Prayer

When you pray do not ask God for insignificant things. God already knows what you need before you even pray. Notice how I say need, sometimes what you want is not what you need, even if it seems that way sometimes. When my uncle Jeff was diagnosed with cancer we were all praying that he would be healed. This is what we all wanted. We prayed that he would live. Around two years after he was first diagnosed he passed away. People asked God why? Why didn’t he heal him so that he could live? When I really think about it God did answer our prayers, uncle Jeff may not be alive with us today here on earth but he is alive with Christ in heaven. He answered our prayers with an emphatic YES! You see my uncle Jeff was not close with God for the most part of his life. After he was diagnosed with cancer he got connected with a pastor who really made an impact in my my uncles life. He changed the way he thought and he found God in the last days of his life. If God had healed my uncle like we wanted him to do in our prayers, who knows if my uncle would have found Christ like he did. He could just have gone on living the same life and thought nothing of it. God had something else in mind, he sees the bigger picture. My uncle Jeff found salvation in Christ and that is what truly matters. Him dying wasn’t something that we wanted at the time but it was something that we needed and more importantly something that he needed, and God knew that. That needed to happen for my uncle to find Christ and as a result other people who knew him then became stronger in their own faiths. Not our will be done but Gods.
Jesus took prayer very seriously. Prayer for Jesus was being honest with God, even brutally honest. When Jesus is praying in Gethsemane he is being totally and completely honest with God. ““Abba, Father,” he said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”” Mark 14:36. Jesus is asking God to make it so he doesn’t have to go through what he is about to go through. He relates his crucifixion and all that is about to happen to him to a cup, a cup that he doesn’t want to drink out of. Although he doesn’t want to do it he also in his prayer acknowledges that God knows what he is doing and that God’s will be done. He knows that God can see the bigger picture. Prayer is constantly asking what God is up to, what his will is. In the creation poem in Genesis God created things with the ability to create more. The world is essentially left unfinished and God invites us to help in the ongoing creation of the world. Pray unceasingly and live your life as a prayer. As Rob Bell said, “May you be honest with God as you become more and more open with your role in the ongoing creation of the world.” Jesus knew his role in the ongoing creation of the world and he accepted it, he accepted Gods will, not his and he lived his life that way. We need to realize our role that God has put in front of us. Sometimes when we pray for something we may not realize our role in the world. Maybe we are the answer to our own prayers. Sometimes that is part of our role. Don’t ask God to feed somebody who is hungry when you have more than enough food.