Do I Meet You Praying?
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I want to share shortly with you a question that I’ve let dictate (or rather I should say preface) my interactions with people, which has truly changed and impacted those interactions for the better.
This question that I’m alluding to comes from EM Bounds’ book ‘Power Through Prayer’, which I’m almost certain I’ve referenced before (because it’s great), and in that book Bounds begins to describe a man by the name of John Fletcher. Now if you don’t know who John Fletcher is, then you’re like me because I did not know who he was either. But, after doing some research, I learned that this man John Fletcher was a leader of the Methodist church & Methodist theology in the 1700’s, and he was a man who was constantly after the heart of God in prayer.
Now Bounds describes Fletcher in his book as a man who ‘stained the walls of his room by the breadth of his prayers’’, and that his ‘whole life was a life of prayer’. But Bounds also provided some insight to how this man John Fletcher greeted his friends. Bounds says his greeting was always:
‘Do I meet you praying?’
Now fun fact, I actually remember reading that the first time & thinking that was more weird than anything else. But then my second time reading it I thought about the question more and it grew on me. In fact it grew so much on me that I highlighted it in the book and wrote it at the top of my prayer journal.
The reason why it grew on me & the reason why I took note of it & the reason why I’m making a podcast on it now is because asking that question ‘Do I meet you praying?’ before every interaction you have forcefully causes you to include Christ in that interaction. It does so because you have to pray over it (duh) & also because asking that question causes you to grow in love for the person you’re praying for, because it is impossible not to love people you genuinely pray for.
Now a few things with that:
I think we’d all admit we forget about God in some interactions we have. We get caught up in the heat of the moment & the busyness of life and we just forget that He is in our midst.
And from personal experience I think asking that question ‘Do I meet you praying?’ has really helped me in that regard. Every meal I get with someone, every phone call I take, I’ve started just saying a quick prayer beforehand for whoever I’m meeting with, inviting God into that time and asking Him to bless it. Doing that has helped me be where my feet are and really care for the person I’m with like God does.
Again, speaking of busyness, have you ever been with someone physically but mentally you are somewhere else, thinking of what you have to do next and what you have to get done?
I think we all have been there. But when you intentionally pray over your time with someone, man that just changes the interaction completely. It does because there’s no way an interaction can remain mundane when God is invited into it. Whether that’s a quick phone call or spontaneous conversation with a classmate, friend or coworker, or whether that’s an intentional hang out with someone you care about, no interaction can remain mundane when God’s invited into it.
To put it another way, take basketball. Imagine you went to go play basketball with some friends and get some shots up. Pretty standard, pretty normal.
But what if Jesus showed up, in all His glory, and started watching you play from the sideline. You’d play differently wouldn’t you?
That’s what I’m getting at here with the question: ‘Do I meet you praying?’
You can’t help but take interactions more seriously and with more intentionality when you invite God into it.
So that’s one thing of note. The other thing I wanted to touch on is how asking that question and legitimately praying for someone increases your love for them.
I mean you can’t help it. You can’t help but grow in your love for someone you genuinely pray for. When you go to the Father on someone else’s behalf, and you do that consistently, whether you're bearing their burdens or asking for blessing, man you begin to see them & to love them more like God does. You do. And that’s a beautiful thing.
Nothing can soften and enlarge the heart quite like prayer can. That’s probably why 1 in 10,000 married couples who pray together get divorced.
I mean c'mon now. Prayer increases love and intimacy. It doesn’t diminish it.
So when you ask that question ‘Do I meet you praying?’ before every interaction, every meeting, meal, every class you have, you will treat it more intentionally and you will grow in your love for the people your with.
And if you don’t believe me, try it for yourself this weekend and this week. Also, a little extra prayer ain’t gonna hurt you.
Do I meet you praying? I want my answer to that question to be yes. I met you praying. I prayed for you. I prayed for our time. I want to be able to say that to everyone I interact with.
And I wanted to share that with you today because I believe that question can have as profound an impact on me as it can on you.
I love you.
God bless.
