Daily Devotional #1,576

I have always loved aviation and so I was excited when one night a family friend came to spend the evening with us who flew Army helicopters. He was a Black Hawk pilot who had flown medivac missions in Afghanistan. I asked the young many about his training and if he felt that learning to fly the helicopter had been hard to learn. He surprised me by saying that he really didn’t remember the learning to fly as the most difficult part. Of course I asked him what then was the most difficult part of his training. He said the most involved part of his training was learning what to do when things went wrong. He said that when something goes bad, there are all kinds of things that you have to do in the aircraft and specific ways that the Army requires you to do them. He intimated that there were lots of pages of information that had to be memorized and then learned how to actually do them. I thought about what that had to be like...to have a crisis and then pull out of your memory and training the right way to solve the crisis you are facing. For me, well, when things fall apart, know from my training and my experience what to do. I pray. That’s what God wants us to do. He tells us to pray all the time and to pray about everything. But that becomes even more important to us when things are falling apart all around us. We need to first and foremost pray. And yet how many times do we have a crisis and praying is something we do later? You and I need to have a continual prayer relationship with God. We are his children and he invites us to come to him constantly. But especially when the world gets turned upside down. My young friend has pages of things he needs to do when there is an emergency on his aircraft. But for you and me...well it comes down to one simple word...pray. Pray and keep praying. God is always there waiting for you and he will not only listen to your cry for help, but he will actually help you. So when the crunch time hits...pray first...and don’t stop. Pretty simple...just don’t forget!

Here’s our Bible verse for today...

Psalms 5:1-2 NLT O LORD, hear me as I pray; pay attention to my groaning. (2) Listen to my cry for help, my King and my God, for I pray to no one but you.

Remember I’m praying for you!
PJ