Thankful Thursday

Do you ever tell someone that you will pray for them, with all the best intentions and desires to do it more than once, but simply forget to do so?  I do that a lot and I hate it. My heart is to want to pray, knowing that only God is able to help.  Well this past weekend at the BSF retreat I learned something new to help me pray better.  For the first time, the retreat included break out sessions on Saturday afternoon.  We could choose two to attend.  One of my choices was the workshop entitled Urgent Prayer Care.  It was excellent and I am so thankful for this simple little idea that has stuck in my brain and I am actually using it.

The idea was to encourage us to be like “first responders” in an emergency situation.   When a person is brought into the ER the first responders have a quick A-B-C checklist they use to evaluate their condition.  A= Check the airway, B= Breathing, and C= Circulation.  When someone comes to us in a crisis situation, the same evaluation can be done spiritually. We can be first responders in prayer. A= Address the Situation, B=Bring God In, and C=Communicate Hope.

This takes just minutes to do because you are praying with someone in an emergency. Quickly, you simply state the situation (addressing the situation), pray one of God’s attributes or His character (bringing God in), then pray one of His promises in scripture (communicating the hope).  I have  been using the idea to pray for a person as they cross my mind throughout the day or when one of my kids has asked for prayer about something.  Just last night I awoke with thoughts flooding my mind about a situation and it was so helpful to switch those thoughts into the A, B, C prayer.  Give it a try. You might just find you are “praying without ceasing” as we are commanded to do!