Praying For You

When I was in middle school, I went to this amazing summer camp with my church called The Edge. It was a week full of fun games, competitions, skits, and of course, worship. Every year there would a guy leading worship named Wayne Kerr, think 40 year old man with over processed hair trying to connect with middle schoolers. Despite his hair, everyone loved him. Anyways, he always played this one song that I absolutely loved and for some reason it was stuck in my head last night and it got me thinking. 

The song that was stuck in my head was "My Prayer for You" by Wayne Kerr (I couldn't find the video on Youtube, but here's the lyrics). A little bit of the chorus goes like this: 

"That you could have joy like you've never known

Peace, and a happy home

Time to be all alone

This is my prayer, my prayer for you."

These are all sweet blessings to be wished upon someone which got me thinking, how to I pray for other people? Do I pray for them at all? Now, if someone is sick or hurting, of course I pray for healing for them. But what about for a regular person for no reason? Nope, not normally. That's sad. 

Not only do I not normally pray for other people, when I do, it's not always good. Now, don't get me wrong, I don't sit here actually praying to God that someone would get hurt or that something bad would happen to them. But, I do think and wish it sometimes, and God knows all of our thoughts, so it's basically the same thing. God calls us to pray for even our enemies hearts. Immediately, this makes me think of a country song by Jaron and The Long Road to Love called "Pray For You." (Here's a link to the song) The song is about how the preacher told him that he needed to pray for those who have wronged him and this is his prayer;

"I pray your brakes go out running down a hill

I pray a flowerpot falls from the window sill and knocks you in the head like I'd like to

I pray your birthday comes and nobody calls

I pray your flying high when your engine stalls 

I pray all your dreams never come true

Just know wherever you are honey, I'm praying for you."

Okay, so that may be a little extreme, but this is more like what my prayers for other people are sounding like, and I would be willing bet big money that I am not the only one. 

Whenever we are wronged by someone, we like to think that "karma" will get them back. Well, hate to break it to you, but there is no such thing as karma. Most of us know that, but we don't like the idea that we are praying for something bad to happen to someone, so we chalk it up to karma. OR we like to thing that God will spite them for what they have done. We don't like to think about how God is a forgiving God at the time, or how many times He has forgiven us when we have wronged others. Simply put, we are selfish people, which is no surprise. We don't like to be the bigger person. 

I'm challenging myself to pray more for people, for no absolute reason. Not the spiteful prayer, but more of a prayer like Wayne Kerr's. I'm also going to pray that God will work with me and mature my heart, so that I can pray honestly wanting good for those who have wronged me. I know it's not going to be a fast change, but nothing ever is. I also want to challenge you to look at your prayers, wishes, and thoughts and think about if you would want someone praying for those things about you. It can change your mind if you turn the tables your direction.