Thoughts on prayer
Prayer....why do we – why do you – pray? Is your prayer life any different today than it was 5, 10, 20, even 30 years ago? Is it different than when you were a child or a teenager? Is it different than when you were first married? When you had children? As you've gotten older?
I was recently reading an article on Deconstructing Prayer, and I realized that sometimes I've taken prayer for granted. It has changed over time for me; and I'm hoping it will continue to evolve. Just like our relationships with friends, acquaintances or family, prayer is a relationship with God. Don’t our human relationships change over time? Should our relationship with God be any different?
The article talked about our God as a God of justice, mercy, and grace. Someone asked, why do we have to pray about it when God is already a God of justice, mercy, and grace? Many of us pray about the same things: hunger, poverty, illness, war, and so on. Someone asked does God not answer prayers until 500, 1000, or 2500 people have prayed for the same thing? Then someone asked if God ignores some prayer requests, while answering others. (That's why I like us to just raise the person’s name instead of asking for a certain thing for them). These are interesting questions. But until we meet our God, I don't think we have the answers.
According to the article, here's a list of prayers that really don't work (but I, for one, have tried them all in the past):
Begging prayers - they're called that because we're asking for something as if God didn't already care.
Wish list prayers – asking for the things we want.
Substitution prayers – asking God to send someone else to help, so that we don't have to do the work. (I do this on Sundays when I “pray for those who have no one to pray for them”.....I will be working on changing this prayer in the future).
So, here are a couple of prayers that the article talked about.
Prayers of letting go … when the Prayer Team meets, we lift the names of individuals we want prayers for, and say, “Lord, hear our prayers.” Instead, we might say, “Lord, hear our prayers and thy will be done.” Another prayer that we sometimes forget to pray, but should be the way we start our prayers – are prayers of gratitude.
Our relationship with God needs our attention. We have different needs at different times in our lives. We have different experiences depending on our age. Wherever we are in life, however old we are, our need for a relationship with God is constant. We continue to cultivate this relationship throughout our lives.
Think about your prayer life with God. Does it need some weeding – of all the ways we tell God we want our prayers answered? Or do we need to plant the seeds of gratitude and let go? Do we make sure we water it with humility, honesty, and surrender?
May God bless your prayer life as you grow with God.
Shalom,
Pastor Rosemary