Have you ever gotten upset over other people’s behavior and wished they would change so you could stop being angry?
Have you ever blamed your spouse for troubles in your marriage?
Have you ever believed your happiness and harmony is at the mercy of how another person treats you?
If so, you might doubt that prayer can make much of a difference in addressing situations like the above because in the back of your thought you’ll be harboring the fear that the other person has to change BEFORE you are free of their inconsideration. And besides, they might not even be praying about the trouble themselves, so what difference will your prayers make? Fear taunts…
In thinking this scenario through and how to resolve it, God sent me this very helpful insight…
The truth you know in prayer changes people around you because the truth you know in prayer changes how you see everyone around you.
So, prayer does change everything around you even if the other person is not praying like you are. You don’t have to wait for the other person to change before you can be free of whatever bothers you. Let prayer change your view of them, and the new view you see leads to healing.
Thanks, Evan, this is very encouraging!
Amanda
This ties in somewhat with the following email I received today.
Through the Window:
A young couple moves into a new neighborhood. The next morning while they are eating breakfast, the young woman sees her neighbor
hanging the wash outside. “That laundry is not very clean”, she said. “She doesn’t know how to wash correctly. Perhaps she needs better laundry soap.” Her husband looked on, but remained silent.
Everytime her neighbor would hang her wash to dry, the young woman would make the same comments. About one month later, the woman was surprised to see a nice clean wash on the line and said to her husband: “Look, she has learned how to wash correctly. I wonder who taught her this?” The husband said, “I got up early this morning and cleaned our windows.” And so it is with life. What we see when
watching others, depends on the purity of the window (thought) through which we look.
Great analogy! Thanks for sharing.
Speaking of laundry, I know a woman who lived her entire life in a small town. When she was a newly wed, she hung her laundry out on the line. A neighbor came over while she was gone and rearranged it, putting all the underware in the inside lines, arranging the socks according to color and adjusting the sheets so that they could be taken down neatly. The lady was not offended but quickly realized she was very well noticed!
Sibbie