Pray about it but don’t get involved

When I was in a church youth group, we did this thing where the youth leaders had us come up with a “one line” answer to all of life’s situations.  We then split up into groups and thought about it for a while.  One group wanted to make sure they were very spiritual but also didn’t want people to feel a need to “fix” the situation so they came up with the one liner – “Pray about it but don’t get involved.”  So as the youth leaders came in one by one with their “situations” and it went something like this:

Leader:  I’m so upset.  Nothing’s going right for me.  I just don’t know what to do.  I could just die.

Group:  Pray about it but don’t get involved.

Next Leader:  My friends all think I’m totally square because I don’t party and drink.  What should I do?  (Remember, I grew up in the 80′s – era of cheesy sayings and cheesy youth groups)

Group:  Pray about it but don’t get involved.

Next Leader (female):  I’m 16 and pregnant.  What do I do now?

Group:  Pray about it but don’t get involved.

Ok, while the saying “Pray about it but don’t get involved” sounded good, the reality is it doesn’t work.  Not the prayer part but the “don’t get involved”.  Praying does get you involved. When we pray, we ponder upon what is God’s perspective of the situation.  When we pray for the 16 year old whose pregnant, we stop thinking about how she should have listened to us about abstinence and God reveals to us His love for her and how she’s a scared young woman in need of a hug rather than a rebuke.  When we pray for that man in prison, we stop seeing him as this wrong doer needing to pay for his crime but instead a person who has already been forgiven by God not by anything he did but by Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross.  Forgiven just like I am.  Now in viewing this guy in that way, don’t you want to help him understand how he can accept that forgiveness and help him to see himself as how God sees him!!!

As for the pregnant young lady and the man in prison, when they pray they too gain God’s perspective.  The reality is that God is bigger than their situations.  When they/you pray inside your situations, you put forth a trust that God is bigger than what we are having to deal with.  Will the young lady still have to deal with the situation that she’s pregnant and will the man still have to deal with the situation that he’s in prison – Yes.  However, through prayer they are actively looking to God to help them through the situation, putting their trust in Him and He is faithful and will see them through it.

So the next time you say you’re going to pray for someone, know that you are getting involved and look to God for the understanding of how.  Know that when you talk to God about your own situation, you are looking to Him to be involved in your circumstances and He will be!!  So let’s pray!!