
Remember the instruction we received as children in case our clothes ever caught fire? “Stop, drop, and roll.” I’d like to modify that: any time our life is catching fire, we need to “Stop, drop, and pray!”
Don’t say “I’ll pray about this later!” and then try desperately in your own strength to quench the flames. Pray right in that moment. 1 Thessalonians 5:17 says simply, “Pray continually.” For example:
When you’re going crazy at work with 500 emails in your inbox and 15 projects screaming at you: STOP, DROP, and PRAY.
When your spouse has hit your “hot button” again and you are about to blow your lid: STOP, DROP, and PRAY.
When your relaxing evening gets preempted by a leaky faucet that breaks when you try to fix it: STOP, DROP, and PRAY.
When we STOP, we give our emotions a chance to calm down so we can see clearly and gain God’s perspective on the situation.
When we DROP, we remind ourselves of who is in charge and whom we should be obeying – God alone.
When we PRAY, we are opening the door for God to pour out his abundant provision on us.
It doesn’t have to be long. We’re not talking about spending hours in prayer. Just take a few minutes to talk with God.
Think about it: if your clothes caught fire right now, you could extinguish the flames in seconds if you stop, drop, and roll. But if you didn’t take that action, the flames would spread, and it would be much, much harder to put them out.
So don’t wait until a situation in life erupts from a flickering flame into an inferno. As soon as you feel the heat, STOP, DROP, and PRAY.
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