A few weeks ago, I fell off my bike for the first time in years. At first, I was afraid my bike was damaged and I couldn’t ride it back home. I was about seven miles from home and didn’t want to have to limp all the way home with a banged-up body and bike feeling like a dumb, dumb.
After getting out of the road I said a quick prayer and examined the scrapes and bruises on my leg, then I began to repair the minor damage to my bike. Thankfully my wounds were minor and all I had to do was put my chain back on my bike and straighten my handlebars.
Once I made home, I put everything up and sat down and prayed to God once more, thanking Him things weren’t worse, I knew inside my heart He would use the trial to shape and mold me. A few days later my right ankle started to bruise and I began worrying I had torn my Achilles tendon.
Even for a non-active person, an injury like that is debilitating. So I again began praying, after all, last month we celebrated the National Day of Prayer. While prayer is the right action to take in a time of need, it isn’t the only purpose of prayer. Prayer humbles us because we must surrender to our God’s will.
All too often, people forget exactly what prayer is, even we Christians can misuse or neglect prayer altogether. Prayer is not a means of getting everything we want in life; sometimes it may even mean quite the opposite—God over money. However, prayer works!
The Jewish Torah emphasizes the need for prayer and instructs God’s people to reach out to God for help when experiencing hardship. Prayer is a very Jewish practice, although its approach has changed for Christians if we dig in and listen.
Jewish traditions have specific times and places for praying, specifically at the altar in a Jewish Temple. Many Catholics only view it as confession at a parish. However, through Jesus, we can call on God anywhere with no need for a formula, priest, or Temple!
Prayer in its purest form is simply talking to God about anything: needs, fears, heart’s desire, etc. Prayer is more than us talking to God; it is one of the clearest and most powerful ways God talks to us and that is the missing piece for many who simply want to rattle off their hearts’ desires to God. Jesus rebuked His disciples for lengthy and showy prayers (Matthew 6:5- 9.)
Despite what we may feel or what the world says, God always answers prayers, we just don’t necessarily like His answer. Despite what many false teachers teach, God does not always say yes.
Being a Christian doesn’t mean we have a blank check to ask for whatever we want from God, He does promise to come to our rescue. This genie-in-a-bottle approach to prayer isn’t biblical; it is a materialistic and selfish view of prayer.
As Jesus taught, God already knows what we need before we even ask, in His infinite time and wisdom; He knows if we really need things we are approaching Him for. He also already knows our hearts (1 Chronicles 28:9, Matthew 9:4) —better than we do. Thus, He will answer and one of three ways typically:
God’s response to prayer is in accordance with His will and not ours. God knows best and also knows the future. He answers prayer how He chooses and in His perfect time to make sure you got what you need. Even Jesus didn’t always get the response He wanted but prayed for and accepted God’s will.
Prayer doesn’t change God’s will or our situations, but it can align us with God’s will and brings us closer to Him, and being close to God should make us happy. After my accident I had to change my ways, all of my friends and family prayed for my recovery, even my Hindu friends. There was nothing else they could do for me, but pray and wait.
The doctors had no idea if I would recover or not, God was the only solution. I was soaked in prayer and can still remember my childhood pastor coming to see and pray with me in the rehabilitation hospital.
Yes, God miraculously healed me, but in a different way, I am not the same Martin I was before my accident. There are a lot of things I can no longer do and some things I can do that I never did before this time.
God’s plan was different from me and my friends, family, and myself. And here is the best part about trusting God’s answers to our prayers, as the prophets of old declared, “God’s ways are higher than man’s (Proverbs 14:12, Isaiah 55:8-9, Jeremiah 29:11.)
I’m old enough to accept and listen to God’s answer when it is “no” or “not now. “According to the prophet Moses, Adam and Eve questioned God’s answer when He said not to eat from the Tree of life. The second Adam, Jesus accepted God’s “no” in the garden when He prayed.
God’s will is best because it is for the good of us and our families. It may be hard and we may not like God’s will, but we can rest assured prayer works!
1 Comment
Amen. Prayer works. Thanks for sharing your thoughts Martin.