so far my experience has been terrible with prayer.
mere seconds of praying i get the opposite response.
the thing just got worse.
worse for the person i am praying for.
worse for me.
and then when i reflect and try to count my blessing.
i realize the multitude that are worse off than me
who i believe likewise prayed.
again i ask: why do we even bother?
“In the words of the old formula, prayer is an elevation of the heart and mind to God. It is the mind raising the heart’s chalice, the body’s offering.
The best-known prayer is petitionary, even though it does not make logical sense to ask Omnipotence for favours; we can only ask that God’s will be done, yet God’s will is done whether we like it or not. Still, logic does not account for the contradiction within which we find ourselves contending with Omnipotence.1”
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. – Philippians 4:6
Prayer is universal because it speaks to some basic human need. As Thomas Merton puts it, “Prayer is an expression of who we are… we are a living incompleteness. We are a gap, an emptiness that calls for fulfillment.” In prayer we break silence, and sometimes those words flow out of our deepest parts. [1]
Paul in his letter to the Philippians exhorted them to pray.
It is quite amazing that everything about this endeavor came about as a result of earnest prayer. From the application to the acceptance to the handling of the paper work needed up to providing for the finances needed, we cannot think of no other way that all of this would’ve turned about if not for God’s grace and what we did on our part was merely ask it in Christ’s name.
We pray because we want to thank someone or something for the beautiful glories of life, and also because we feel small and helpless and sometimes afraid. We pray for forgiveness, for strength, for contact with the One who is, for assurance that we are not alone. We pray because we can’t help it…[2]
The passage tells us not to be anxious about anything in prayer. After all, we are God’s children upon whom we call ‘Abba Father’.
We pray because God answers prayer. Whether God says: “yes”; “no” or “wait”, these answers causes us all the more to pray, because as our Divine Parent, God wants us to continue to talk to Him, to speak our hearts and minds and to seek His will as we give Him our hopes and dreams.
And right now as the dawn would usher in a new day for Jen in a new world it is comforting to know that what binds us all is that in we can all boldly approach God’s throne of grace in prayer.
Amen.
