I’ve said a hundred times. “Sometimes, the only way God can get our attention to pray for someone is by allowing them to annoy us.”
I wish I could
get the message another way, cause honestly, sometimes these situations make us
want to run for the hills.
It’s easy for me
to say pray for those who irritate us, but harder for me to live it out. Recently it was about 4:00 in the morning, when the
Lord reminded me of my own words.
Convicted—I
prayed.
It's through
prayer that we began to get the heart of God for that person from whom we want
to flee. If we get on our knees, we’ll often glimpse the brokenness inside the
spiky exterior.
I remember a
situation where I was frequently around a prickly person in a social setting. I
found myself looking for ways to avoid them because of what I considered
obnoxious behavior. I’d veer off to sit as far away from that individual as
possible.
The Lord reminded
me he was calling me to pray and to reach out. Reluctantly, I did. I never dreamed that just ahead would be a
tragic circumstance, in which God would allow me to minister to that very one.
We can’t figure
these things out because only God sees what’s at stake. And it is not all about the other person. God wants to use these situations in our lives to mold and shape us, as well.
In recent
history, so much has happened, that it seems almost everyone is prickly in some
way. It reminds me of the first time I ever went to one of my doctors. The
nurse handed me a questionnaire to assess my health by asking questions about
my life. You know the drill. Every doc has them. On this form, one of the
questions was “Do you have stress in your life?” I laughed and wrote “Does
anyone ever answer no to this question?” I put a smiley face in the margin
confident all health care professionals enjoy getting little cartoons and smart
remarks on their forms.
Having never met
me before, the doc walked in the room looking at the questionnaire and laughing. She said, “Only those that are
in really bad shape.”
It’s probably a
good idea to confess our own irritating behaviors and pray about our
prickliness, too.
I’m inserting a
little caveat that there are relationships that turn toxic in a way that
is unhealthy to remain in them. This is not what I’m talking about here.
Jesus said, “Here is a simple rule of thumb for behavior: Ask
yourself what you want people to do for you; then grab the initiative and do it
for them! If you only love the lovable, do you expect a pat on the
back?” (Luke 6:32 The Message)
Let’s call on the Lord to help us love those who are hard to
love and remember the lavishness of His gift of grace to us in Jesus.
Another post about prickles HERE.
Beverly Varnado is the author of several small town romances from Anaiah Press including her latest, A Season for Everything. All are available at Amazon. A memoir, Faith in the Fashion District, from Crosslink Publishing is available wherever books are sold. Also consider her other books, Give My Love to the Chestnut Trees and Home to Currahee.
To explore the web version of One Ringing Bell, please visit bev-oneringingbell.blogspot.com
Beverly Varnado copyright 2021