Humility in Prayer
I’ve said to a few people this summer that the thing God has been teaching me about most this summer is prayer. I was reflecting on something that was said in a sermon I heard on Sunday about prayer. The speaker was the Children’s Pastor at the church. She was speaking about a time earlier this year when she was struggling in her life. She decided to tell Sunday School class about it and ask all of them to pray for her. This really struck me as when I think of asking people to pray for me I often think of my close friends or people who are older or wiser than me. Asking your Sunday School class to pray for you is like admitting weakness is it not?
The more I reflect on it the more I wish all Sunday School teachers were like this one. When I was young I always saw my Sunday School teachers as knowing everything about God, not having any problems with anything. In some ways they were unreal, although I guess what I saw wasn’t the full picture of them. It then comes as a shock when somebody you’ve put on a spiritual pedestal has weaknesses in their personal and spiritual life too. But that’s what life’s all about.
Everyone’s going to have problems of some sort or another at some stage or another but it’s about what we do with that. This women did a great thing by facing up to her problems and humbly asking others to pray for her, admitting that she couldn’t do it all on her own, she needed God’s help and the help of praying friends. I’m sure the kids in her Sunday School class really appreciated that lesson.
Remember when Paul ask Christ to remove the thorn in his flesh, Christ said “My strength is made perfect in weakness” (II Cor 12:9)
