In my father's office when I was a child was a plaque over his desk that said simply "PRAYER CHANGES THINGS." A simple statement it was, but oh so powerful to one who beleives it! I still have that plaque from my father's things, and I firmly believe the truth it proclaims for us.
Throughout the centuries faithful followers of God have proclaimed the power of prayer.
In Psalm 62, we find: "For God alone my soul waits in silence, my hope is from God, On God rests my deliverance and my honor; my mighty rock, my refuge, is God. Trust in God at all times, O people; pour out your heart before God.”
"Our hearts are restless, God, until they find their rest in thee," as did Augustine sixteen hundred years ago.
"Prayer binds our soul to God." Julian of Norwich said that in 1400.
Jesus Himself prayeed this prayer: "Holy Father, keep (thy disciples) in thy name … that they may be one, even as we are one… That they may all be one even as thou, father, art in me and I in thee, that they may also be in us…" Jesus said that in his farewell prayer in John Chapter 17.
The Bible and Christian leaders through the ages make enormous claims about prayer, and they all say that prayer does matter, that it reflects and reveals our created connection not only to the Body of Christ but to the whole of the universe and the transcendence and immanence of God. And they mean that what we do for a moment before bed, or for an hour in the middle of the night,
what we do every morning reading scripture or every once in a while in airplanes and hospital rooms has a power, a purpose, and a presence. God wants, the world needs, our prayer. And, brothers and sisters, if Jesus is right, and I know that He is, then it is worth our time and understanding and attention and practice to pray and to pray well.
It is worth our mature thought, too. For what prayer can offer is reality based, not magic based. It is grounded in the goodness and omnipresence of God and in the admission that we can't reverse the irreversible but that we must pursue the possible. One author writes that if every baseball player's prayers at bat were answered they would all hit 1000, and the game would be ruined in 24 hours. But, again, prayer represents God's invitation to participate in bringing the world closer to the fullness and reflection of God's character.
It's not about magic. It's about hope and joy in God. It is not about every prayer answered yes, but the adventure of finding out God’s answers to our prayers, and our interaction with His loving presence in our lives!
How do you begin to pray? Well, it is a conversation with God. A sentence will do , but I hope it grows into a wonderful exchange, with not only you talking, but you listening. You will soon find that listening for God is the most fun of all. And do not forget to praise God.
For over 5,000 years Jewish and then Christian prayer form has begun with praise or blessing for God. To be thankful is a lifestyle for Christians – we are to have an attitude of gratitude, not complaint or lament or depression. These all may come, but praising God will chase them away. If you are having trouble praying, pray anyway – say “PRAISE THE LORD!” and say the Lord’s Prayer. But I pray your prayer life becomes as deep and wide as ocean.
John Chapman, a contemporary writer, says "The only way to pray is to pray; and the way to pray well is to pray much." It makes a difference. To ourselves, to our God, to God's creation.
Prayer has many forms -- public, private, liturgical, petitionary, intercessory, confessional, invocational, and more -- and they all come down to this: prayer is God's gift, revealing the union that we have with the divine and the creation and the cosmos -- even with one another.
When we pray it changes the way the world is and what the world can be. It is simple, and complex, and it is something to be done, and done again. To be practiced, alone and together, as the key to our lives, so let us be a people and a House of Prayer. REMEMBER -- PRAYER CHANGES THINGS AND PRAYER CHANGES THE ONE WHO PRAYS FOR THE BETTER! Change the world one prayer at a time!
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