Wednesday, October 2, 2013
Expressions Of Caring
Often when I think of spiritual warfare images come to mind of clips from “The Exorcist” where the priest is shouting and throwing water on a little girl that spins her head and vomits something like pea soup. It is interesting to me how so many different things can turn out to be powerful enough to dislodge opportunities for the enemy of our souls to creep in and cause harm to us and our fellow believers. And nobody has to spin their head around. Take the other night for example.
My family and I went to a potluck – prayer meeting. My wife was running late getting home from work. On the way home she witnessed a motorcycle accident, and needless to say she was pretty shook up. She got ready and we took off, going to someone’s house for the first time instead of the church. Of course we came across yet another accident, had to detour and got a little lost, and then we were stopped by a train! When we finally arrived twelve minutes late, as we pulled up I received a call on my cell phone. It was someone from the meeting calling to see how soon we might arrive, because they were waiting to eat until we arrived. I remember how I felt as I hung up the phone – I couldn’t believe it. They had actually waited for us. Somehow it made me feel like my family and I really mattered. Even though all they did was wait twelve minutes, those twelve minutes bought a tremendous amount of space in our hearts that could have been filled with the sadness of lack of self worth. And all for just twelve minutes.
How many opportunities do we have each day to show some small amount of caring to others? Open a door. A smile, a nod, asking someone how their day is and waiting for the answer? They really don’t cost us anything but a little of our time and willingness to treat people with respect. And when we add prayers of preparation to this, we may just get the opportunity to move the enemy of out of some influence that he currently has in their lives. Seems worth it, right? Today, we might try saying a prayer or two about such opportunities, and then look for them to see who we might bless with a little kindness. Sounds like fun to me!
Prayer
Father, we praise You and thank You for giving us Your grace. We are very blessed that little things matter to You and You provide for those little things. We bless Your Holy Name. Please show us today some of these small opportunities to reach out to others. Please help us to remember in those moments that You are giving us the power to dislodge the enemy and bring a little peace and joy to that person. And please soften the hearts of those that You bring our way to receive it as a gift from You, even to the point that we might win them, that they might receive Your Son as their Messiah. In Yeshua’s (Jesus’) name. Amen.