On prayer

Last night, I learned a valuable lesson...again.

As long as I can remember, I've enjoyed prayer. I love to win; I love going to battle. I relish having the opportunity to link arms with the Creator of the Universe to do His work here on earth.

But then bad teaching happened. And prayer turned into a club. A club into which you had to be invited; a club that required a class involving a book that, to this day, makes me feel all queasy (in a bad way, NOT a good way.)

Since the bad teaching, I've had some trouble in the prayer department. I've gone from storming the gates of Heaven for an answer to blandly asking God to do whatever. "You know, God, whatever Your will is will be fine for me," she said in a apathetic tone, afraid that her prayers were falling on deaf ears.

But then last night happened. I've been asking God for something, and last night He wanted specifics. It's not unheard of that God would want to know more details. There were so many instances in the Bible where people would come up to Jesus, and He would ask, "Well, what do you want? What can I do for you?" Jesus asked the lame man at the gate, "What do you want?" The man said he wanted to walk. So Jesus told him to walk. How about the woman with the issue of blood? She reached for the hem of Jesus' garment. He felt her touch the hem of His garment, and He told her that her faith had made her well. I could go on and on. The point is, Jesus wants us to be specific. Perhaps so that we can see the answer to our prayer, we can recognize it.

However, if I pray specifically without recognizing the sovereignty of God, without acknowledging that His timing and His will are perfect, I am praying a misguided prayer. I have the potential to become angry and jaded.

Prayer is conversation with God. God created us for relationship with Himself. Since He's not physically walking around my house with me, I have to pray to be in contact with Him.

So, I'm relearning what prayer is and what prayer is not. I have to learn the time for specifics and the time for praying for God to do as He wants in a situation. And that, my friends, is why I love prayer. It is not cut and dry. But it is.