Friday, May 2, 2008

Prayer

“O my God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, and am not silent.”
-- Psalm 22:2

Prayer. It’s one of the most mysterious, and difficult of the spiritual disciplines. Ask most Christians what spiritual discipline they struggle the most with, and prayer will be at the top of many of their lists. Distractions, time, lack of clear answers, all of these are stumbling blocks to our communication with God.

Prayer is a strange thing if you think about it. We bring to God some of the most significant events of our lives. Our burdens, our tragedies, our deepest desires; we cry out to God in private giving them over to Him. We ask and sometimes beg for an answer, and yet often times we hear no audible response.

For some prayer is simply an opiate to numb our pain. The weak turn to prayer as a way to deal with their problems, for intelligent people know that prayer really doesn’t change anything, how could it. With so many tragedies in the world, are we really so ignorant to think that God above would hear our insignificant problems, and be interested in our lives?

We pray to a God we cannot see, and we hope for an answer that we cannot hear. Prayer is a mysterious and mystical discipline. And yet, it is a powerful one.

Lives have been changed through prayer, desperate requests have been answered, and guidance has been received. Though we cannot hear an audible voice with an answer, many would testify to the hand of God guiding them through the labyrinth of problems in their lives.

Over the next few days I would like to interact with the idea of prayer from Scripture. We are told to make our requests known to God because he hears our prayers, and answers them according to his will.

Prayer is a mystical experience, an encounter with the divine. It is our direct connection to God.

No comments: