Thursday, April 7, 2011

Promises We Just Don't Keep

There are many promises I make that I don't keep.  Most of them are promises that I make to myself.  Like my current promise I'm avoiding: get the laundry done today.

There are promises I make to my husband, too, that I shirk around doing, like putting away the pack-n-play that is still folded up on the floor in our bedroom (and has been there since Friday).

However, there is one kind of promise that I make that I always keep.  It's the promise to pray for people.  So often when I'm at the computer I read blogs or Facebook updates of people who need prayer.  If I respond to them saying that I will pray for them I do it immediately.  Right there in that very moment I take time out to pray.  I think it's incredibly important to honor that promise.

I know when I ask people to pray it's because I truly have a need that I want lifted before God, and I love to know that I have friends and family who are lifting that need up with me.  I can't imagine having someone promise me that they will pray and then not doing so, especially when the request is for my children!

Don't get me wrong, I understand completely about forgetfulness.  I am a mom, I also experience mommy brain.  When this happens, or when someone gives me a request that I want to truly spend lots of time in prayer about, I take my sister's advice and write their request down on a sheet of paper (along with other prayer requests).  That way, when it comes time to sit down in my quiet time with God, I have those prayer requests ready and will really spend time lifting them up.

If I have promised to pray for you, I guarantee you that prayer was lifted up.  If you came to my mind again, that prayer was lifted up again.  As often as I think about you, I pray for you.  I really am a believer in the fact that God brings people to your mind because He wants you to pray for them.

Last Friday I called my mom because she had been on my heart and my mind all day.  I had been praying for her and wanted to check in with her to see how everything was going.  The ironic thing about that is that I had also been on her heart all day, and she had been praying for me, too!  I was feeling stressed out about a big event we were hosting at our home that evening and I guarantee that her prayers helped to bring me down to earth again.  She had had a rough day at work that morning, so I'm certain that my prayers helped to bring her peace.

Prayer is a very powerful thing.  So powerful that it's something I don't ever want to forget to do.

So I'm wondering, if you are promising to pray for others, do you do it immediately?  If not, how do you remember those prayer requests?

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