Praying

This past Sunday’s sermon was not only about prayer, it was prayer. We could preach about prayer 52 Sundays a year and never come close to covering all of its aspects. We could pray 24/7 and never finish. Someone once said,” Prayer is not what we do, it is who we are.”

Some people are bothered by the notion that prayer or, as in the case of Hebrew [OT] scripture stories, conversation with God changes God’s mind (Genesis 18:22ff; Exodus 32:14). Others are quite convinced of and comfortable with the notion that God’s actions are tied directly to people’s prayers (Matthew 21:21-22). I know that:
• Prayer makes a difference in mine and others’ lives;
• Prayer makes me more attentive to the work of God in the world and in my life;
• Prayer is about reinforcing my trust in God;
• Though I don’t fully understand the “how” of prayer’s efficacy (Does it change me only, or also God?), I still practice it, in the similar way that I use a microwave even though I do not fully understand nuclear science.

Here are some other thoughts on prayer from C.S. Lewis:

“I pray because I can't help myself. I pray because I'm helpless. I pray because the need flows out of me all the time- waking and sleeping. It doesn't change God- it changes me."

"Almost certainly God is not in time. His life does not consist of moments one following another...Ten-thirty-- and every other moment from the beginning of the world--is always Present for Him. If you like to put it this way, He has all eternity in which to listen to
the split second of prayer put up by a pilot as his plane crashes in flames."

© 2010 Todd Jenkins