Do you pray? Does it work? What does it mean for a prayer to “work”? What is prayer? What does it look like? If you have prayed and it did not work, whatever that means, is it because you did not do it right? Is it because you are not spiritual enough? (whatever “spiritual” means) Or is it because you are just talking to the ceiling; no one is there to actually hear your prayer. No one is listening.
I have been praying for almost forty years; I am still learning how; I have done more wrong than right. I have been undisciplined. I have been lazy. I have been uninspired. I have been cold and unbelieving. I have been filled with doubts. If you approach God filled with doubts and confusion you are not alone. In fact, you are in very good company. The writers of scripture often share your feelings; it shows in the prayers they wrote when they said things like this:
“Why O LORD do you stand far away? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?” and “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” and “How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul?”
Are those words written in the Bible? Yes. If the writers of sacred scripture can be so conflicted on the topic then maybe you should not feel so dismayed. I have heard people dismiss the existence of God because they prayed for something and it did not happen. We would never approach anything else in life that way, so why do it with the most important question confronting us? if you entered a restaurant and no one ever came to take your order, would you dismiss the existence of waiters and waitresses? “But”, you may say, “God is not a waiter.” No, he is not. but I find it fascinating that when he came to earth as a human he came as a server; Jesus said he came “not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Let us be honest, we go to God because we need things or want things. There is nothing wrong with this, in fact we are encouraged to do it; prayer is many things, but it is primarily asking. We ask for help, for forgiveness, for financial needs. We ask for healing, either our own or a loved one. We ask for jobs, and for our daily bread. We ask for salvation. Jesus said, “ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened unto you.” he is pointing to his Father and telling us “keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking!”
I have 40 years of unanswered prayers; but I also have 40 years of answered prayers. Do you give your kids everything they ask for? (if you have kids) Of course not. I have never done the math, but I would be willing to bet that I have said “no” to my children’s requests far more than I said yes. And I rarely explained myself because they were not in a position to understand all the complexities of my decision. But it never stopped them from asking; it never even slowed them down! We need to be less childish and more childlike. I know God to be far more generous and eager to give than I have ever been. My faith is not in answered pray. My faith is in the God who answers prayer.
Prayer is the most profound, the simplest, the most beautiful, and the most powerful act of faith any human can perform. For most of us prayer is the only time we can enter into the supernatural. It seems like a strange and weak Christian ritual, and yet it shakes Heaven and Earth.
Prayer is an act of war. When you pray you are declaring to all the unseen forces that oppose God (yes, they are real) that you trust your Father and you will not listen to their lies. When you pray you are declaring to this soulless, sterile, secular age that it is wrong, and you will not listen to its lies.
Prayer is a cry for help. I think that is why many will not do it. We are afraid to admit what is so obvious, that though we think we have things figured out down here; we are not in control. You are not in control of history. You are not in control of your life, or your job, or your children, or what may happen to you financially, or whether you will live through the night. We do not want to admit that we are weak, doubting, sinning, lost and frightened. Stop pretending; you are not fooling anyone that matters.
Turn off this world and get alone and call on the Father of Jesus for help, today, and every day. It’s ok, he told us to. “But is anyone listening?” you may wonder? The answer to that is an unqualified YES. A better question is.. why aren’t more of us asking?
“Prayers are deathless. The lips that utter them may be closed in death, the heart that felt them may have ceased to beat, but the prayers live before God, and God’s heart is set on them. Prayers outlive the lives of those that uttered them; outlive a generation, outlive an age, outlive a world.”
-EM Bounds
“The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.” – Psalm 145