The Prayer Light

With the construction season in full swing in WNY, there is a bridge on my drive to church that is now being repaved.  This bridge is full of potholes and cracked pavement.  Being a bridge, there is a need to maintain traffic flow on one side while construction work is done on the other side.  As a result, they have made it a single lane bridge where they control traffic flow with a temporary traffic light.  It's one of those excessively long lights that you dread getting caught at because you know it will add what seems like 45 minutes to your trip.  But then there are those times when you are approaching the light, and you can see ahead of you that it's green...you start thinking stay green, staaay green, c'mon staaaaaay green, and then yes! you made it through without getting caught behind the light of eternal delay. 

On my way to church a couple days ago, I had a lot on my mind (stress, anxiety) and I was driving on auto-pilot (you know, those times when you arrive somewhere and you don't remember much about how you got there).  I approached that light...c'mon light...stay green, staaaay green....aaaand,

nope. 

Red.  Red as anything red has ever been red. 

Great.

So there I am, facing what will surely be like 90 minutes of waiting at a temporary traffic light.  If I'm being truly honest here, I really get annoyed at any traffic delays.  I have my plans set before me, my timing, my goals, my tasks to accomplish and traffic messes that up.  On top of the stress and anxiety I was feeling, annoyance is now added to that equation.  Certainly won't help at all, it just amplifies all that stuff going through my head. 

However this time, instead of letting my annoyed feeling pile on to the stress and anxiety, I was nudged by a word from the Holy Spirit..."pray."  That one word entered my mind clearly.  Pray?  Really?  Pray for what?  Maybe pray for this light to be faster, lol!  No, pray about the annoyance, stress and anxiety that was filling my mind and distracting me from keeping my focus on God.  Pray about why everything is about me...my plans, my goals, my tasks.  I took those moments waiting at the red light to pray.  I prayed away the annoyed feelings, anxiety and stress, and gave it to God.  Only after doing this was I able to put my focus back on Him and my worries were washed over with a feeling of peace that can only come from knowing God. 

The stress and anxiety I was dealing with were clouding my connection to God.  Without the focus on God, those things were like the potholes and cracked pavement on that bridge.  Prayer paves over that mess and makes your connection with God much smoother.

 

The Apostle Paul said in Thessalonians 5:17 that we are to "pray without ceasing."  Personally, I don't think this means we are to stop our lives and pray 24/7.  I think it means to continue to keep your focus on God and to seek Him in prayer for everything.  Not just your troubles, but pray and give thanks to God as Paul says in verse 18, "give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.  Whatever your circumstance, pray. 

Now instead of this light being an annoyance, it has become my "prayer light." and I will miss it when it's gone.