Sunday, September 16, 2012

I'll Pray For You

(NOTE:  This isn't meant to offend, just a thought that came up recently)

A couple of days ago, I was up late cruising around on Facebook.   With some 700+ friends on Facebook, there's a lot of noise on my Facebook newsfeed.  Some of the posts are interesting and some of the posts are not.  This night, I saw something that caught my attention.

A person had posted that they had some issues they had been dealing with.  Without disclosing all the details, this person indicated they were doing to tackle the issues on their own.  I know this person but not particularly well so I was a little concerned when I saw this.   I immediately responded and asked if the person was ok. The person did not respond to my post (or others) that were there.

The next morning, after I had taken care of some morning business, I gave the person a call.  I think the person was surprised but we did talk for a while.  I got their perspective on what was going on, lent an ear and offered advice when needed.

One thing that I thought was interesting was that some others had offered encouragement but also said that "I'll pray for you".   I noted that whenever people have struggles and you're talking to someone of the Christian faith, most of the time, they will say "I'll pray for you".

I'm not questioning the sincerity of the statement.  The majority of people say it with the best of intentions.  They are asking God to provide you the means / resources / whatever is needed to work through the situation you are in.

I hope that people don't overuse this statement in place of providing some actual assistance.   For this particular person, I felt it was better to call them instead of just hoping they would answer my Facebook post.  I don't know if any others called this person besides offering encouragement on Facebook.  It seems an awfully passive way of doing things to just post on Facebook and say "I'll Pray For You".
 
God can and will provide for those in need but perhaps YOU are the person that God wants to provide the assistance!  Don't forget about that.

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