When you are floundering, the fundamentals are a good place for regrouping <3
It seems we are in yet another situation on our planet that is bigger than I have words to address.
As I was thinking and praying about what to even say in a Friday post that would bring you all encouragement, I was reminded rather strangely of one of Rachel’s coaches back in high school.
When the wheels had fallen off, so to speak, and his team was floundering with one error after another in a softball game; he would call one phrase from the sideline.
“Remember the fundamentals, girls. FUNDAMENTALS!”
It was a trigger for them to go back to the basics of solid play.
As they were fumbling the ball and getting flustered and upset with themselves and each other, the coach was reminding them to go back to the basic plan of knowing where you were going to throw the next ball you snagged…and to be proactive in being ready if you would be on the receiving end of a play you had practiced numerous times in preparation for the game.
So today, Christian friends, I cry out…remember the fundamentals of what to do when you are helpless to change a terrible situation.
Of course, we know we are to pray. That’s a fundamental for us.
But let me remind you of some other things:
<3 We have assurance that when we pray, God hears our prayers. We don’t have to be eloquent or understand all the background of a situation from all the political, economic and social implications. There are real people in danger and extreme upheaval and grief. So we lift them up and ask God for His prayers for them and we pray. Our prayers will do much more than our rhetoric and conversations with others.
<3 God works in answer to prayers. But perhaps not the way we think He should. Pray anyway. Yes, this is huge but the kingdom of this world is now the Kingdom of our God. We can pray for it to be on earth as it is heaven.
<3 God doesn’t ask us to carry anymore than we are able to carry. Each of us, if we enter our prayer closet and ask God what WE should pray for, will most likely pray for one thing while someone else will be praying for another. Don’t worry what someone else is posting or sharing about their prayer and try to take that on – seek God yourself and bring your burden for the people of the Ukraine, the people of Russia, leaders…whatever comes to mind and pray those thoughts as God leads you.
<3 Remember that it is easy to over exert our compassion in one area and forget the needs right around us, in areas where a few weeks or months ago we were as vocal about praying for a situation or group of people but then we moved on. There are still refugees from Afghanistan trying to make a way with little to nothing, people in our country who are daily suffering injustices, those whose towns were lost to tornadoes that are still trying to recover and that sweet stubborn child at your kitchen table who is rebelling but needs to do his math.
<3 Which leads me to remind you that we should well understand how the “pray without ceasing” thing is a necessity. There are now and always, many needs for God’s hand to be at work. As we pray, He will lead us to what we can do physically and where we have to release spiritually the burdens of our own hearts and others.
So yes – pray.
But look at Scripture and what God says about how we pray to remember the fundamentals.
Perhaps as you who are local have been watching the news and praying, you have thought about our dear Helen and that the Ukraine was her birth country. I checked with her daughter today about family that may still be there and she said they do have family but have not heard from them in recent years. We both agreed that we are thankful Helen is not here to see the devastation to the country she loved so much. I cannot help but weep for her and press in as I know she would be doing.
Blessings on you as you persevere in prayer. May God presence Himself with you as He guides you to pray and may you encounter His power for He promises the prayers of the righteous avail much <3