Hosanna Restoration Church

It struck me as I read this that I need to pay closer attention to what I do when it comes to all people. Is my first thought to pray? Just this week my daughter and I were driving down the highway and we came to a junction where traffic was turning in front of us. There was a pickup with a long horse trailer behind it in the turn lane. I watched and at first it looked like they were going to wait, then to my amazement they turned right in front of us. Fortunately, God had me watching them so I was able to slow down and avoid the accident. My first words were, “are you kidding, tell they are not really going to do that.” As I said it, I gave them a horn honk so they would at least realize that they were blessed not to be in accident. Then I said “God bless them and get them safely home.” Hard to tell if that prayer was sincere or sarcastic, I am just being honest. It did turn out to be a good lesson in defensive driving for my daughter, so that was a plus.

We all have things like that come up in our lives and I really do believe that the Lord expects us to pray for everyone who crosses our path, even if their timing is bad. After all, Jesus lives forever to intercede for all of us, so I guess we should do our part. Just imagine how many things that we wish we had not said would have been avoided if we were prone to pray first. The prayers do not have to be some great theological thing in order to be effective. We are simply urged to pray first.

Paul went on to suggest what we should pray. He said we should plead for God’s mercy upon them and give thanks. So that is not so hard is it? We should very happy to ask for God to have mercy on all people. After all, He had mercy on us. In fact, He had mercy on all of us long before we came to know Him. I find it interesting, that Christians are often the last to actually show mercy. Often times the tendency is to judge people who are not so wise as we are! Then if someone suggests mercy, we quickly get pious and agree that yes of course the poor souls just don’t know any better. We forget that we were pretty clueless before we came to know the Lord, and in fact, we act pretty clueless even yet at times. And probably more often than we care to admit, I might add.

Notice that we are instructed to ask for mercy and to give thanks. That speaks to me that I need to be sincere in our request for mercy for others. Be honest, you have been pretty amazed at the mercy that God has shown to people when you really did not think they deserved it. I have heard many people say things to the effect that they could not believe that God let someone get away with what they were doing. Folks, God is patient and His mercy goes on and on. He said on more than one occasion that He wants us to be merciful. He even made it a point to say that the merciful will receive mercy. Believe me, we need mercy! If we don’t think we do, then we are really deceived. So let’s all work at praying first and truly desiring God’s mercy for all people. Of course, it will be easier to ask mercy for some than others, but with practice we can do it for all people.