"What Are We Really Praying For?"

By Martin

Do you remember the story of the Good Samaritan?  What made him good?  Was it that he saw a guy on the side of the road bruised and bleeding and said to him, “I will pray for you”?  No.  Is he known for seeing the guy and not only walking by, but actually crossed to the other side of the street?  No.

The Good Samaritan was made good because he stopped and helped someone who was in his path and who needed help.  Now, did the Samaritan go out of his way?  No, the bruised man was in his path.  Why is that important?  Because people come into our paths of life for a reason.  We do not need to go out of our way looking for them; God will bring them to us.  Or, He will take us to them.  How many times do we say, “I need to go down [there] to help [them]”?  So, we go out of our way to help [them] and completely bypass all of those already in our path.

            This morning, I heard an advertisement trying to raise money to send over to Asia.  They want to go [there] when there are so many in need here.  People that we interact with on a daily or weekly basis.  People in our community that need the love of God but don’t have it.  The Good Samaritan was walking on his normal path when he came upon the man.  God put them together and the Samaritan responded when others would not. 

From Chapter 25 of 'My Purpose vs. God’s Purpose: For My Life'

 “If we tell someone who is down on their luck, ‘I will pray for you' and we do nothing to help them, then what are we praying for?  Are we praying that someone else would help them?  How about we start praying for ways that we could help?  God put us in each other's lives for a reason.”