Stop. It's Time to Pray

Romans 8: 26 “And in the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words” NASB

A couple of Sundays ago Ashley, our Director of Children’s Ministries, spoke to the children that had gathered on the chancel stairs. I had a pretty good view from stage left of the chancel as I prepared to follow the children’s time with the prayer of confession. It is Operation Christmas Child time so the church family is busily gathering supplies and gifts to pack what we hope will be well over three hundred boxes for needy children throughout the world. Ashley shared how at the Samaritan’s Purse packing stations while the workers are preparing all of the collected boxes to be shipped to over a hundred countries a voice comes over the loud speaker system saying “Stop. It’s time to pray.” Everyone stops whatever they are doing and prays over the boxes, blessing them with the Spirit, and praying for the recipient to know Christ through the gift and the givers.

That phrase has stuck with me and is my nugget from the service. It has become a touchstone over the last couple of weeks. With my mother-in-law suffering a debilitating stroke and a few days later my sister-in-law was in a freak accident in which suffered a broken pelvis I have much to be in prayer and intercession for with these two who are so near to my heart in such deep need. At work, during my walks, working at home, and even while vegetating in front of the TV the phrase resonates in my mind and I have to quiet myself in some way and pray. Even while gathered with the family in the hospital room with my mother-in-law, one not fully aware while we carry on conversations of every kind, the reverb comes to me, “Stop. It’s time to pray”. And so I do stop and touch each one with a feather of prayer to aid in our vigil; we pray and hope, wait and see.

I found it interesting that in a place with people gathered in an activity inherently good and with a Christly objective that we are also in need of reminders to stop and pray. I think it is another instance of Martha versus Mary, Mary stopped, prayed, and paid attention to the best thing while Martha needed to be reminded to stop her good work and heed to the groaning of the Spirit. We need to be reminded from time to time to give voice to the groanings within us; pause a bit in our labors, in our joys, and in our sorrows, to acknowledge the Spirit within us that intercedes on our behalf.

Of all of the things I have to be thankful for, a list that I cannot do justice to or am deserving of, I am at this moment extremely thankful for the nugget that I picked up, the echo of hope that invades my conscious thought to give me an opportunity to thank God for that list and pray for those that the Spirit has placed on my heart.

Yes, one would be you.

In His grip, jerry