I will pray for you

Have you ever said to someone, "I will pray for you?"

Of course you have - and so have I.

But do you and I have a full understanding of what that means?

To articulate to someone, "I will pray for you," means that I do my best to enter into their pain and pray from the place where they are at."

When I really bring the needs of others and pray for them, I mean really pray for them, I feel their pains, I feel their struggles, I cry out with them with a compassion that comes from the Holy Spirit working through me.

I guess what I am saying is that to truly follow through and pray for someone, I must have compassion for what they are going through.

When I pray for the world, I have compassion for the world.

When I pray for the endless needs of others, my heart expands and desires to embrace their needs and bring them into the presence of God.

But again, a word.  In the midst of that prayer, the compassion that comes is not something I "work up" but is God's gift to me.

It comes from the Holy Spirit.

I cannot fully enter into the pain of others, but God can.

I cannot fully pray for the needs of others, but God can.

God can pray in me.

And as God prays through me (by the presence of the Holy Spirit in my life) I can lose myself and really experience the love of God.

Just a thought for a Tuesday.