Pray -pray – pray

A friend of mine wrote and asked that I pray for him. Apparently he was out piddling around in his garage and accidentally stepped on a creeper, (those devices that are used to roll under a car in order to work underneath it). When he stepped on the confounded thing, it rolled out from him and caused him to do the splits. Ouch!

The problem is that this poor fellow is not young and flexible anymore, (like my little granddaughters who routinely do the splits to entertain themselves). This guy tore his hamstrings and it will take weeks to heal; (that is if the muscles within the hamstrings quit bleeding, if they continue to bleed it may require surgery and even more time).

I will gladly add him to my prayer list and hope you will as well. I receive prayer requests all of the time and also often request them for myself. For example I have been asked to speak at Inc. Magazine’s upcoming convention in September and I ask that you pray that the Lord will help me find the right words for this opportunity. This event honors the companies who made Inc’s. top 500/5000 list by being the fastest growing private companies in America.

They tell me that 1200-1600 CEO’s and entrepreneurs from some of the best companies in our country will be in attendance. Several of these companies are multi-billion dollar entities, others are multi-million, and others are smaller but headed in the right direction. (Our company, Horizon, was honored there last year prior to selling it.)

I will have fifteen minutes to address these people from the main stage at the general session. It appears that they want to know how someone who hitch-hiked into Atlanta penniless and homeless, addicted to drugs, with a police record, who had been kicked out of the military as a sociopath, with little formal education was able to go from that sordid beginning to found nine successful family owned businesses and recently sell the latest for $75 million, (just as our economy tanked into its worst recession since the 1930’s depression).

When the editor was interviewing me she wanted to know what I was going to say during my fifteen minutes. When I mentioned that I was going to tell them that becoming a Christian and basing all of my businesses and my life upon biblical principles was instrumental in my success, I heard silence on the other end. As she regained her composure she suggested that “this audience” might be more receptive to understanding my sales philosophy and other practical business techniques that I employed in order to succeed.

Hmmm I told her that I would work on it and see what came to mind.

It is a little hard to tell someone how to build nine successful businesses over a span of forty years in fifteen minutes. I can sum it up pretty quickly though. Trust in God, pray constantly, try to follow His commands to the best of your ability, particularly in treating others fairly, do your part by working diligently and whatever hours are required, believe that God will bless you, and in so doing develop a great winning attitude, and persevere. It is when things look worse that we must not quit.

God has seen me through enough hardship for me to completely understand that His grace will sustain me no matter what is coming down around me. I am weak but He is strong and I know that God is actually made perfect through my weakness. That tells me that I should fear nothing and I don’t. Then why ask people to pray for me? Because without Him I am that same weak person who hitch-hiked into Atlanta ravaged, forlorn, and forsaken.

The Bible tells us that the prayers of righteous people on our behalf does much to persuade the Lord, so please pray for me that I do not come off as some Bible thumping hillbilly wild eyed fanatic, or some secular ingrate who was blessed by God and then turned his back on him when it came time to tell others what all He has done for him. The truth will suffice nicely. I suppose I just need to find the right way to present the truth in a meaningful way to this influential audience What would Jesus do???? Pray that He will supply the perfect words for me to present.

2 Cor. 12:9
And He said to me, “My grace is
sufficient for you, for My strength is
made perfect in weakness.