Romans 8:26 -- “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.” (a favorite verse)
*********************
What do you pray for?
If I am being honest, I know there have been countless times in my life when I have been praying for the wrong things. My prayers have been selfish, saying, “I want this...”; they have been harmful, saying, “Let this person get what they deserve...”; they have been foolish, saying, “God, if you do this, I promise to...”.
What if God gave us everything we specifically asked for, not taking into account the spirit behind our requests? As the Garth Brooks song goes; “I thank God, for unanswered prayers...”. If I had gotten my way every time, if God had given me specifically what I had been asking for, I’d probably be in a pretty rough spot right now.
I often think about the prayer, said all too often, when someone is scratching off that lottery ticket, or watching the numbers being pulled on the Powerball drawing; “Please God, let me win $100 million!! If I do, everything will be OK!!!” This sounds like such a selfish and silly prayer. But, haven’t we all, at one time or another, sent a similar petition to God?” If we think about it, there is probably a very good intention or a deeply seeded, genuine need behind even the lottery prayer.
When we come into this world and begin our lives, I believe our souls, which up to that point have been living in direct communion with God, become separate from God. Why do you think the first thing we do as a newborn baby is cry and scream?!? :-) We spend our whole lives, every waking and dreaming moment, trying to return to that communion. Our wants, desires, longings, prayers...whatever words you want to use...are focused on restoring that relationship.
When we pray the lottery prayer, in essence we are asking for security; a security that comes from knowing that we are protected, cared for and...at its core...loved. The wonderful news is that, even when we fumble in our words, when the “right” things don’t seem to come to mind or heart, God knows what we are trying to say. Our Heavenly Father knows what we need, even before we get on our knees, bow our heads and say the words. Is praying then important? Oh my goodness, yes. It is the opportunity for us to be back in communion with God. We can listen to ourselves, while God is listening to us, and learn that in our weakness, God is there; He is strong.
So, don’t worry about whether or not you are using the right words when you pray. Our minds can be feeble things at times and words can fail to explain what is truly in our hearts. Even our wordless groans of sorrow, our shouting out with joy, are heard by God and answered. The most important thing? Just pray.
No comments:
Post a Comment