I worked on organizing, deleting, and otherwise making my inbox usable today. You see, in December, I was blessed with a new laptop. Due to my neglect in deleting my server, my Thunderbird inbox automatically uploaded every message that I had received since July 2012. Yes, there were a lot. Thousands actually. And today, I finally got around to working on cleaning the mess up.
But this post isn’t about my inbox. No, it’s about something I found in my inbox. Or rather, the thoughts that something evoked.
You see, I get a lot of e-mail “threads”. You know, when an e-mail gets sent to multiple people and they all respond/discuss/etc… Therefore, sorting by subject was the easiest way to see what I could delete. I started to go through alphabetically and when I got to P, I realized something, “You know what, we send out a lot of prayer request e-mails!”
I got to thinking about the different socialization venues I am apart of and I further realized, that where there were Christians present, there usually are a lot of prayer requests being posted.
I’ll clarify now that I don’t think this is a bad thing. We should pray for each other. I ask for prayer myself at times. It can be one of the most comforting things in the world, to know that someone else is joining me in prayer either for myself or someone else. But, in looking at the row of prayer e-mails, I started thinking.
As much as we’re called to pray for one another, we’re also called to praise, to declare the greatness of the LORD, and to share His marvelous mercies. What if we e-mailed, posted, or spoke about a blessing of the LORD as often as we asked for prayer? What if our inboxes, our FB feeds, and any other social media were scattered with praises and blessings?
I’m not suggesting that anyone ignore the difficult situations in life. I know how difficult things can be – my heart aches for the trials I have seen those I care about go through. And they aren’t always minor. They’re horrible – truly horrible; death of loved ones, rebellious children, unfaithful spouses – the list goes on.
But we’re called to rejoice in hope, persevere in tribulation, consider it all joy when going through various trials – and He never said not to praise Him or to tell of His acts of mercy during the hard times.
Maybe I’m talking to myself more than anyone else. After all, when was the last time that I made a point of praising the LORD and sharing about His goodness – specifically when I felt like half my world was falling apart? How often do I let a simple thing such as a headache or even my recent bronchitis, make me lose sight of the mercies and blessings of a gracious Father? And when I do recognize and think about them – do I share them?
I will sing of the mercies of the LORD forever: with my mouth will I make known His faithfulness to all generations. So says the Psalmist.
He didn’t say, when all went well he would sing and make known – he said forever. Forever defined equals “at all times: used to indicate that something happens or is done continuously, repetitively, or on every occasion.”
Continuously singing of His mercies and making known His faithfulness.
Repetitively. And on every occasion.
To the KING be all the glory!