Day 277: Less Talk More Prayer

Psalms 34:13

Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit.

1 Thessalonians 5:25

Brethren, pray for us

1 Timothy 2:1-2

First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we made lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity

Galatians 6:1

Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.

Let’s talk about gossip. How many of you have ever been talked about or talked about someone? All of us should raise our hands because we have been on both sides of the spectrum, I know I have. We tend to gossip about the things that don’t sit right with us or the things that we don’t agree with. Far too much gossip happens in the church, whether it’s about the way someone is dressed or living. The sin someone has committed and has openly confessed. Gossip is toxic, and it does nothing but spread like a wildfire. But what if we replaced gossip with prayer? What if we decided to pray for people instead of talking about them? Something I noticed is that whenever Paul was writing his letters to the people he always talked about how he was praying to God for them, and asking them for prayer in return. It’s easy to gossip and talk about people but how much better would it be if we talked to God about them. If we prayed for them. We can easily go to a friend and talk about how bad someone is doing and have it change nothing but what about when we talk to God about it. That’s when things begin to change. We have to want better for people, and pray for it. It’s easy to point out someone’s downfall but let’s lift them up and rejoice in their blessings.

I know we have all seen this before, when something bad happens we always see tweets and posts like #PrayFor… but are we really praying? It becomes a trending topic on twitter, instagram, and facebook. One thing I had to start asking myself is, am I really praying or do I just want to be part of the conversation? Am I doing it for the likes or retweets? See while we are exploiting these moments for our own gain there are people out there who really need our prayer. They really need us to being praying for them, but we sometimes treat it as if a like, or retweet or just being part of the conversation is enough. It’s not. Prayer is where things begin to change.

Lastly, have you ever heard someone talke about how badly our world needs prayer? How it is all about to go up in flames and we need to start praying? We talk about how bad the world is and how it needs prayer, but are we praying? Can that sequence of prayer start with us. Let’s pray for our country, pray for our leaders, pray for the people. We talk about issues and go around in circles we’ve seen it from the media. All the news  outlets talk about the same things, and nothing changes. Let’s try a different tactic and start praying.

All this to say is that gossip and talk can do little but prayer changes things. The power of prayer is amazing. Let’s learn to talk less and pray more,

Reflection

1. Do you find yourself talking more about situations as opposed to praying for or about them?
2. Has prayer ever been your last resort?
3. What can be the outcome when you pray about something or for someone as opposed to talking about it or gossiping about someone?

Prayer Time

Allow the answers to the above questions guide your prayer today. As a big theme of today was prayer, just begin to pray and allow God to take you wherever He wants you to go. Just pray!

I love you and I hope have an amazing day or evening! Be sure to share this with someone and come back tomorrow for Day 278!