Encouraged by God's Word

Archive for September, 2009

Hello Friends,

At every awards ceremony, it is customary for the recipient to thank those who have helped him to achieve their greatness. It is the standard for someone to thank those who have had a hand in helping them to get to where they are.

But over time things have changed!

Now a days you see folks giving “shout outs”. A “shout out” is not your traditional thank you. It’s more of a hyped up version of a thank you and it usually includes recognizing multiple people with a nickname.

“Shout outs” usually go something like this:
First I want to thank the man upstairs because without him none of this would be possible. I want to give a shout out to momma and dem for raising me up to be the man that I am. I want to give a shout out to all my home boys and home girls back home; Big Mike, Peanut, Dirty Billy, La La, Sexy Samantha, JT, Uptown Sheila, 2 out of my 4 baby’s mommas (you know who you are), my main man Black, Sweet Nikki, etc., etc., etc.

And this is when the music starts playing because they’ve gone over the allotted time to speak.

Now this is a little extreme but it is definitely okay to give “shout outs”. It’s okay to call out the name of others that you want to recognize. It’s even better if you call out someone else’s name in prayer.

Romans 1:9 says For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of His Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers

Who are you giving “shout outs” to? Whose name are you calling before the Lord?

The word says that we should make mention of others in our prayers. Our prayers should not always consist of us telling God all about our problems and needs. It shouldn’t always be about us telling God how we hurt and how we need healing. Sometimes our prayers should focus on others.

We need to go before God’s throne without any regards for ourselves and go down a list of people that we know who need prayer. And even if we don’t know who needs prayer, we should “shout out” some names anyway because God knows and if He places their name on your mind, He’s trying to tell you something.

But this shouldn’t be a once in a lifetime deal. We should do it without ceasing and always.

We should NEVER stop praying for others. It should be done regularly.

Just because people look good, sound good, act good, smell good, doesn’t mean its all good. Pray for someone else besides yourself and see how God blesses them and you.

Be Encouraged and Have a Great Day!