Seeking God - September 8
Today’s Readings - Psalm 41, 52; 1 Kings 13:1-10; Phil. 1:1-11; Mark 15:40-47
In Today’s Epistle to the Philippians, Paul prays for the people of Phillipi. In Ephesians in the chapter just prior to this one he speaks with a sense of urgency to the people of Ephesus on the importance of prayer, but do we really know or understand prayer?
Prayer is one of those intangible mysterious yet vital parts of our spiritual lives. There are over 650 prayers in the Bible and 25 different instances of Jesus praying. The number of times the word “pray” or variations appear varies depending on the translation. For example, the word ‘pray” appears 547 times in the King James Version and 322 times in the English Standard Version. You get the idea – prayer is a very important part of our biblical heritage.
But what is prayer? There’s not one right answer. Prayer can be extremely personal with multiple methods and types of prayer; however, what’s ultimately most important is that we do it. That we take time each day in some way to have a conversation with God, reaching out to someone who has already reached out to us in love. And that’s really all prayer is - sacred time spent in conversation with God, listening hopefully more than speaking. God places within us the desire to be in relationship. God initiates the invitation, inviting us to reach out to share our deepest thoughts and feelings. It’s on us to respond.
In a memoir I’m reading, The Choice, Dr. Edith Eva Eger takes her readers through a painfully detailed account of her time as a prisoner in Auschwitz during WWII. After she and her sister are rescued by the Americans and she begins to recover from her injuries, she recounts her prayers during their imprisonment and after. She notes the loss of faith in God by others who felt abandoned by God. They could not fathom a God who would allow the Germans to kill and torture thousands of people with such brutal disregard for human life.
The author states that she never thought of what happened as a result of God’s absence or disregard for their lives but rather she felt God’s presence in the tiny moments of comfort and in the way they found the briefest relief from their torture. She chose to believe in a God who would not have granted her survival while allowing the horrific deaths she witnessed.
Herein lies the problem with prayer. What are our expectations? Do we think if we pray hard enough or if we’re deserving, we’ll be granted our request? And if our prayers aren’t answered, is it perhaps because we haven’t prayed hard enough, or lived faithfully enough? When we read that Jesus encourages others to pray, it was so that they might ultimately grow in their faith and dependence on God, so that they might achieve a closer union with God not so they can manipulate or change God’s mind.
Prayer connects us to God by acting as a sacred conversation allowing us to share our deepest thoughts, fears, and desires while also receiving God’s guidance and peace, creating a deeper relationship over time. Through prayer, we express gratitude, concern for others, our love for God while we align our hopes with God’s will and receive comfort.
Paul encourages the church of Phillipi to focus on their prayer life, all the while knowing that for them as for most of us the act of praying will remain a mystery. However, Jesus assures us that our prayers matter, mystery or not, so we pray.
Faithfully,
Sally+
Challenge and Reflection - Take time today to consider renewing or possibly beginning for the first time a dedicated time each day to pray. Trust that God hears your prayers. Remember, Jesus teaches that if we seek God we will find and be found by God. Saint Stephen’s has a variety of resources for developing a prayer life and our clergy are available to help you find what you need.