I’m reading a book by Philip Yancey called Prayer.  I seem to have found a kindred spirit in Yancey because he admits to some of the same difficulties I have had, and still do, experience with prayer.  Do I do it enough?  Am I doing it right?  If God already knows everything, why bother?  These are just some of the questions Yancey poses in his book.  There are some even more disturbingly personal questions he asks, but I’ll let you read the book for yourself.  Be warned, if you are looking for easy answers or a 3 step process to achieve a perfect prayer life, you will not find it here.  What you will find is a very honest examination of the human experience of prayer and what scripture shows us concerning it.

We have all found ourselves in situations that are full of unknowns, full of sadness and even a sense of futility.  We pray, but we are not sure what to say.  We pray, but we don’t see any immediate help coming our way.  We want things to be OK, but they are not.  Yancey says we are not alone.  Jesus experienced the same thing while He was here on earth.  He constantly prayed for His rag-tag group of disciples and he was often disappointed and eventually betrayed by one of the very men He chose.  Eleven of his chosen made it through to become key players in the early church, but one did not.

In the long run, it appears that Jesus’ prayers for His disciples mostly worked out except for Judas.  Of course, we do not know what specific prayers Jesus lifted up concerning Judas, but regardless, even Judas’ betrayal of Jesus was used by God through the cross to provide salvation for the world.

You’ve probably heard that we should approach our prayer life knowing that God sees the “Big Picture” and we do not.  This is a true statement, but it can leave us a bit cold when we are in the middle of a dark valley and can’t even see the way out.  Trying to think with the eternal long-view during those times is tough.  What about right now?  How do I make peace with my situation, myself, and God right now?

Yancey quotes Ray Anderson who said “Prayer is not a means for removing the unknown and unpredictable elements in life, but rather a way of including the unknown and unpredictable in the outworking of the grace of God in our lives.”  If this is true, and I believe it is, then it means that God is with me all the time working with the unpredictable and often ugly fabric of my life to show me His grace.  Prayer is a way I have to cooperate with God in this process.  By spending time with God in prayer and opening myself up to Him in complete honesty, I will see His grace in my life, even in the valleys.

We read in the gospels that Jesus prayed constantly while he was on this earth.  I still struggle with prayer sometimes, but if Jesus thinks it is so important, I think I’ll stick with it.

Steve Jernigan

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