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Why Pray? Prayer is an act of love!
It’s so easy to come to God in what we call prayer with a shopping list and expect God to fulfil each item as if God ran this all inclusive department store. When we don’t get what we want, we question the existence of God, or become angry with God.
Another kind of prayer is much more desperate. When we’re in a tight spot, or someone we love is hurt, or dying or … we expect God to fix things, to restore our loved one, to rescue us. I call this belief in a “Mr. Fix It” God. Actually, what we’re doing is believing in a magical God. Surely God can wave a hand, or wrinkle a nose, and do this one thing for me.
Bottom line, God is not a magician or the best “Mr. Fix It” of all time. Nor does God run a department store. Prayer is not magic. The magic we look for we often call miracles. For me a miracle is when God does reach in and make a change that can feel like magic. Miracles like this are few and far between. I believe miracles happen only when they are needed to keep the world in order. Miracles are God’s last resort. No amount of praying, no special words, there is nothing we can do to initiate a miracle.
What good then is prayer? Why bother?
I believe God listens and answers prayer. Problem is God gives us what we truly need and what is good for the world. That can mean the answer we receive is “No”. Even when God answers “Yes” it seldom comes immediately. Sometimes that “Yes” takes a while. Sometimes our answer brings us something totally different and in the end is much better.
Madeline L’Engle in her book of reflections tells us that prayer is an act of love. When we pray we give of our love. We send our love out into the world to join the river of love that others are sending to join with God’s love. Richard Wagamese puts it this way. You are opening yourself and sending your energy to join with the Creator’s energy.
Prayers do bring about change but often the change is in the one who is praying. Those changes are not magic. When we let go of self, and open ourselves totally to God in prayer, we deepen our relationship with God, and that always brings about change in us. Sometimes that change is so infinitesimally small that we don’t recognize it. Sometimes it’s huge. Our requests, our love, our concerns join with others. And they do make a difference. Doctors have reported that the patients that are prayed for heal more quickly. I know that I feel stronger, better able to cope, more calm, more full of joy when I know there are friends, family, even strangers praying for me.
I know that prayer is valuable. Valuable for me and for those I pray for. I know there is mystery surrounding prayer. And so I pray and leave the rest to God. I pray because I love others, because I need God with me, because it helps me. As Madeline L’Engle says, “Prayer is an act of love.”