The Point of Prayer

While reading a recent article in the New York Daily News, I was once again reminded that we often miss the point of prayer. This article criticized Republican presidential candidates for tweeting that they were praying for those affected by the mass shooting in San Bernardino, Calif. This same article praised Democratic candidates for tweeting their support for greater gun control laws. The cover of the tabloid screamed, “God Isn’t Fixing This,” followed by, “As the latest batch of innocent Americans are left lying in pools of blood, cowards who could truly end gun scourge continue to hide behind meaningless platitudes.”

It was hard to miss the irony of someone advocating “action” instead of prayer. I find it sad that in this day and age, there are many who view prayer as a kind of “magic vending machine” designed to answer all of life’s little problems and at the same time those that dismiss prayer entirely as a “meaningless platitude.”

Many people today have a somewhat short-sighted view of prayer as a means to get what they want from a benevolent God, missing entirely the far greater purpose of prayer, i.e. communicating and building a deeper and more meaningful relationship with God.

When Jesus taught His disciples to pray, He used the words, “Your will be done.” And, as He prayed these words in the garden, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will but as you will.” He showed us the importance of asking rightly, not for what we want, but for what He wants for us.

Paul reminds us in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 to “pray without ceasing.” Prayer should rightly be to us as the air that we breathe or the blood that flows through our veins, an ever present and critical part of our being. Paul is reminding us that God desires an ongoing and continual dialogue with Him.

One time as I prepared for a church board meeting, I complained to my wife that it would be impossible to get through everything on the agenda. Her comment stopped me in my tracks, “Is it your agenda dear or is it God’s?”

At that moment I was humbled by the realization that I had made a shocking miscalculation. I had been proceeding on the assumption that God’s agenda and my own were the same. Yet, had I prayed? Had I asked God what His agenda was?

I believe that when we pray without ceasing we become so closely in tune with God that we can in fact know His will, know His agenda and it is in this state of connectedness that we find His peace, His joy and His plan for our life.