Good morning. Welcome to a new work week, and may God be at the heart of every moment, thought, and prayer.
I recently read about a fellow who some years ago had a great idea. His job was in the service industry working as a desk clerk for a large hotel in Chicago. He grew to hate his job since it largely consisted of listening to unhappy and unreasonable guests go on tirades over things that displeased them. One day, while a woman was literally yelling at him over something that was clearly not the fault of himself or even the hotel, his mind wandered and he began to see her as an angry ape screeching from a tree. This made him smile. His frustration ebbed away, and he had what he thought was a great idea. He ran his idea past the hotel manager who agreed that it was worth a try.
What occurred to the hotel clerk was that if people could only see themselves as he saw them, perhaps their thoughts and behaviors would change. His idea was to hang a large mirror behind the desk so that guests would immediately see themselves as they approached. When people got a glimpse of how rude and ugly they looked when they were yelling and complaining, the yelling and complaining almost always stopped. More reasonable voices were then heard resulting in many more smiles and gentle requests. His idea was so successful that many of the large hotels across the country imitated it, and to this day you are quite likely to see a large mirror behind a hotel’s front desk. Now you know why.
What is true physically is also true spiritually. Prayer often provides a mirror for our attitudes. Through prayer, we begin to see our attitudes and our motives from a different perspective. Think of it as suddenly enabling yourself to see people and situations from a heavenly vantage point.
I think it is helpful to remember that when we are talking to God about someone, we are talking about a child that He loves, it changes the way we present our thoughts. If we are praying and our spouse is on our heart, remember to think of him or her as God’s child, which means we are talking to our heavenly Father-in-law. Whenever we remember that we are praying to God about one of His beloved children, how can our heart remain hardened towards them?
Consider this subject of the prayers of the Apostle Paul which we read in Ephesians 1:15-21 Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers:that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him,the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places,far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.
Human eyes can be blinded from time to time by fear, anger, pessimism, shame, self-centeredness, despair, etc. We may fail to see what is true and important in one another. The answer for corrected vision is to pray for one another. Not only are we engaging in a wonderful spiritual function in praying for one another, we are also putting the mirror of prayer in its proper place so that we will see the greater truth about them and about ourselves.
What if the person that is on your mind and heart is guilty of something especially hurtful? That situation may stir you up in what you can convince yourself is well-deserved anger and indignation. However, does anything they have said or done change God’s love for them? Not even a little bit? No, God’s love is solid and secure, and no matter how you are feeling about someone at that particular moment, they are absolutely and unconditionally loved by God.
Pray for me…please…I certainly need it. I will pray for you as well, and together, let’s look into the mirror of prayer and see our true selves even as we remember the reality of who we are in the heart of God.
Vern