Look Out!

Lent is all about taking a fresh look at our spiritual life. Are you doing that? Well, I'd like to encourage you to look at a particular part of your spiritual life. The part called prayer. There are basically five parts to prayer. I have arranged them like this:

P-RAISE AND THANK God for who He is and all He has given you.
R-EPENT For all your sins.
A-SK For what you and those you love need.
Y-IELD To God's "right of way," His will is always right!!

Notice that the first letter of each section spells PRAY. Pretty cool huh? Any way. I would like to focus on the third aspect of the formula. Ask! When we pray we often spend a lot of time asking for things. Things that we want and need. Some times I think we might sound like a spoiled brat kid saying to dad "gimme, gimme gimme!!!"

Jesus did say we could ask for things and, sure, he wants to know what is in our hearts. But what about the rest of the world. There are so many people and situations in the world, in your school, in your family that could really use some prayer.

So here's the challenge. When it's time to ASK God for stuff instead of looking inward for stuff to pray about, try to look out. Look out of yourself and see the needs around you. Maybe you could read the newspaper and pray for what you see. Pay attention at school for people who could use prayer and lift them to Jesus. Pray for your brothers and sisters. You can even pray for your parents.

We spend a lot of time worrying about ourselves. How we look, our grades, our friends or whatever. We should give some time to the thought of others. We are not alone on this earth. We are a part of something much bigger. Every day there are people who can not find food, people who have no clothes to change into and kids who can't go to school because there isn't one. There are people who die every day just because they are different. So, LOOK OUT-for others by praying for them. LOOK OUT-side yourself when you pray. You might be surprised how you feel after praying for others so...LOOK OUT!