Praying for Yourself

We talk all the time about the power of prayer.  Every week we have a time in church where we take prayer requests.  Now, when we’re doing livestreamed services, it’s harder to do that.  But still, if someone contacts us with a prayer concern, we’re happy to include that.  And of course, if someone does not want they’re prayer concern made public, but still would like us to pray, we’re certainly willing to do that as well.

We pray for a lot of things.  We pray for others--for their health, for God’s protection, for many other things.  We pray for certain situations--many right now are praying for an end to the coronavirus.  We pray for our churches, which is especially important now when most churches don’t have in-person worship.  

But here’s something you may not have thought about.  How often do you pray for yourself?

Maybe that sounds a little odd.  But when you think about it, why should we not pray for ourselves?  I don’t mean that in a selfish way.  I’m not saying we should pray to get rich or anything like that.  But you know, we’re dealing with a difficult situation right now.  It’s hard on everyone.  I can tell, when I read the things posted on facebook, that a lot of people feel stressed out sometimes.  Not all the time--in fact, I think most people I’ve talked to are handling things very well, when you consider everything we’re going through.  But everyone has days where it just, well, it just starts to get to you.  You’re just tired of it.  If we knew a date when it would all be over, we could handle it a lot better.  But we don’t know that date, and we cannot know that date.  No one can tell it to us, because no one knows.  And it’s stressful.

God knows that.  And God wants to help you.  So, pray for yourself.  Pray that God will watch over you.  Not just in your physical health, although it’s certainly good to pray for that.  But also pray that God will watch over your mental health, your emotional health, and your spiritual health.  Pray that God will help you stay on an even keel and deal with all the things you have to deal with.

But if you have trouble staying on an even keel, don’t beat yourself up for that.  If you’re having a down day, let yourself have it.  Go ahead and be down for a while.  Let yourself feel what you feel.  Feel it for a while, and then ask God to help you let go of it.  Give yourself a break, but then ask God to help you get back into the game.

I talk a lot about how we need to be there for each other and take care of each other.  But we cannot take care of someone else if we don’t also take care of ourselves.  So take care of yourself.  Eat right.  Exercise.  Get your rest.  And ask God to help you get through this.  God will be there for you.  

And we are here for you, too.  If there’s anything we can do, or if you’d like someone to talk to, please feel free to contact us.  If you’d like us to pray for you, we’ll be happy to do that--we pray for all of our congregations every day.

Things will work out.  God is still in control.  God will take care of things in God’s way and at God’s time, and I’m confident that way will be one that brings glory and honor to God.  So hang in there and know that God is with you.