⁴² “So you, too, must keep watch! For you don’t know what day your Lord is coming. ⁴³ Understand this: If a homeowner knew exactly when a burglar was coming, he would keep watch and not permit his house to be broken into. ⁴⁴ You also must be ready all the time, for the Son of Man will come when least expected.

⁴⁵ “A faithful, sensible servant is one to whom the master can give the responsibility of managing his other household servants and feeding them. ⁴⁶ If the master returns and finds that the servant has done a good job, there will be a reward. ⁴⁷ I tell you the truth, the master will put that servant in charge of all he owns. ⁴⁸ But what if the servant is evil and thinks, ‘My master won’t be back for a while,’ ⁴⁹ and he begins beating the other servants, partying, and getting drunk? ⁵⁰ The master will return unannounced and unexpected, ⁵¹ and he will cut the servant to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Matthew 24:42-51

Dear God, I woke up this morning thinking about the flash floods/avalanches in Nepal and Tibet that I heard about yesterday. I realized I hadn’t prayed for them like I should. I was more intrigued by the spectacle of it than I was concerned about the hundreds of people washed away, missing, killed, or injured. But I was convicted about not having prayed for them or their families. Then when I started to pray, I didn’t know how to pray. Where do I start? Can my prayers for them really change anything? So I just started praying to the Holy Spirit, asking the Spirit to pray for them, which I’m sure he’s already doing. But just joining my little prayer with His. Father, have mercy. Jesus, have mercy. Holy Spirit, have mercy.

I’m thinking about this in relation to this verse because it’s always a challenge to be minding all the details about everything. To be praying for my wife and children. To be praying for my family and friends. My community and country. The world. And to do it all in general and specifically for things. Intercessory prayer, even for those I love the most, is usually the weakest part of my prayer life.

Father, I want to be found faithful by you, but not for my sake. I want to be found faithful in loving others for their sake. I want to be good about praying for my wife not so that you will be pleased with me, but so that my wife will experience the ultimate fullness you have for her in this life. I want the same for my son, my daughter, their significant others, their children, my wife’s and my siblings and their children, my parents, my wife’s and my aunts and uncles… You get the idea. I want to be found praying for them. I had a man tell me the other day that he prays for my family nearly every day. That amazed me. There are few people I pray for nearly every day outside of those related to me. And I don’t know that I’ll ever get where I’d like to ideally be. But I want to be better. So when I think about people, help me to remember to pray for them. And help me to know how to pray for them.

I pray this to you now, in the name of Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen