Have You Ever Prayed...
Have you whispered into the night, "Why God?" or maybe said angrily, "If you can hear this, if you are really there - I don't like you! I don't believe in you!"
What about a, "Please God. Please God, if you're real - do this for me, make this happen. Right now, show me you're real. Please."
Praying is like getting in your car, putting on your seatbelt and driving down the freeway.
To get into your car, you have to believe that it works, it runs or at least hope that it will start when you turn the key. To put on your seatbelt means that you believe it will help you stay safe if you get into an accident, besides you've read the reports, heard the horror stories and have seen the news. Better to be safe than sorry, right? To drive on the freeway at unnatural and inhuman speeds of 55 or, in California, 65- 85, you have to believe that it is worth it. Taking the risk of going so fast with so many other vehicles, some heading straight toward you, some behind you, some to the side.
You have to be convinced that the risk involved in getting from Point A to Point B is minimal to arriving where you want to be.
It is the same thing with Prayer. To pray, you have to have faith.
A Definition of Faith according to the Random House College Dictionary: 1. Confidence or trust in a person or thing, 2. Belief that is not based on proof.
Take your car, or a friends car (don't really take it, just imagine that you are in it...) for example. Confidence in your car ride = means believing that if you ride in it and steer it appropriately you will arrive at your determined destination. Confidence in using the seatbelt = means that you believe that it will protect you, based on statistics, tests, and studies that have been done, but there is NO PROOF.
You have never lived today before now. You have never read this word at this moment with the sky the way it is right now. You have never been at this stage emotionally and the skin cells that are shedding from your body microspcopically have never been where they are going (perhaps joining dust and other particles in between your keyboard keys) before. This moment in time has never happened before for anyone in the world. We are collectively experiencing the NOW as I write, as you read, as we speak to the people around us and as God watches and waits in expectation.
You have never driven somewhere before and will never drive to that same place under the exact same circumstances, so therefore there is no PROOF that you will be safe.
Every moment is fluid, changing, morphing and alive. This is life. A person experiencing the passage of time. When dead, there is still time - just not for you. You are done experiencing when you pass away.
Faith. Belief without proof. Opening the fridge and having confidence that the leftovers you stored the night before will be there (that is, if you do not have roomates, or teenage boys, or really anyone else that would eat your leftovers).
Have you whispered into the night, "Why God?" or maybe said angrily, "If you can hear this, if you are really there - I don't like you! I don't believe in you!"
What about a, "Please God. Please God, if you're real - do this for me, make this happen. Right now, show me you're real. Please."
Praying is like getting in your car, putting on your seatbelt and driving down the freeway.
To get into your car, you have to believe that it works, it runs or at least hope that it will start when you turn the key. To put on your seatbelt means that you believe it will help you stay safe if you get into an accident, besides you've read the reports, heard the horror stories and have seen the news. Better to be safe than sorry, right? To drive on the freeway at unnatural and inhuman speeds of 55 or, in California, 65- 85, you have to believe that it is worth it. Taking the risk of going so fast with so many other vehicles, some heading straight toward you, some behind you, some to the side.
You have to be convinced that the risk involved in getting from Point A to Point B is minimal to arriving where you want to be.
It is the same thing with Prayer. To pray, you have to have faith.
A Definition of Faith according to the Random House College Dictionary: 1. Confidence or trust in a person or thing, 2. Belief that is not based on proof.
Take your car, or a friends car (don't really take it, just imagine that you are in it...) for example. Confidence in your car ride = means believing that if you ride in it and steer it appropriately you will arrive at your determined destination. Confidence in using the seatbelt = means that you believe that it will protect you, based on statistics, tests, and studies that have been done, but there is NO PROOF.
You have never lived today before now. You have never read this word at this moment with the sky the way it is right now. You have never been at this stage emotionally and the skin cells that are shedding from your body microspcopically have never been where they are going (perhaps joining dust and other particles in between your keyboard keys) before. This moment in time has never happened before for anyone in the world. We are collectively experiencing the NOW as I write, as you read, as we speak to the people around us and as God watches and waits in expectation.
You have never driven somewhere before and will never drive to that same place under the exact same circumstances, so therefore there is no PROOF that you will be safe.
Every moment is fluid, changing, morphing and alive. This is life. A person experiencing the passage of time. When dead, there is still time - just not for you. You are done experiencing when you pass away.
Faith. Belief without proof. Opening the fridge and having confidence that the leftovers you stored the night before will be there (that is, if you do not have roomates, or teenage boys, or really anyone else that would eat your leftovers).
And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone that comes to him must believe that he exists...
~Hebrews 11:6~
So here we are at prayer. You come to God and say something. Listen to this:
God answered thier prayers because they trusted in him.
~1 Chronicles 5:20~
Trust: 1. Belief in & reliance on the integrity, strength, ability, etc. of a person or thing.
Trust in God allows us to have a conversation with him, even if it is one of telling him we're mad at him, questioning him, hating him, begging him for our way.
The key to getting your prayer answered is simple. Trust. Trust isn't a feeling that is invoked or a thought that makes you feel secure. Trust is an action, reliance on something. When you rely on something it moves you and/or directs you to respond and make a choice other that the one you would have made if you didn't trust the person or thing you are chosing to trust.
Back to the car, if you don't trust your friend's driving (and there are certainly a few who I won't drive with again!!) you don't chose to ride with them. Lets say your car has flat tire, would you trust it to manuver smoothly on the freeway?
Trusting something or someone manifests itself very clearly in your actions whether you like to believe it or not. I didn't trust my ex-boyfriend and whew! It manifested itself clearly in my attitude, even though I swore I trusted him and he swore he was trustworthy.
With God, it is as simple as chosing to trust him. Saying to yourself: "I am going to try. I am going to believe. I will take a chance, a risk and say a prayer." Maybe even research it and see what God's opinion is about prayer. Maybe you will go so far as to wait in expectation for God to answer you.
That's my challenge to you if you have ever prayed or if you have never prayed. Try it, doing it is an action that shows TRUST and will evoke a response from God.
Today as you read this, you are alive, you are experiencing a peice of time right now that is entirely unique. Take a little risk; at the worst God will say "no", or "not right now", but he will say something! He is watching and waiting for you.
If you want to read more about Prayer here are some good scriptures to read also:
Luke 18:1-8
Luke 11:1-13
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
James 5:13-18
Have fun! And let me know how it went.
Comments
Nice Post. I believe in the power of prayer... but sometimes I get to a point where I want a specific answer (in my favor, of course), but I don't really think that God will give it to me... so like a little kid I pout and ignore God. Thank goodness he is Patient. Phew!