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RETURN TO WAYNE DALE MATTHYSSE
phrase of little worth
I have heard several times this week, a phrase that I once used quite often. It sounds great and I know most people who use it mean well, but then... most of them have never been on the receiving end of it and so they don't know how it feels to be really-really hungry, or desperate for a hug, or in need of someone to lean on for just a minute, so that they don't feel so all alone.
I remember using this phrase whenever I ran into a situation I could not handle... or, more often than not, didn't want to get involved in. Maybe I was late for an evening out with friends or had a really important television program I wanted to watch. Sometimes the need was not for my time but for my money and since I had already had plans for where I should spend it, I would use this phrase to get me out of a sticky situation.
I also used it when I didn't want to confront someone directly about a faulty area in their life or belief system... yet wanted them to know that I did not approve of something they had done or said.
I didn't think about it at the time but now that I am on the other end of it... I see how utterly Vain the phrase can make the user appear. I am sure there will be some, who use this phrase, that will take offense at what I am saying but I do not mean to make them look foolish, only to help them understand... that the person they are saying it to, may not always perceive their good intentions, if that is truly what they want to convey.
The fact is however that when you're money is gone and your down and out... the last thing you want to hear from someone is "I'll pray for you"... because even if someone did actually follow through on their promise to pray, what difference does it make. Have you ever tried to buy a loaf of bread with a prayer or wrap a prayer around you when you need to feel secure?
The implication of "I'll pray for you" is that the person offering to pray has some kind of special arrangement with God and that they can get Him moving on a situation that He has obviously overlooked... or, that the victim's own "Faith" was not sufficient to merit his prayers being heard. Most people who use this phrase never actually follow through with their prayers to God and even if they do, many fail to understand that if God was really intending to do something, He more than likely was planning to do it through them.
Prayer should not be about asking God to do something... Prayer should be about asking God what you can do. Just as Faith without works is dead, so too, Prayer without action is worthless.
Wayne Dale Matthysse
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