Taking what is simple and making it complex

Sometimes we take what is simple and make it complex.

 

We listen to sermons about prayer, we have Bible Studies about prayer - when it isn't all that complicated.

 

Pastor H.B. Charles tells the following story about a woman he knew who showed up at church and prayed the same simple prayer.

 

"O Lord, thank you Jesus," she prayed week after week. The kids at church would start laughing every time she opened her mouth because they knew it would be the same prayer—"O Lord, thank you Jesus."

 

Finally somebody asked her, "Why do you pray the same little prayer?"

 

She said, "Well, I'm just combining the two prayers that I know. We live in a bad neighborhood and some nights there are bullets flying and I have to grab my daughter and hide on the floor, and in that desperate state all I know how to cry out is, 'O Lord.' But when I wake up in the morning and see that we're okay I say, 'Thank you Jesus.' When I got to take my baby to the bus stop and she gets on that bus and I don't know what's going to happen to her while she's away, I cry, 'O Lord.' And then when 3:00 P.M. comes and that bus arrives and my baby is safe, I say, 'Thank you Jesus.'"

 

She said, "Those are the only two prayers I know and when I get to church God has been so good I just put my two prayers together, "O Lord, thank you Jesus."

 

Sometimes we make what is simple - complex.

 

God just wants to communicate with you today.

 

Just a thought for a Tuesday.