on my trip to dallas
my dad helped clarify something for me
that was good.
i related how a friend had recently told me that he hadn't prayed when i requested prayer for this hurricane to be stopped in its tracks, instead of bearing down and destroying my parent's house in Florida. "he didn't ask me for prayer about the other hurricanes that came recently, but since this one is effecting him directly, he asks me." i wasn't put off much by this, as i did feel bad for asking someone to specifically pray for something in a specific way; plus his point about praying selfishly made me think. but i did feel sad that someone would not want to pray for something... sometimes it seems like knowledge gets in the way of being child-like about our faith...
but my dad brought up a major point: the Lord tells us to be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. i was anxious about this hurricane, so it was right for me to go to the Lord in prayer for it. my friend didn't share my anxiety, so it was okay for him not to feel the need to pray. in fact, sometimes our desire to get others to join us in prayer raises another disturbing question: is our prayer not good enough? do we not have enough faith ourselves? or is some particular problem so big that it needs to be tackled with others in prayer? and sometimes a prayer chain has the potential to turn into a gossip train.
the Bible doesn't tell us that God will always give us what we want, but the Bible does say: "...if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three come together in My Name, there am I with them." And there is that passage about, if you are sick, coming to the elders for prayer. So, having people pray with us is a good thing, too.
whenever i pray, especially in the last 3-4 years, i somehow get to examine my prayers when i hear them leaving my brain (or lips...i prefer to pray out loud, even if it's a whisper)...and often i am emberrassed by my prayers and change or alter what i request. i acknowledge that He is my King and i am but a subject. He is my Father and i am but a child, asking amiss and with a limited understanding. prayer is a mystery. there are many aspects to it. i learned here that if i'm anxious about something, God wants me to pray about it. if someone asks me to pray, i try never to preach to them while i'm praying, but it's almost impossible for me to not be aware that he or she is hearing what i'm praying. i like to pray in agreement with others, so that each of us can say "amen" and mean it, but without coming down on a request for healing, for example, by saying, "not my will but Yours be done," which sometimes can feel like a rebuke or an "i'm not going to ask for your healing, brother James, I'm going to ask God to perfect you by this suffering" (which might even be appropriate sometimes), but i will use language that is very much the opposite of dogmatism and is very much couched in, "i am Your Son, making this request to You, my Father and King," which in my mind allows God to say, "Yes" or "No" or "Not right now" and my heart accepts His answer. That is almost the same thing as saying, "not my will but Yours be done," which i say some of the time, but it just feels a little more child-to-Father from my (limited) perspective.
dang. sometimes talking about a subject like this is hard. it's hard to stay focused and not bring up a bunch of tangents.