I'm a little ashamed, but it's time for a true confession. It takes me months to put away the Christmas lights that are always hanging on the front peaks of my house for the Christmas season.
I usually take some down in March, but some of my lights are very high up and it takes a special ladder to get them down. After I planted my garden this spring, I figured that it was a job I could no longer put off. Oh the shame of this confession!
When I put Christmas lights away, I put most of them on a spooling device. I do so because years ago, I would just put them in a paper bag to store them over the winter. Then come next winter - when it came time to take them out and use them - they were so tangled it would take me hours to untangle them!
Untying knots and untangling Christmas lights are among some of my least favorite things to do.
Sometimes, the turmoil in our relationships can give us the same kind of feeling.
Have you ever had friends that you really love who have done or said things that really bother you? Maybe you have a co-worker or co-workers who are friends but they do something that bugs you and eats away at you.
For whatever reason, maybe these friends have caused turmoil in your relationships. In some ways, these can feel like knots or tangles. You love and care for them, but your relationship is tangled with the anger or frustration that is bothering you.
One minute you are thinking or saying something nice about them, the next minute you are ready to eject them to the moon!
Let's Take A Look At Job
That happened to Job. Things started going wrong in his life and three of his friends started doing a "man" thing. They tried to fix his problems by figuring out why things were going wrong. In their great deductions, they started blaming Job and attacking his character.
If you've ever had your character attacked, you know there is nothing that hurts more. It bothered Job and only made things worse. The book of Job is a long story about friends bugging Job while Job is talking to God and trying to get things worked out.
God finally has a long talk with Job and straightens him out. He then speaks to Job's heart and says, (my paraphrase) "Job, pray for your friends. When they were bugging you they were bugging me. They didn't get it right about you or me. Pray for them."
If you're a Christian and you've experienced these relational knots I'm talking about, you know that it's difficult to offer up pure prayer for your friends at times like this. It seems like you are praying for them and talking about them at the same time.
After God straightened Job out, Job saw his own failures and misunderstandings of God. He realized God's grace toward him. He was able to move over in his heart and sincerely pray for his friends.
You could say that the tangles were supernaturally removed as Job prayed for them. Job having received God's grace could now apply the same toward his friends. Now Job could pray from a pure heart and sincerely. When he did, his prosperity began to return.
Untangling relational tangles or knots is a supernatural thing. You have to spend enough time with God and His Word and in prayer. It's like when you get mad at someone for doing a stupid thing while driving. It doesn't take long to remember you've done the same thing.
We Need An Effective Prayer Life
When you begin to pray for your friends sincerely, God helps you remember the times He has forgiven you. He also helps you see the times you've been guilty of the same offense. He helps move you over to a place of real forgiveness and peace. It's almost like he wraps a bubble of grace around you so that what was once bugging you, doesn't anymore.
When that happens, pure and effective prayer from a pure heart then goes forth. Now you can focus on and sincerely pray for the root problem of the situation - which isn't people. It's a spiritual problem, not a physical problem. Again, you can pray unhindered prayers of faith that will turn things around.
The devil loves when we take it out on each other. Strife hinders prayer and he wins. Since Jesus freely paid the price for our sins against Him, He expects us to offer the same forgiveness He has given us. He knows that Heaven and life's blessing become ours when we do.
Do you have your Christmas lights down yet?
James 3:9-10: "With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God's likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be."
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Timothy Burt is a pastor, author, and writer. He is best known as the author of Fresh Manna, a daily devotional and online Bible study.
