So we just pray as we are, but why pray?

If the why isn’t big enough then, in our busy lives, we will struggle to make prayer a Holy Habit.

What is the point of prayer? Is there more to it than to give thanks; to ask for forgiveness; and a feeling that we should pray because Jesus told us to pray?

Let’s reflect on three other reasons to pray.

1. We live in a crazy world full of noise - our minds constantly being bombarded with social media, emails and texts. Constantly on the go - juggling work, family and church.

But when we pray we quiet our minds – ‘Be still and know that I am God’. We listen for that still small voice of calm.

A quiet mind is going back to our natural state. As we pray we can reap the benefits of calming our minds, quieting our thoughts and pressing the reset button.  Prayer is good for our mental health.

This is useful for us to remember, particularly if we are going through any dry periods in prayer.  If we are doubting the power of prayer or questioning whether God is listening, it can help us keep up the habit of prayer even if it is at this basic level of simply appreciating the health benefits. Like the habit of keeping up with taking a course of antibiotics even if we haven’t got to the stage yet of feeling the benefits. Prayer is good for our mental health as we quiet our minds and go back to our natural state.

2. So that’s at a basic level of awareness of why to pray. At the next level ee become aware that when we pray we are hanging out with God. How amazing is that!

Prayer can be defined as the communication, spoken and unspoken, that takes place between ourselves and God. So prayer is all about communication.

Imagine the diary or calendar entry ‘5pm Coffee with Angela’. Imagine another diary entry 7:30am God.

We are busy people but we find the time to make a diary date with our friends to catch up, share our problems and concerns, support each other through this journey we call life, and offer our help.

We share our lives and are grateful for the support but with all due respect to our earthly friends, how much more productive would it be for us to share our problems and concerns with the God of all creation, our infinite God.

How amazing that God wants to be in a relationship with us, wants to be reconciled to us, wants to hang out with us. He gave us the gift of prayer so we can communicate with him.

There is the expression, ‘A problem shared is a problem halved’. What an amazing gift in our busy lives that we have the opportunity of sharing and resolving our problems though communication with God.

Back to the diary entry ‘7:30am God’. What if the diary note said ‘7:30am Prayer’.  Which one looks more appealing to you?  Which one do you think are you more likely to turn up to?

If we know that at 7:30am we need to pray. Our thoughts about that appointment could look quite different.  Thoughts such as ‘I don’t know how to pray’, 'What was that formula I read in that book about how to ask for a healing prayer?' ‘What’s those words in in the Creeds – I’d better use some of those, a few the big words’ and suddenly we find yourself putting on our posh voice – particularly if we are praying out loud.

At the URC prayer retreat we shared our experience of prayer and the members of one church shared how the best prayers they had ever heard was from a young woman in their church with learning difficulties.  And why were they the best prayers they had ever heard….because she spoke to God as if he was her best friend.

'7:30am God', rather than '7:30am Prayer' looks less like a discipline and more like quality time with our friend and father.  The 'why we pray' is out of relationship and love rather than the stick reason of ‘because Jesus told us to’.

3. So as a bare minimum we should find time in our busy lives to pray as we can enjoy the benefits to our mental heath, at the next level of awareness we have the honour of sharing our thoughts and problems with God but at the third level, in prayer we have the opportunity to co-create with God.

We don’t just need to do all the talking in this relationship with God, we have the opportunity to listen.  Communication is a two-way thing and so is prayer.

In two-way communication, God can tell us how we can be part of the answer to our prayers. We share our concerns with God. 'A problem shared is a problem halved', great, but not only that, he can tell us how we can be part of the answer to those prayers. We are called to listen out for that still small voice of calm and so as we calm our minds, and clear our personal thoughts, we can tune into divine knowledge and wisdom.

Think of a radio.  If all our personal thoughts are the interference on the radio, then if in prayer we tune in and quiet our minds, we can listen for the pure, divine knowledge and wisdom of God. God is always transmitting but we often either choose not to listen or have too much interference going on in our mind to hear that still small voice of calm.

So at the highest level through prayer we can co-create with God. We can be part of the answer to our prayers but we, possibly, can also influence God.

It doesn’t do us any favours if we believe in a “laser beam” God who responds to particular prayers by specific acts in the world, picking out one situation to change but leaving so many others. But we are told in Mark 11:24 'Whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours'. In Matthew 7:7 'Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you'.

We have the opportunity to co-create with God but we ask with care. There is the caveat that we are warned not to put God to the test, just as Jesus resisted in the desert, and we know God is no genie in a bottle who grants our every wish. We believe in God not magic.

Our request may or may not be granted. It is not helpful or faithful to ask of God for something that is not reasonably possible. Why? Because success in prayer in those situations would not prove the Christian message but would prove something that looks more like magic.

The Old Testament reading from Isaiah reminds us of our limited knowledge on what to ask for in prayer ‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts’. Isaiah 55:8-9

When we bring our prayer requests to God that we need to remember and pray the words that Jesus prayed in the garden of Gethsemane, “Yet not my will but yours be done.” (Luke 22:42). The greatest prayer that can be offered is 'Thy will be done'.

And what is God's will? Perhaps it is worth considering how God is feeling about the person or the situation we are praying for.

We know how God feels because his true nature was revealed through Jesus. We think of Jesus’ tears of compassion for Mary and Martha as they mourned for Lazarus; we think of the physical healings Jesus performed from a place of compassion; and we think of Jesus words recorded in Luke 11:13

'If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!'

We don't have to talk God into caring. God cares more than we can ever imagine and has ultimate control over all that happens.

If we do trust that God cares, that God sees and responds to the bigger story, then we can bring all our requests, with all their motives, to him. We can be relaxed enough not to worry about why we are asking, and confident enough that it is sufficient to bring all our concerns to him in prayer.

Conclusion

To ask how God answers prayer is not to find a perfect philosophical explanation but to be motivated and energised to pray and act. Is it through our questioning that we often grow in faith. But through everything that I read the message was loud and clear that we don’t need to have any fancy knowledge, fancy prayer journals or fancy location to pray in, we just need to pray as we are.

We pray as we can, not as we can’t.

The holy habit of prayer is an act of worship, it is an act of thanksgiving, it is an act of discipline but there are also so many benefits to us. In this crazy, noisy world we have the opportunity to be still and listen to that still small voice of calm, we can share our burdens and concerns with our loving God who only wants what’s best for us and we have the opportunity to co-create with the God of all creation. I pray, that prayer becomes so natural to us as a church that we can all regularly experience the joy of walking in commune with God, as he gently and lovingly leads us in this wonderful experience that we call life. Amen