Genesis 24:12 Then he prayed, "O Lord, God of my master Abraham, give me success today, and show kindness to my master Abraham."
There is so much here to think about. My first thought is how do we define success. Then, Abraham's servant was a man on a mission, but the mission was not to seek some blessing for himself. Certainly success in accomplishing his mission would be a blessing, but success here is the blessing for his master.
Then I think about praying for his master's good. How often do we think about praying for the good, the success of others? I have a group of people, family and friends and some colleagues, that I pray for regularly, but to pray that way - for the success of my master...not so much. I am challenged this morning to pray specifically for the success of those for whom I work here on this earth.
This passage provokes me also to think about our responsibility to not just pray for success for God's plan and others, but also to be a part of that success. What am I doing to help them glorify God, to achieve their goals and plans which will ultimately glorify God? I work for believers; I am indeed blessed.
But I think about my friends who do not; are they off the hook here? Their masters do not have the goal of glorifying God. Scripture does tell us to pray for all men, for Kings, and for all that are in authority, I Tim.2:1-3. Then in Ephesians 6:5-8, servants are told to obey and serve as to the Lord and not men....I wonder if implicit here, is praying for the master. So, even if we work for unbelievers, I think we are to pray for and be a part of their success.
Smith challenges his readers to search out what particular success they should pray for, a task that requires real thinking. I fear I go through life on auto-pilot too often. This challenge, like so many challenges, is to make time to be still, to think through what life and God has brought my way, to determine just how I can glorify God this day.
This challenge reminds me of something I used to be in the habit of doing, but have gotten away from - that is praying Scripture for others. My husband first challenged me to do this because he said the best way to pray God's will for someone is to pray Scripture (God's Word) for that person.
ReplyDeleteWe don't always define success the way that God defines it, but to be close to the heart of God is to meditate on and recite His Word. The pressure is then off me to know if I am indeed praying success for that person and I can rest knowing it is in Gods sufficient hands.
I find that when I am in God's Word consistently, I tend to understand more what I should pray for. Or how to pray.
ReplyDeleteThe times when I let my time with God slip away from being a priority, my reasoning gets cloudy. I'm confused, and my prayers are more like random whines.
Prayer is something I've always had a hard time with. It can be overwhelming. But what strikes me about the story of Abraham's servant is the fact that he trusted God and then expectantly looked for an answer. This prayer was purposeful and trusting. I know I need to get off "auto-pilot" and be more mindful of my prayers while trusting in God's sufficiency.