In the heat of a horrible situation what is your knee-jerk reaction? What’s the first thing that you do when everything and I mean everything around you starts to fall apart? Scrap that, when everything around you starts to disintegrate. What do you do? Sleep? Take a walk? Take a bath? Yell and scream? Talk to a friend? Find some junk food? Starting sighing loudly?
Can I be honest with you? If your first answer wasn’t pray then you need to reevaluate some things.
In our culture and context prayer is seen as something trite, a throw away activity that we talk about but not many of us engage in because really, what good does praying do? Many of us have adopted the notion that prayer is the least we can do whenever we or people around us experience something horrible. There has to be more. But think about that for a moment. There has to be more than prayer? There has to be more than bringing your need to your Heavenly Father-the one who knows all things, who has good plans for you, who walks with you through your pain and promises to restore what the locust has eaten? There is more than that?
It seems trite because we have limited the impact that prayer actually has not only in our situation but also in our lives. Sometimes I wonder if we truly believed not only in the value of prayer but in the person to whom we pray. If we really believed that God can and will work on our behalf. If we really believed that there is nothing that is impossible for Him. If we really believed that heals the sick, comforts the broken hearted and restores the lost. If we really believed that His plans, regardless of what we see, is and always will be good then when the bad stuff happens and they will, wouldn’t it make sense that we bring it to Jesus?
by Kalesha Peters
