There’s this quote that I love about prayer. In fact, I love it so much that I’m writing an entire blog post about it.
What is this mysterious quote, you may wonder?
Praying feels so complicated sometimes. But, really, all it is is talking to God. Like the first line in Lucado’s quote, “Our prayers may be awkward”...yeah, they are going to be awkward. And our attempts may be feeble because sometimes we really don’t know what to do, and it can seem scary to pray to a God that you can’t see; It can feel like you’re just hopelessly talking to yourself. But I assure you, that is not the truth. The truth is that when we pray, God in Heaven bends down to listen (Psalm 116:2).
“But since the power of prayer is in the One who hears it, and not in the one who says it,...” We can’t pray to ourselves or to one another, we have no power. Apart from God, we can do nothing. The power of our prayers does not come from within us, it comes from God. The One who hears it.
And because of that, our prayers do make a difference.
Our prayers mean something.
And our prayers change things.
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So, about a year ago, probably early November or around there, I started feeling really sick at church on Sunday morning. With Crohn's Disease, I would often get pains in my lower right abdomen (sorry to go all "medical term" on ya, I can't find any other way to put it), but this time it was on my left side. I don't know why, and that's probably irrelevant to the story, but it feels relevant because that had never happened before. It always hurt on the right side. So my mom and I were sitting in the hallway, and a (wonderful and amazing) friend of mine came walking by, when she saw I was upset and in pain she stopped and prayed with me. A few minutes later we decided to leave, and as I was walking to the car some family friends saw that something was wrong, so they came over and prayed with me in the parking lot. I turned to continue walking and right in front of me (like, seriously, right there) is a license plate on someone's car that says "prayer changes things".
I ended up being fine. Like, miraculously and instantly fine. Maybe it's all a bunch of coincidences, but honestly I don't think so. God was moving in me that day. Pulling me a little closer to Him, through people, and events, and love, and prayer.
Prayer really does change things, it really does make a difference. It's an incredible thing, let's not forget that.
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So, I know this is a short post (although that's not a bad thing). Anyway, I wanted to share this scripture with you to help answer the question of “how do I pray?”, and also it’s been a passage that I've been reading and thinking about lately so it seems fitting to add it in here.
Matthew 6:5-13:
“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. “This, then, is how you should pray:
“‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one."
Thanks for reading!
Faith
Faith
