One thing
1 comment Mar 9, 2011 | Bald-Faced Thoughts
It can be pretty overwhelming at times to hear all of the struggles that people deal with. Oftentimes when I am counseling someone the list gets so long and so heavy that I have to stop the conversation. Grabbing pen and paper, I will start to write out all of the issues that the person is struggling with. It is pretty common to end up with a list of 10-15 things. Finances, marriage, kids, in-laws, work, sickness, fatigue, skeletons from the past, dead faith, and lack of direction seem to pop up on most lists.
I am always amazed at how beneficial this simple step is. Instead of ordering our thoughts and having some sort of plan of attack, most people try to juggle a hundred things at once until they crack up or have a heart attack. Sometimes just putting the things which are driving us nuts down on paper brings such relief because now our thoughts are organized and all in one place.
Because it is so important and connects us with God, I try to end every meeting and conversation with prayer. Often I will ask, “If you could pray for one thing what would it be?” This simple question often leads to profound prayers because it forces a person to read through the list of their challenges and decide which one they really want to talk to God about. Truth be told, many are so paralyzed by their problems and/or separated from God that a 15 point prayer is out of the question. But they can pray for one thing. Reconnecting with God through a simple prayer has a way of bringing hope to the darkest situations.
King David offered up a prayer like this in Psalm 27:4.
One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple.
While I am not at all minimizing the prayers of broken people, I am challenged by David’s one thing—his one request. He didn’t pray about money, family, relationships, conflict or work. Instead, his prayer was to live in the presence of the Lord and be consumed with the beauty of God.
I wonder how long our lists would be if the one thing we pursued was “to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord”?
You hit the nail on the head. It’s been a tough winter and our family has been hit with terminal illness as well as financial problems and at times I feel overwhelmed with all the problems my family is facing daily. Most of the time it is things that are out of our control, yet I take on the burden of trying to solve the problems of others in my family.
I have learned that I should continue to pray for God’s intervention and to trust Him that He is in power and will work out everything and to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord. Thank you for your thoughts.