The Power of Prayer
We are all
accustomed to prayer, whether that be at church on Sunday mornings, beside our
beds before we go to sleep at night, or even at a football game before the
kick-off. Whatever the circumstance, we
all know what prayer is. We know the
gist of why we do it and, most of us, know how to pray. But many people, myself included, sometimes ask
the questions, "Does God hear me?" or "What difference is this
going to make?" But I am here to
tell you that prayer is something powerful.
I have grown up being a very independent
person. I have never been one to want to
ask for help when a task needs to be done.
I usually just figure it out and do it.
So, as you can assume, asking in prayer and having faith that God will
take care of a situation or fix a problem, well, it is very hard for me, yet I
have still experienced the power of God through prayer. I went on my first overseas mission trip to Kenya
in Africa this last summer. There were
six of us that went on this trip together, but, for a day a week for about four
months prior to the trip, we met and prayed.
We prayed for the people that we would meet and for the people who flew
our planes. We prayed for the people who
prayed for us and thanked God for them every single day. We prayed for lives to be changed through us
and for our own lives to be changed. We
prayed for safety and for comfort in that foreign land, and every single prayer
we prayed was fulfilled. There are so
many instances where we could have been hurt or where something terrible could
have happened, but it never did. We saw
the hand of God in every single moment during that trip and even before, during
the preparation time.
Although we
see positive results when we ASK in prayer, asking is not the only reason we
should pray. We pray for different
reasons: to ask, to thank, to tell, to
listen. But if you do not know how to
pray, how do you? Or if you do know how
but are at a loss for words, what do you say?
Well, God has equipped us with a template, for lack of a better word. This prayer "template" is found in
Matthew
6:9-13.
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And do not bring us to the time of trial,
but rescue us from the evil one.
I bet, for
many of you, as you began to read it, you said it in your mind without actually
reading it. You may have changed a few
words, but this prayer has become so accustomed to us that we have forgotten
the true meaning behind it.
In one of my
classes at college this semester, we read a book entitled Kingdom Come: How Jesus Wants to
Change the World. It is written by a
pastor by the name of Allen Mitsuo Wakabayashi and in the book he discusses
this prayer and explains its meaning far better than I ever could:
Earlier, I had grown very tired of the Lord's Prayer. Having been raised in a church that said it
week after week, it just felt like meaningless ritual. After all, I thought, isn't it better to
just pray what I feel, to pray what spontaneously wells up within my heart and
mind? Rote prayers smacked of institutionalism
and deadness to me.
But now it makes so much sense to me why in Jesus' model prayer for us
we are instructed to pray, "Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in
heaven." [ . . . ] [W]e are praying for God's power and reign to invade
the present. And we are also praying for
the kingdom to come in all its fullness one day. The entire prayer, in fact, is an expression
of the prey-er's desire to live life according to the kingdom of God. We petition our King for daily provision
("Give us this day our daily bread"), we ask for the forgiveness of
God's reign as we seek to live that forgiveness out with others ("And
forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors"), we ask for
the King's leading to keep us from sin and evil ("And do not bring us to
the time of trial, but rescue us from the evil one") and we acknowledge
God's eternal reign ("For the kingdom and the power and the glory are
yours forever").
I just find
that excerpt so wonderful! He says it
exactly right. We should never again
have the excuse, "I don't know how to pray." Here is a perfect prayer that you can
follow. And not only follow it, but use
it as a fire starter; use it to spark your prayer imagination and veer off into
its depths next time you are kneeling beside your bed.
I also would
like to say, don't be careful with what you pray for. I'm sure you have heard, "Be careful
what you wish for." Well, don't be
careful when you pray. Pray with
boldness and faith. If there is
something on your heart, let God have it.
He can handle it. If you are
scared to ask for strength because you think you are a weak person, don't
be. If you think you're strong and find
you are weak, don't be scared to lean on God.
He can handle it. Prayer is like
God's portal into your heart, and your portal into his arms. God did not create us so that he could watch
us struggle and only kind of get through life; he created us so that we could
excel and succeed in life with his help.
Don't be afraid to ask for it!
And to
finish up, here is a prayer that is "not careful":
“Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love,
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
And where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved, as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.”
― St. Francis of Assisi
Where there is hatred, let me sow love,
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
And where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved, as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.”
― St. Francis of Assisi
