HopeFul Reflections

Does this make you a bad person? Does this mean you were unimportant? Did other people pray harder? Are you doing it wrong?

No. People tend to pray in a transactional manner. They expect something THEY want out of prayer. The Lord’s Prayer has the line “Thy will be done.” However, when they do personal prayer, it becomes “my will be done” with help from God, of course. So, why pray at all? Prayer is a time for meditation and connection with God. When you are sad, you speak with a friend or family member. When you need to plan a big event, you talk out details with your family and friends. When you are overwhelmed, you need quiet and to center yourself. When things are tough, you watch old clips of Rocky fighting Apollo for the 23,984th time. Prayer has a place in all of these. You simply forget our design as humans.

Prayer allows us to speak with God. He is the all-powerful and loving God who gave His only son for our sake. We are able to vent our frustrations and fears to Him at any time and any place. We may also speak out our troubles, and it makes a world of difference when speaking to God vs. our Uber driver. When you speak to God, you meet someone great. When you meet Him, you meet the being who your mother made you dress nice to meet on Sundays, who you had to observe certain manners for to even enter His home. Taking His name in vain is even sinful. Beyond that, you are speaking with the creator of the world and every amazing thing in it; this includes your friends and family. When you fully accept the fact that this is who you speak with, you feel comfort in knowing that He is on your side.

We are also given a chance to feel great power and motivation. Why? This is the same God that brought some of the greatest men in history through their struggles. This is the same God that the majority of your childhood heroes pray to when they are weak. This is the same God that willed this universe into existence and whose existence demands the natural order. If He can make the greatest something out of nothing, imagine what He can do for you.

Our design as people allows us to think. We observe, we remember, and we think. We feel pain, we adapt, and we think. We inquire, we create, and we think. When we are misguided, we do very bad things, but when our minds are right, we do great things. When we think badly, we misunderstand prayer and feel it is ineffective. However, when we use it properly, it can calm our storms, grant us strength, and impart us with wisdom for any struggle.

-JKG