Day 97- A Government Prayer First

I was riding home from Wal-Mart (imagine that) today and thinking about a "first."  The one I had planned for today did not happen.  So, I was working on something different and I thought about the courthouse in Andalusia.  There has to be some stressful jobs in the courthouse. A sweet sister in Christ works in one of those offices.  For my "first" I parked in front of the courthouse and prayed for the people that worked in one of those offices and then went inside and told them I  had prayed for them, that Jesus loved them, and thanked them for their service.

I felt like this was something beneficial to do.  When I parked, I asked the Holy Spirit to guide me in praying for the people working in there.  It seemed that the Holy Spirit was directing me to pray for peace, a revelation of God's love, the Spirit to draw them into the embrace of Christ, and for some real encouragement (among other things).  Then, I went inside to tell them that I prayed for them, Jesus loved them, and I appreciated their service.  Admittedly, this felt a little goofy.  It is kind of an odd thing to do out of the blue (or out of the red, orange, or green). Maybe out of the blue since I had a blue shirt on.

Pray for people to come to the cross

Talk about ramping up the old prayer life

The people in the office were very sweet and appreciative. I even got a hug out of the deal. They said no one had ever done that before.  They receive more complaints than thanks, methinks. I got to thinking about this "first."   A lot of people spend a lot of time criticizing the government.  There is probably plenty there to criticize.  There is more about my life that could be criticized than I'm comfortable admitting.  Criticizing rarely, if ever, helps any situation.  We could pray more than we criticize and have a lot better chance of things improving.  I've heard many people complain about the government restricting our free exercise of religion. I've heard myself complain about that and that's a freedom we certainly need to stand up for and try our best to preserve.  The government has not restricted me from praying in most places. While I was parked in front of the courthouse praying, nobody tried to stop me. There may be no prayer before school for most students, but you can pray with your children before they go for as long as you want to (or they'll sit still for). We can teach our children and they can pray at school and even initiate prayer meetings at school. 

Things are bad in many situations.  Praying still beats complaining.  Praying is a lot better path to the abundant life than complaining or criticizing.

Praying for the abundant  life
Barry

3 things I thank God for today
1. Hard-working Christian government employees
2. An encouraging lunch with a guy that loves Jesus today
3. Privilege to pray