Prayer

I feel like I'm long overdue for a post. I've had a lot of things on my mind that I could post about, but today for some reason, my mind and heart are being drawn towards prayer. I think it's fair to say that most people pray at some point in their life or another, even people who aren't sure about their faith or if there is a God that hears or answers them. Seems that many people pray when they are in crisis and have reached the end of themselves..."please heal me, please cure my friend or relative of their disease, please restore my marriage, please let me hit a home run today, please don't let this person die." We bargain with God a lot too, I think. "God, if you do this, then I'll do that" - "God, take me instead of my child" - "God, I promise I will never sin again if you'll only fix this situation..." - "God, I'll go to church every single Sunday for the rest of my life if you'll only let me have this one thing or person that I want so badly." I can tell you one thing, I have done a lot of bargaining in my life. I've also done quite a bit of the "why whining" - "why me, why her, why them, why this, why that" - "if you were a good God, then you wouldn't allow all this bad stuff to happen." Maybe it's just me, but I have a pretty sneaky suspicion that many of us if not most of us have said these things or some similar things in or as a prayer at least once or twice in our lives. How about this one..."God, if you're real, show yourself to me, give me a sign, perform a miracle - then I'll believe in you." Then there's the pity party prayer - "God, I prayed and prayed and begged and pleaded with you to do this or that and you didn't do it, you didn't hear me, and now I'm going to be angry with you because you didn't give me what I asked for." This is a tough one that I deal with on a regular basis with my youngest son. Trying to explain to a 9 year old kid that just because God didn't heal you of these issues you're having, doesn't mean He doesn't hear you or love you or want you to get better. "Well then WHY didn't He mom? He's GOD - He can do ANYTHING, so why doesn't He answer my prayers?" Oy - don't we question God like that as adults too...not only do I have to try to explain it to my son, but I have to figure it out for myself too. Tough stuff. I have some thoughts. Shocking, I know!

I'm going to start off with a little scripture, because why not? It's our owner's manual...there's so much good stuff in the Bible about every possible subject and thankfully we now have awesome Bible apps and websites where we can just type in a keyword and up pops all kinds of verses on the subject. Awesome, so here's just a few verses about prayer, there are hundreds in the Bible:

"Answer me when I call to you, my righteous God. Give me relief from my distress; have mercy on me and hear my prayer." - Psalm 4:1 New International Version (NIV)

"Hear my prayer, Lord, listen to my cry for help; do not be deaf to my weeping." - Psalm 39:12 New International Version (NIV)

"Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done. 22 If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer." - Matthew 21:21-22 New International Version (NIV)

"Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours." - Mark 11:24 New International Version (NIV)

"So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. - Luke 11:9-10 New International Version (NIV)

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." - Philippians 4:6 New International Version (NIV)

Good stuff, eh? There's a couple of things I am figuring out about prayer in my faith journey. First, we don't really HAVE to pray for God to answer our prayers and work out His plans for our lives. Wait, did I just say we don't have to pray? But prayer is a central part of most world religions, especially the two that I belong to, Judaism and Christianity. Both in the Old and New Testaments, there's a LOT of praying going on. Praying with sacrificing, praying with fasting, praying with anger, with doubt, with love, with remorse, with faith, in feast and in famine, in thanksgiving and in petitioning. Thing is, God doesn't need our prayers. He's got our lives planned out and He's in control and He's GOD. Prayer is for us. We pray because we want things and desire things that we believe are what's best and good and right for us or others. Many times, we want to be in charge and pray hoping that God will grant us what we're asking for (after all, there are several instances in the Bible where people were able to "change God's mind" through prayer, this could be an entire post on it's own...but for one example read the story of Abraham praying for the people in Sodom and Gomorrah). And when those prayers are answered the way we want, we make a note of that and it increases our faith in God, because we've seen those prayers answered. We think, "God, you're awesome." But when those prayers are not answered in the way we want, or not answered at all in our eyes, we tend to lose faith, doubt, question and get angry with God. "God, why can't you just give me what I asked for, I have prayed and prayed, and I've fasted and I've poured my heart out to you and you're gonna say no????" Basically, we use prayer as proof. Proof that either God answers us or that He doesn't. Many of us can look back on unanswered prayers or "no" answers later on and see that clearly God knew what He was doing, but mostly we just are looking for proof that He exists, something tangible that we can reference and remember.

