Consider it Done – Part One

About ten years ago, I accepted a job as Claims Director for a small heath plan. Even though I had absolutely no claims background, the company wanted a fresh, unbiased approach and hired me. Periodically, a provider would call me requesting that a particular claim be paid. Because I did not have the knowledge to pay the claim myself, I would ask a team leader in our department, Don, to handle it for me. Don had a great attitude and would always reply, “Joanne, consider it done.” I learned that I could do exactly that – because he always paid the claim.

Lately, I’ve been thinking about Don and his reply to me as I try unsuccessfully to receive something I cannot manifest through my own efforts: release from the debt of my current house and the purchase of a different home, one that my husband and I would select and love that better suits our needs. I have had this desire for three years, and yet we still live in my house.

I recently came upon a book written over 100 years ago by H. Emilie Cady (yes, I’ve mentioned her before) called God A Present Help. In it she describes me to a tee as she tells about people who pray faithfully for things, good things that would cause no harm to anyone, and yet fail to receive them. Cady states that typically, after a long time of praying and not receiving, these people become discouraged and think that there must be something wrong with them. They conclude that they must not have enough faith or that they have the wrong kind of faith. Cady explains that the real problem is that they are not following the directions of Jesus who said, “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours” (English Standard Version). Cady says these people believe their prayers will be answered, not that they have already received.

Think about it. To say that something will happen places it in the future, and the future never comes. It’s never tomorrow; it’s always today. The key, according to Cady, is to see the thing we’re praying for as already happening, or as Don put it so well: to consider it done.