James 1:9-11 Pray Scripture

James 1:9-11  "But the brother of humble circumstances is to glory in his high position;  and the rich man is to glory in his humiliation, because like flowering grass he will pass away.  For the sun rises with a scorching wind and withers the grass; and its flower falls off and the beauty of its appearance is destroyed; so too the rich man in the midst of his pursuits will fade away". (NASB)

A few weeks back Sam Ingrassia came to speak to our men.  Men had been encouraged to come and many did to what I had thought would be a motivational call to leadership in the church and at home.  What I found instead was a challenge for me to lead my wife in a prayer life under our own roof.  Sam pointed out the obvious; you can have the best intentions and even start all gung ho in praying with your wife but before long you will notice that your prayers begin to be repetitive.  After you pray the same old thing time after time you’ll begin to wonder, “Why am I doing this” or you maybe just quit all together.  Praying together was something I had been challenged to do many times before and knew I should.  Besides the guilt trip however, I had never been given the tools to accomplish the task.  That is until that Saturday with Sam.  Sam’s simple solution – pray Scripture.

Sam’s full message in three parts is on You Tube linked below.  Here is the simple four step process:

1)Read a section of Scripture together

2)Think about what it means allowing the Holy Spirit to speak to you

3)Discuss what you are seeing and how it may apply to your lives

4)Pray

Sam was clear, “You won’t do this every day” he said.  And he was right.  With my travel schedule and the way our household works, Sharon and I have done this now exactly three times.  But we know when we are going to do it and we know what will come next as we work through the book of James one section at a time.  It is remarkably simple and very rewarding.

Last night we came to the passage above – James 1:9-11 speaking of brothers of humble means and another, the rich man.  We read the passage and came up with the clear contrast of the two men.  We were reminded of the Scripture about the challenge of the rich man entering into heaven, thus the “High Position” of the “Brother of humble means”.  We were also reminded of the brevity of life, “Like flowering grass he will pass away” and “For the sun rises with a scorching wind and withers the grass; and its flower falls off and the beauty of its appearance is destroyed”.  This also reminded us of the preciousness of life and the need to make the most of the time we have.

Then we prayed, Sharon first and then me and thanksgiving for the blessings of a recent bonus were shared along with thoughts of reliance on Him as an expected raise had not come through.  We prayed about the brevity of life and thought back to our prayer time last in seeking wisdom for life events taking place and our reliance on Him.  We thanked Him for this precious life and asked Him to constantly remind us to frame it for us in the context of eternity; to keep our priorities right and to help us with parenting in that regard.

So, the passage prompted our prayer; we prayed Scripture.  You can too following the simple formula and allow the Holy Spirit to prompt you from there.  And this is a NO GUILT ZONE!  Sharon and I have done it three times, but we have done it. You should too!  AMEN!