When I was in college I had a poster that said something very profound in just a few words -- "Life is fragile, Handle with Prayer."
Life can be tough. We live in a broken world and the brokenness touches us at times. Sometimes it affects our lives more than other times. Sometimes that hurt and shattered-ness seems to affect some people more than others. But know this -- everyone you know is dealing with some problem, and they can use the blessing of your prayers.
We cannot be sure what tomorrow may bring. The Bible tells us that fact. James 4:14 Whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. (And that is a fact) For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.
Last week one of our members gave a powerful witness to both the fragile nature of life and the wonder of family and the power of prayer. His situation gave us all a wake-up call: he was a healthy man in the prime of his life, workind hard all day, then eh gets a headache, and, when it gets worse he goes to the emergency room. The word comes back that he has bleeding on the brain. and suddenly he is being med-flighted by helicopter to the Mayo Clnic miles away. Thank God he recovered! But here we see a picture of how fragile this life can be!
Sometimes we do need to just stop and ponder what a miracle it is to be alive. And we ponder just why do we have to go through life that includes suffering. Sometimes there are all kinds of acts of depression, sometimes acceleration; oftentimes there are challenges that seem to be beyond our ability to cope. What is it all about? Some people seem to think that whoever gets the most goodies at the end wins? When we read very clearly the bible says when you die you do not get to take it with you -- although some people live their lives as if they do not believe that.
Life is fragile and we have to pray for one another, and dry the tears from each other’s lives and life each other up. You know the prayers avail much of God's people because when we pray for people's suffering we understand that suffering is a great roadblock to accomplishing our mission and we need to have deliverance, we need to have encouragement, we need to learn from all of our sufferings. I might just add to that thought, pray that he understands how fragile life is and what a gift God wants to give to those who understand His purpose; that is we get to live as a member of God's family for eternity.
Christ didn't say, "All your prayers will be granted," but said, "All things, whatsoever you ask in prayer, BELIEVING, you shall receive." So, the first step to receiving your desires is to trust in God and believe in His love. Whenever things appear to be going wrong, it is just God telling us that He has better plans for us. That's why it makes sense to submit to the will of God. God always answers our prayers. he does this by giving us either what we prayed for or what we SHOULD have prayed for. We are called to submit or surrender to God. It is hard to do, Most of us are bull-headed and naturally selfish. But we surrender to the will of God not to be enslaved, but to be set free from making bad decisions.
The great Presbyterian Pastor Willis Nicholson told me that "The greatest prayer is one for patience." We not only should be patient, but we should pray persistently, for as William McGill wrote, "The value of persistent prayer is not that He will hear us, but that we will finally hear Him."
An ancient Jewish proverb teaches "Do not make prayer mechanical. Let it be a cry for grace and mercy, so that love replaces fear in the place in which you stand."
A pastor friend of mine in Wisconsin told me that Your requests do not become holy just because you ask God for His favor, Rather your requests be4come holy and worthy when they are aligned with His will as found in His word.”.
We need to heed the advice of St. Augustine who said, "Pray as though everything depended on God, and work as though everything depended on you!”
Remember that the Holy Spirit will help you with your prayers. Prayer is the work of God's Spirit reaching out to us with an invitation to travel the highway of Spirit seeking after and being found by God. It is waiting upon God, it is listening to God, it is calling upon God and giving ourselves to God in the moment by moment events and actions of our lives. To pray is to pay attention to God, to enter into conscious contact with God whereby we learn the ultimate faithfulness of God.
Prayer is not just simple asking. It is a longing of the soul. It is daily admission of one's weakness.... It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart." Whatever the posture of the body, prayer is the soul is on its knees."10 Prayer is the soul on its knees, the soul longing for God, the soul longing for God's reign, not only in the world, but in your life, in my life, not only in our crises, not only in our successes, but in every aspect of our living--paying attention to God. It is true: "Life is Fragile, Handle with Prayer."
Without a doubt, "Prayer Changes Things." While prayer may or may not change your present situation or circumstance, there is always a good chance it will change you, the one who prays. It can change the way you look at your circumastances. Can prayer change the world? Not always, not right away; but it will change the way you look at it, and through whose eyes you see it.11 Can prayer change things? Absolutely! But unless you are prepared to change, as one writer put if. Don not pray, because prayer will change the one who prays! That is for certain, too.
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