was asked on several occasions….

Did you pray about it?

When asked the question, I was spending a tremendous amount of time praying about all the situations I was facing. My prayers were not long but quick and short prayers:

“Lord, protect my heart, mind, and ego!”
“Lord, give me peace about the situation!”
“Lord, help me to understand what’s going on!”
“Lord, search my heart!”
“Lord, protect my wife and teenage children through this process!”
“Lord, protect me from the wolves. Those who are only looking for a reason to gossip about my situation rather help me navigate through the situation!”
“Lord, let me not loose my love for ministry and preaching!”
“Lord, restore the joy of my salvation!”
“Lord, forgive me for past mistakes!”
“Lord, hold my wife together as my help mate but now let me help her!”

I’ll be the first to admit that my prayers were short and quick because I found it extremely hard to pray during a time when I was experiencing extreme loss everywhere imaginable.

Did you pray about it? And the follow up question was….

What was God saying?

If I can be extremely candid and honest, I prayed but had no clue what God was saying at the time. The pressure was so thick that it placed a dark could over my faith which had me doubting if this is all worth it. I was doing everything I could to make sense of all that was going on but was becoming more and more confused, irritated, stressed, and frustrated. I tried using church clichés to encourage myself but that wasn’t working. I tried to sing some of favorite hymns and that wasn’t working. I ran out of options and yet the question(s) still remained...

Did you pray about it? What is God saying?

Did I pray about it? Yes, I did! What is God saying? Honestly, I don’t/didn’t know!

It’s been a few months and while things are still somewhat fresh God has been showing me some things that I believe is helping me to keep moving forward with Him and not give up.

First lesson, back off from the situation. The pressure got so thick that I made a decision to take my hands off and let God deal with it. This was not an easy thing to do. I’ve learned that there are times when there’s nothing more you can do about it. I went into a shell mode so to speak where I didn’t talk about the situation (as best I could). I stop taking some phone calls. And, I even backed off by taking a few Sundays off to spend with the family. I’ve found that by backing off, it afforded me the opportunity to clear my head from all that was taken place and see it from a different perspective.

Second lesson, pray anyway. It’s said that the best time to pray is when you find it hard to pray. That’s true! I know I didn’t loose it totally because I kept praying even when I thought it was useless. In John 11 Mary and Martha went to Jesus about Lazarus but He stayed where He was and didn’t run to raise Lazarus immediately. Paul prayed in 2 Corinthians 12 asking God to remove the thorn in his side but God said “NO!” I’m learning that God’s no really means a slow yes. He’ll show up when the time is right. But in the meantime He will keep you covered with His strength. And trust me, I know He will.

Third lesson, be quiet. Let me say it this way, keep your mouth shut. Sometimes I believe we talk ourselves out of our own blessing simply because we don’t know how to be quiet. I made a selective choice as to whom I spoke to about what I was going through. And with others I developed a generic one sentence answer where a follow up response couldn’t take place. I shot it down before it got started.

Fourth lesson, don’t spiritualize everything. This particular lesson may sound blasphemous to many of you reading this blog. But hear me out first before closing your ears. There some decisions we will make that are business transactions for which we can’t spiritualize. Having to close a business, sale a home, change stock, laid off a job, etc are all business transactions while living in an economic downturn. However, the decision is business not spiritual but how you handle the decision then becomes spiritual. Therefore, your prayer then becomes…”Lord, guard my heart and ego!” “Lord, give me peace about this decision!”

When the pressure is on it makes praying and hearing God’s voice difficult. But whatever the dilemma, distress, and/or difficulty you’re facing don’t stop praying.