"I pray for you..."

Chapel Area

I recently started working part-time for a ministry that provides help for the needy, including food, clothing, household items, prayers, encouragement, and weekly chapel services.  There is also has a thrift shop to help fund the ministry.


Last week, I happened to notice a lady who had finished shopping and was sitting with two large bags.  She didn't speak English, but with hand signs, I guessed that she was waiting for the bus and would need help carrying her bags to the bus stop.  She gestured that I could carry one bag, but I showed her my "muscles" and said I'd carry both! 

About forty minutes later, we headed out, bags in tow.  On the walk, we talked, with neither of us understanding the other.  At the bus stop, she smiled and hugged me.  I looked back as I walked away, and she said, "I pray for you."

I can still hear her voice in my head, "I pray for you."

The incident reminds me that, even as I think I'm helping someone, God is busy keeping His promises and caring for me...through others.  That lady's prayers are more valuable to me than any help I gave her.  

You see, I know that her words were from my God.  He knows my struggles, my needs.  He knows how encouraged I am by those words.

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works...encouraging one another... Hebrews 10:24-25

And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.  Philippians 1:9-11

Pray for one another, be kind to one another, encourage one another.  You never know how or when God will work through you to encourage and strengthen another person.  And praise Him when the encouragement is given to you.  

Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.  Romans 12:10