First
off, let me begin by stating that what I am about to say is alsohttps://www.blogger.com/null
aimed at myself, along with the rest of the body of Christ. I, like every
single believer, needs to really, really examine themselves to make sure that
they are still in the faith. 2
Corinthians 13:5
So,
around 5 o’clock this morning, The Holy Spirit beckoned me to the throne of
grace to pray. Now, I love to pray, I really do. I do it all the time, in fact.
I pray daily because the Word tells us to
Ephesians 6:18, and, I find that when I don’t, I become a mean little…
Grinch? Yeah, I will use that word, Grinch. I find that when I do not press
into the presence of God daily, throughout that day, I act extremely Grinchy.
Now,
before you nominate me for sainthood, you should inquire about the content of
my prayers. That information is very vital to the rest of this piece. The
content of my prayers are less centered around what the bible says to pray
about, and more around… well, me. I pray for myself, I pray for my family, I
pray for my daily needs, I pray for my friends, I pray for my wants, I pray for
my Pastor, I pray for my bills to be paid, I pray for my Sorority, I pray for
what Myself will eat; you see the trend here? I am, like many American
believers, very concerned about MY wellbeing, MY family, MY friends. I am very
concerned with MYself. So, when God woke me up to pray at 5:00 AM, I went
down my check list of things to pray for and wondered why God woke me up an
hour and a half before I needed to be awake. I was concerned about MY lack of
sleep for MY job that day. Silly willy Candice.
While
at work, I was listening to my Jonathan McReynolds Pandora station, and like
always, it was bomb. However, I began to notice a trend with the songs that
were playing. They were playing songs about praying. Like, I am so serious.
Nearly every song that played, was a song about praying. But not just regular,
Candice type praying, no, but interceding.
DEFINTION BREAK: For those who
don’t know the correct definition of interceding, please allow me to enlighten
you. To intercede means to act or interpose in behalf of someone in difficulty
or trouble, as by pleading or petition. I got this definition straight from
dictionary.com.
I
mean left and right, songs about intercession. William Murphy’s song called “I
Prayed for You” , Yolanda Adams “Be Blessed” (which talks about praying for
another person to be blessed). But, the song that really spoke to me was not
really a song at all, but a plead from William McDowell. It was the Interlude
to his song “Intercession”, and boy did it
speak to me. In it, he is pleading with believers to set aside ourselves and to
pray for the nations. He mentions how it takes faith not worry about our needs,
but the needs of others. Faith, the kind that the Lilies of the field have that
allows them to neither toil nor spin over what they will wear, and yet are
dressed better than Solomon. Matthew
6:28-34
That
is so real, beloved. SO super real. We as believers know that God is everything
we need. In many passages of scripture He implores us not to worry, that we
will be just fine. I know I am not very old, I am actually very young, but I
have been walking with The Lord for quite some time, and I have yet to go
hungry, yet to not have any clothes on my back, and yet to not have a place to
lay my head. God has taken care of me, before I even knew to ask Him to! So why
beloved, why, do we stress out, and worry about those things? Why?
With
all that poverty that was around me growing up, I still ate, even if it was
peas that my granddad grew and deer that he shot. I was still able to have a
place to lay my head, even though we did move around a lot when I was little
and lived in government housing some of my life. I still had clothes. I was
still well taken care of. In Psalms 37 verse 25, the Palmist declares this “ I was young and now I am old, yet I have
never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread”. God is
faithful to His word, yall. We don’t know how we made it but bless God that we
did. That is exactly what I am talking about. God has NEVER forsaken us, and HE
NEVER will. Hebrews 13:5
So,
if we know these things, why do we continue to stress out about the past due
light bill, or the late rent, and continue to harp God about the things He has
already promised us, when there are people literally dying and going to HELL
every day? When there are people who have yet to be touched by the Love of the
Gospel? When there are people who fail to realize the return of Christ?
Priorities beloved, priorities. What are we really spending our time praying
about?
Now,
am I saying that we are not supposed to pray for the things we need? No, I'm
not saying that. But what I am saying is this: examine what it is you are spending your time praying on, and line it up with the Word of God. I mean
if you are going to pester God about something, pester Him about the condition
of the sinner’s soul, not your car note, or the delay in your “prince charming”
( If you cant say amen, ouch will be accepted).
God calls us to be ambassadors
for Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:20 He calls us to stand in the gap, to make a plea
on His behalf! Are we really standing? Are we really doing what God has
for us to do? Are we praying for others? Are we implementing the same mind that
Christ had in ourselves? Philippians 2:5
So, I’m not really sure about you, but I would like to have
the type of faith to pray for someone else, instead of myself. I would
like to do what God actually called me to do, and that is to stand in the gap
and intercede for others! I want to be that light that Christ talks about in Matthew 5:14-16. Beloved, I make my
appeal to you, as the body of Christ, lets stand and do what He actually has us
here to do. Intercede yall, intercede.
Peace,
Love, and Joy
Candice Marie McGruder
-An Humble Servant of Christ
