Petoskey United Methodist Church
Weekly Devotional

March 25, 2008
By Jerry Londal

Prayer
 

I recently read the book “Prayer” by Philip Yancey, which I highly recommend. In this book Yancey explores the many aspects of prayer.

As Christians, we are all familiar with prayer, and believe prayer to be the method by which we communicate with God. The Bible speaks much about prayer, and notes many prayers in the old and new testaments. Jesus gave us a guide to prayer in the Lord’s Prayer. We are admonished to “pray without ceasing”. We have promises in many passages in the Bible that our prayers will be heard and answered. In many cases, however, our prayers are not answered in the manner that we would like. What are we to make of these seemingly unanswered prayers? The experience of unanswered prayer is not unique to us. Jesus experienced seemingly unanswered prayers, including a prayer from the cross. Job’s prayers went unanswered for an extended period of time.

Philip Yancey provides some thoughts that I have found helpful. These include:

1. If you make a request of God, consider what you, as God’s hands on earth, can do to cause the prayer to be answered. Example: If you pray for comfort for someone that is bereaved, consider what you can do to comfort that person. If you pray for food for the hungry, consider what you can do to alleviate hunger.

2. Prayer is a two-way communication. In our prayers, do we primarily make requests of God, or do we allow a time of silence in which we ask God to speak to us and provide direction for our lives.

3. We grow stronger through adversity. God has not promised that our lives will be easy if we follow Him. Through adversity, however, we gain insight into the suffering of others and focus on the truly important aspects of God and His plan for our lives.

4. We will never in this life fully understand God’s response to our prayers. This was well stated by Paul in 1 Cor 13:12: “Now I know in part; then I shall know fully”.

In spite of our lack of understanding of many aspects of prayer, it is clear that prayer is the primary means of communicating with a God who loves us.

Let us pray!

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