Bungee Cord 5-20-13

Hello,

     On my way home from the church at which I work I pass many other churches, and near to the highway on the lawn of a particular church for the last several months has been this invitation on their sign, “Prayer works.  Come pray with us.”

     “Prayer works.  Come pray with us.”  Every time that I have passed this sign, I find myself asking, “What do they mean when they say, ‘Prayer works.’”

     I know that some people who, when they say, “Prayer works,” they understand that to mean that if you pray, God will do for you what you ask, which they understand John 14:14 to say.  Pray for financial relief when you are having money problems, and God will solve your money concerns.  Pray for an illness to go away, and God will take it from you.  Pray for a boyfriend or girlfriend, and God will give you one.  Pray for a parking place in front of the post office, and one will await you when you drive up.  For those who see prayer “working” in this way, they place the success of prayer upon the number of people praying (the more the better), the right prayer being said (How will God know how to respond if we aren’t specific enough?), and making sure that the words “In Jesus name”, are included.

      But is that really the way the Bible depicts the workings of prayer?  Is that really how the Bible depicts our relationship to God?     Is that really the way that prayer functions in our lives?  Is prayer an exercise akin to putting nickels into a gumball machine and having a gumball emerge?

     And when prayer doesn’t work that way the answers are given: you didn’t truly believe , or God said “no”, or you must have left out something important, or not enough people were praying with you,   But worst of all, when prayer goes “unanswered”, some have given up on God altogether.

     Let it be known that I echo the pronouncement, “Prayer works,” but when I say works I understand it to mean the way it worked for Jesus who prayed three times in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night of his betrayal.   On that night he entered that garden aflood with fear and anxiety over what was about to happen.  After he had prayed when he left that garden, albeit in the hands of his captures, he was at peace and empowered to face what lie ahead.  Such, in my understanding, is the working of prayer.

     To pray is to come to God with the realities of life in a conversation with one who divinely cares.  Like a child who has come to rest in her mother’s lap after she skins her knee finds herself less preoccupied with the scrape on her knee and more aware of the comforting strength of the one on whose lap she rests, so is the working of prayer.  Therein lies, as I understand it, the power of prayer: a power that overwhelms fear, anxiety, envy, or pride that leads one to sweat blood with a peace, a confidence, and a hope that says to the world, “Ok.  Hit me with your best shot.”

     “Prayer works.  Come pray with us.”

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger