When you pray for something or someone, by default, you think about them. When you think about them, you find yourself wondering things. What do they need? What do they want? What scares them? What makes them angry? What do they hope for? It’s then that you begin to see them in a different light. You come to understand their motivations in a new way.
Maybe your boss is short with you. Rather than fire back a terse response, try saying a quick prayer: “Lord, bring peace to this person.” When you take a moment to change the dynamic through prayer, your response changes. Empathy opens hearts. Who knows, maybe you’ll find out later that she was short, not because she’s mean or wants to make your life miserable, but because her kids were up sick all night and she got no sleep. It’s like the old saying, “never judge anyone before you’ve walked a mile in their shoes.”
This message is excerpted from “Pray for spiders” by Susan Sparks in the July/August 2018 Gather magazine.
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