Prayer

Prayer. It’s the answer to everything. So why can it be so hard? It’s talking to God, right? I should just be able to pick up where I left off and keep going just like with an old friend. So why do I put it off?

Or I find myself approaching Jesus with a litany of requests. I mean, they’re all good things – employment opportunities, good health, safe travels, that sort of thing. That’s what we’re supposed to pray for, right?

And then there are the friends that don’t go to church but do believe in some benevolent force out there and they think I have some direct line to it. When things go wrong, I am one of the first ones they approach to ask for prayer because…well, you know…I’m religious. When friends ask me to pray, of course, I do. They will tell me my prayers do work because they got the job, or the meeting with the child they gave up for adoption 40 years ago went well (true story) or their health improved. I don’t think anyone has ever told me my prayers don’t work but that’s because ultimately all prayer does work – but not always the way we think it will.

So, what is prayer? It is talking to God. My hope is to talk with him as naturally as I do with my human friends. That means sharing the ordinary things like how my day went, what I thought about, what I read. Praise is also an important part of prayer. It should come before our requests, even before our thanks and contrition.

When it comes to my requests, I know he is always happy to listen. There is no special formula I can pray the guarantees I will get what I ask for in the way that I think it should be. Thank goodness there isn’t because I’ve demonstrated time and again that I do not always know what is best! The best prayer is simply asking that all obstacles will be removed that keeps a person from God. Or to put it more simply, Thy will be done, not my will be done!

As for a direct line to God – if you are baptized then the Trinity lives within you and you do indeed have a direct line to God. But just being sacramentalized isn’t enough. When we receive this great gift of being adopted children of God, we need to open this gift as it isn’t of any use until it’s unwrapped. Then we can enjoy it, use it, and share it. As for the next time your unchurched or spiritual-but-not-religious friends ask you to pray for them, tell them you will but remind them that Jesus would love to hear from them too. 💗