“Pray It Forward”

“A person whom one knows and with whom one has a bond of mutual affection”. That is one dictionary’s definition of the word friend. The wording may differ, depending on where you look the it up, but the concept does not change. Bond. Mutual affection. Another one says, “a person who has a strong liking for and trust in another person”. The idea behind any of the definitions is all the same.

We all have our own idea or definition of what a friend is. Friends help us in bad times. They won’t leave us when times get tough. They won’t give up on us when we are stubborn or hard to get along with. They lift us up when times are rough. Friends pray for each other during these hard times. I remember when our oldest son was sick. We saw what true friendship was all about. We were so fortunate to have the people we had in our lives at that time. That’s what friends are for. I promise that every single one of us on this planet at some point has had someone pray for us. Every. Single. One. As Christians, we should pay those gestures of friendship forward as it says to in Galatians 6:2, especially prayer.

Friends also celebrate with us in the good times. Friends are truly happy for us and rejoice with us when good things happen in our life. They aren’t jealous of us. They don’t wish the blessings were theirs and not ours. They are truly happy for us. Once again, we should pay that forward too.

Family is important. Family can be all of this for us, and should be. But this post is not about family, not blood family anyway. That is another post for another day. Never underestimate the importance and worth of a good friend. There is something about a friend, a true friend, that is irreplaceable. Maybe it is because they are not directly involved in our situations like family might be. Maybe it is that they offer a fresh perspective on things. I don’t know. But I do know that they are invaluable to our personal well-being.

Right now everyone reading this is probably thinking of someone, or multiple people in our lives that fit these categories described above. We all have these friends in our lives. Hopefully we are those friends for someone else in their life as well.

My grandpa loved to sing at church, and sing loud. He sang every song every Sunday. On key or off key, he went hard. That is one of my favorite parts of the service too. I may not have the best voice, but I’m gonna belt it out each week (sorry to those that sit around me if you are reading this). Grandpa had a favorite song. As I have thought about him a lot the last few weeks, this song kept coming into my head. It kept coming back to me over and over. I caught myself this week singing this song in the truck or when I was by myself. Sometimes God has a way of nudging us to communicate these things to others. Maybe this is for someone in particular this week. I don’t know who needs to hear this. Sometimes you just feel led to do something and you are not sure why. But it is our job as Christians to follow that nudge. Grandpa’s favorite song was, “What A Friend We Have In Jesus”. The lyrics are:

What a friend we have in Jesus,
All our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry
Everything to God in prayer!
Oh, what peace we often forfeit,
Oh, what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry
Everything to God in prayer!

Have we trials and temptations?
Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged—
Take it to the Lord in prayer.
Can we find a friend so faithful,
Who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our every weakness;
Take it to the Lord in prayer.

Are we weak and heavy-laden,
Cumbered with a load of care?
Precious Savior, still our refuge—
Take it to the Lord in prayer.
Do thy friends despise, forsake thee?
Take it to the Lord in prayer!
In His arms He’ll take and shield thee,
Thou wilt find a solace there.

Sources:

Faith Publishing House, Evening Light Songs, 1949, edited 1987 (179)

The Rodeheaver Hall-Mack Company, Quartets for Men, 1926 (140)

The Gospel Trumpet Company, Select Hymns, 1911 (323)

How about that for comfort? All the things I described at the beginning of this post about what a friend is and does are so true of Jesus. He rejoices with us in the good times and He picks us up when we need Him to. He tells us to bring Him our troubles and He will take care of us. We should strive to be that for others as well.

I hear people say all the time, “Well, all I can do is pray” like they feel like they aren’t doing much. Maybe that is the only thing we can do for someone else at that time, but that is also the best thing we can do. The absolute best. There is nothing more powerful we can do for someone than pray. We can take them food. We can drive them somewhere when they are unable to drive themselves. We can watch their kids for them. The list of great things we could do for them could go on and on. But, the absolute most important thing we can do for anyone is pray for them! It’s powerful, folks!

We all need prayers. I do. You do. Everyone does. But we have a few families in our lives and our community right now that have recently gotten tough news. They are going through difficult battles right now. They have been on my mind and heart lately. They are facing those battles head on with courage and they are not backing down. I hope they will find peace and comfort in knowing the friend that they have in Jesus. I also hope that we as their Christian friends will read the words in that song again and PRAY it forward!!!

Have a great week and God Bless!

#LoveGodLovePeople