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Monday, February 20, 2006
Practical Praying
James 5:13-20
"Talk It Through" is Pastor Jack's message about how to make your prayers as practical as can be. Not one thing in your life is spiritually unimportant, so it's all worth talking through -- with God and with trusted friends who know what prayer is all about.
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"Prayer moves the hand that moves the world." I think it was the poet Alfred Lord Tennyson who said that. It's a concept to conjure with, for sure.
Imagine having the power to tell God what to do, and having God go ahead and do it!
A recent e-mail listed several little prayers written by children on request. A bit too cute for words, maybe, but still some food for spiritual thought....
"Dear God, thank you for the baby brother, but what I asked for was a puppy. I never asked for anything before. You can look it up. -- Joyce"
"Dear God, maybe Cain and Abel would not kill each other so much if they had their own rooms. It works out OK with me and my brother. -- Larry"
"Dear Mr. God, I wish you would not make it so easy for people to come apart. I had to have 3 stitches and a shot. -- Janet"
"Dear God, please send Dennis Clark to a different summer camp this year. -- Peter"
"Dear God, I am doing the best I can. Really!!! -- Frank"
Now that, my friends, is practical praying!
We laugh because children have a way of saying whatever they're thinking, unworried about its consequences. We hear in their words the kind of things we also think, but have learned to cover up for the sake of being nice. Or acceptable. Or just plain safe.
I wonder if God doesn't sometimes laugh as well, at a kind of childish frame of mind we easily fall into when it comes to prayer.
I mean, we human beings do tend to fall short of God's perspective on things. Who of us has been around as long as God has? Or stands tall enough in the realm of the spirit to see everything from God's point of view?
So we give prayer our best shot, and hope we're not missing God's point in the praying.
There's a wonderful prayer promise in Psalm 37:4 -- If you delight in God above all else, God will give you your heart's desires. At first glance that reads like a kind of Blank-Check Theology. Like, just hold out your prayer list and say, "Sign right here, Lord!"
But think about it: If God is really Number 1 in your life, then your desires will line up more and more with what God wants for you. So naturally your prayers will be answered more and more with God's "Yes," instead of "No" or "Not Now."
The good news: It's not just your problems that are worth praying about, but anything at all. As far as God is concerned, there's not one piece of unimportant business in your life.
The better news: God wants the very best for you, all the time. So as long as you're willing to put God first, you can be sure God's best will come your way. Just not always the way you'd like, nor wearing the big blue ribbon you would award for "Best In Show."
For example, when Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, he pled with God to save him from crucifixion (Matthew 26:36-46). I'd sure second that emotion.
Imagine all the good that could have happened if God said "Yes" to that prayer, and Jesus lived a long, full life. But he died the very next day. Cut off way too soon, in the midst of great promise.
And yet, for 2,000 years Jesus' legacy has multiplied far beyond anything he accomplished in his short life. God wisely foresaw what Jesus could only hope against hope for -- Ever-widening concentric circles of blessing, touching who knows how many millions of people who have heard Jesus' story and been helped in his name.
The hand that moves the world also moves us when we pray. Sometimes in the most amazing ways.
Ask God for anything you want. Give God thanks for everything you get. And trust God to sort out the difference always with your very best interest in mind.
posted by Jack Buckley at
4:22 PM
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