When You Don’t Know What to Do…

When you don’t know what to do I always say pray. Pray for guidance and the release of those that want to be just outright stumbling blocks in your life. Well, if it’s about me, I say pray after I cuss, biatchandmoan, and generally want to run down the street screaming more obscenities than my cussing vocabulary contains. Then I say pray. However, if it is about someone else, I listen and then I say pray. Why? Because the truth is simply that prayer works.

I am not of simple mind or character and I realize that telling someone to pray can seem like fluff or a way to pretend empathy because you really don’t care what they are going through. But no matter how someone means it when they say it to you, just know that it is sound advice. It is the kind of advice we should take even when we don’t want to.

Admittedly praying may seem like wasted time – at times, but to me it is a way of getting into a space where you humble yourself and pour out your heart to God. I know when I haven’t truly prayed about an issue because I will still harbor resentment and the least little thing can set me off. But when I feel peace from within my center then I know I have rendered unto God my issues for I know He can take care of it.

Now, since I am not of simple mind, I must tell you that I do not believe that God always answers our prayers by dropping a boulder on someone or pushing them into ongoing traffic just to remove them from our lives. I believe while He sometimes removes the obstacles out of our path, He also gives us a new attitude toward a certain situation allowing us to see the issues through a different vision.
What I have learned about prayer over the years isn’t an awful lot but it is quite enlightening. First, I never ever pray for patience. That prayer has brought forth so many lessons and while learning is great, a lesson in patience should not have to be repeated too often. Second, I have learned to be very cognizant of what I pray for. Sometimes I ask for stuff and don’t need it so I don’t always recognize it when I get it. Or, it isn’t what I really wanted so I want God to take it back and allow me a “do-over”.

Third and close to last, I don’t pray for harm to come to others. It is easier to ask God to release them to their own good. For if you know like I know, when you mess up it comes back to you. The Bible does say you reap what you sow (Galatians 6:7; 2 Corinthians 9:6; and, Hosea 10:13 – all say it in some form or fashion). So don’t go wishing bad things on other people. Wish them well and do it from your prayerful heart and not that pissed off heart that makes you want to scream or run down the street buttanaked.

When you don’t know what to do, pray. When you don’t know where to go, pray. And when you don’t know where to turn…PRAY. – That’s it, that’s all.