Where do I start?

23 Sep Where do I start?

Read  1 Timothy 2:1-7
Thought for the Day: I am never too busy to begin with prayer!

As clearly as if it was yesterday, I remember the first week I was hired as a high school teacher. From the orientation to the seemingly endless meetings, my head was swimming with facts, policies, and protocols. In that first week, we went over scheduling procedures, ways to log calls, templates to write lessons, and 1001 other things related to my new job. After four days, I was finally given some unstructured planning time. But, rather than feeling relieved, I could take time to get set up properly, I felt overwhelmed and wondered: “Where do I start?”

In his first letter to Timothy (a young Christian leader), the Apostle Paul gave an incredible piece of advice. Without a doubt, Timothy was dealing with some form of the question, “Where do I start?” Paul wrote, “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people”. While Timothy would certainly need wisdom and strategy, he needed to remember that his role first and foremost was to pray.

Fortunately, when I felt overwhelmed in my early days of teaching, I stopped and prayed. But, I have had countless other times when I have mistakenly acted like I was too busy to pray only to see later how mistaken I was. For each of us, we need to remember that wherever we are, we can always start with prayer.

So today, let’s take Paul’s advice. We can pray for our world, our nation, our community, and our families. We can pray for those we come into contact with whether we are at work or at the supermarket. We can pray for all those who have been given positions of authority. And of course, we can pray that God would grant each of us the willingness to begin every aspect of our lives with prayer.

In Christ,
Pastor David (and Stan)