When All You Can Do is Pray!

This has been a tough week since last Thursday for me. I have an abcessed tooth causing me great pain and making me feel sick and feverish. Then On Saturday I learned A brother in Christ passed away from cancer very suddenly. Yesterday I sat in the conference room at work and learned a friend and coworker drowned while on vacation last week. They were able to get his heart going but since then have found he has no brain function. His wife has the difficult decision to take him off life support after the family has had a chance to see him. I feel overwhelmed right now. I thought to myself that I cannot do anything but pray. Then I realized that once again I felt God reminding me that He has called us to do just that. We cannot change anything ourselves but through prayer and faith He can.

How many times have you felt like me this week? You feel weak and helpless when things happen. You want to be able to reach out to someone who is hurting and do something to make it better but there is only one problem. You can't! You can sympathize with the person hurting and in some cases you might even be able to empathize with them. What's the difference between sympathy and empathy? Simple! You can sympathize with another but you can only empathize with them when you yourself have been there where they are now. You know the pain and the hurt and all the emotions that go along with it. You have been in their shoes. But still you can do nothing to change what has occurred. We often say 'Look, all I can do is pray for you!". Prayer is the greatest thing any of us can do for someone else. Why? Because when we commit the situation into God's hands, He is the only one who can bring healing and comfort to the person facing the heartache and hurt. I love to hear some older folks say I may be too old to do anything else but I can still pray! God can and does bring beauty for ashes so why not let Him have control of everything we ever face?

when things happen to you or a close friend or loved one, remember that you really can't do much to change the situation but you can the best thing! You can pray and commit it to God! He still sits on the throne and He is still sovereign. Prayer isn't the only thing we can do, it is the greatest thing we can do for each other!