This brings me to another thing I've learned about prayer...no matter what we ask for, how hard or how much we pray, and whether our requests are given a stamp of approval or disapproval...we don't always want to or know how to deal with what the answers to our prayer leads to. What I mean by this is...whether a prayer is answered positively or negatively in our limited understanding, we sometimes don't appreciate, recognize, or know how to handle the answer we've been given. Let me give an example from my own life. I was in a position almost a year ago where I had to find a job with benefits. I had been working as a "PRN" nurse which means I could work when I wanted and when I was needed. It was a nice gig because I could work around my boys lives and schedules, and never had to ask for vacation time, I could go whenever I wanted. Anyway, long story short, my husband lost his job and I HAD to find a job with benefits ASAP. I prayed about it and one day I saw a job posting via email, I applied online and next thing I knew I had been hired, a part time job with benefits that was flexible and I could still, in theory, work around my mom demands. I was so thankful and I still am - but I had to learn a new job and it was (and still is) VERY overwhelming and very HARD and I have to work a certain number of days a week and ask for vacation time and may not always get it. Sometimes when we get what we ask for, we have a hard time accepting and being grateful for God giving us what we said we wanted. I think we sometimes take things for granted that God gives us - maybe we feel entitled to what we asked for or maybe we just don't recognize that He answered our prayer and don't feel grateful/thankful. It's the same whether we got what we asked for or we didn't get what we asked for (with good reason - God always knows why He says no). We seem to forget just as quickly as the Israelites did every time God blessed them. Be prepared - when prayers get answered with either a "yes" or "no" - it doesn't mean things are going to be perfect and wonderful. Sometimes we have to sacrifice one thing for another. But rest assured, God knows what He's doing and it's our job to be grateful for both the "yes" answers and the "no" answers and to trust that He sees the bigger plan that we don't.

What is the biggest lesson I'm learning about prayer? It's basically this: we need to pray in God's will. The way I ask for things in prayer has dramatically changed through all of the lessons I'm learning from Him. If I pray for something in God's will, then believe that it will happen, and accept and be grateful for whatever the answer is or will be, then I will have more joy, more peace and while my life may not look perfect, I can trust in God's perfect plan for me. What happens when we either don't pray in His will or we don't trust Him for the answer (the good and right answer)? Well...let me give you one of the best examples from Scripture of what happens when we don't pray, wait and trust in God's will: When Abraham prayed to God for a child, and God promised Abraham he would have one (a "yes" answer), Abraham didn't trust God for the answer because it didn't happen when he wanted/expected it to. When Sarah said, dude, listen...we're getting older than the hills here and we need to get you your child, so here's Hagar, my servant, you go ahead and have a baby with her...Abraham was like, ya I guess I better do that. Well, we all know what came of that - a son, Ishmael. Not only a child born outside of God's will, but an entire religion that wasn't part of God's plan was born out of that lack of trust/appreciation for God's answer to prayer. Now, I have NOTHING against Muslim people, I'm just saying that this wasn't the plan, and there have been a whole lot of consequences that have come out of this one decision of Abraham's to act on his own will rather than waiting for God's to be done. You may not have a story that drastic, but I can just about guarantee that, like me, you have taken matters into your own hands instead of waiting and praying for God's will and you've suffered some consequences for doing so. I do have several examples in my own life that I have, and in some cases, still am, suffering the consequences of not lining up my prayers with God's will. Sure, He can work all things to the good for those who believe, but I've dealt with a lot of stuff I didn't have to deal with and I wish sometimes I could go back and change things, but I can't.

The disciples asked Jesus how they should pray, and this is what He said:

"Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." - Matthew 6:9-10 New International Version

Lord, I pray that your will be done in my life. That I will wait expectantly on your perfect answer to my prayers, that I will trust you to answer them in your timing and know that you have plans to prosper me, not to harm me. I pray that you develop in me patience, wisdom, discernment and gratitude so that I will always wait on you, trust you for the best answer for my life and that I will always be thankful, regardless of your answer. I pray your will be done in the lives of those I love as well and that you will work in them so that they may recognize your answers to their prayers and be thankful for your perfect plan in their lives. I pray these things in the name of Jesus, who you sent to earth to show us how to live, how to pray, how to love, how to serve, and how to trust...even when your answer to His prayer was death on a cross. Thank you for all you have done in my life and all that you will do. Amen.