Thomas Merton said:  "We do not want to be beginners [at prayer].  But let us be convinced of the fact that we will never be anything but beginners, all our life!"
 
Philip Yancey interviewed "suffering people and ordinary pray-ers, experienced caregivers, chaplains and helpers" in order to offer some suggestions on what we might pray for when asked by individuals to pray for them.  The following list is only to suggest some ideas if you should ever find that your mind "draws a blank" when you are asked to pray without any opportunity to put your thoughts together.  HEART DESIRE  - Have you learned to tell God exactly what you want regardless of how impossible it may sound?  I wonder what the point of prayer is if not to express our heart's desire, especially when it matches what we know to be God's will.  CONFESSION - This restores our communication with God, if it has been broken.  LAMENT -  PEACE - GOD'S PRESENCE - At times the "feelings" of God's presence may come and go, however, we can be confident that He is present.  GRATITUDE - Here is an interesting idea.  Medical research is discovering that "gratitude" is the one emotional trait most likely to benefit physical health and recovery.  COMPASSION - God comforts us so that we can comfort others!  FAITH - GRACE -PREPARATIONS - For everyone death is a process of learning to let go.  For Christians, death also involves the anticipation of new beginning!
 
Yancey shared an interesting story about prayer from a man named Vernon.  Vernon ended his story with this short
paragraph.  "For as long as I can remember I've spent at least a half-hour daily in prayer.  There have been experiences when, as the old hymn puts it, 'heaven came down and glory filled my soul.' Those are rare.  Most of the time I persist because I value the relationship with God, just as I value my marriage relationship.  I gratefully warm my feet by the fire."

Question for all you chaplains out there on the battle field.  About what percent of your prayer requests would you say pertain to physical healing?  Would you say that the percentage would show how instinctively we turn to prayer when illness or injury strikes?  My wife and I are dealing with this experience as I write this.
 
Over the years, we have learned to ask some questions when it comes to praying for physical healing.  "Will God get the glory if we are healed?"  Because we are God's children - "Am I expecting this miracle as an entitlement?"  "How will I respond if the physical healing may not be given to me?"  
 
Whatever the results of our prayers, we have concluded that it is not God's will for us to add to the sorrow of those who for whatever the reason do not find the healing that they may have expected.
 
I would encourage you to read chapter 18, Prayer And Physical Healing, in Philip Yancy's book - PRAYER DOES IT MAKE ANY DIFFERENCE?
 
"All praise to the God and Father of our Master, Jesus the Messiah!  Father of all mercy!  God of all healing counsel!
He comes alongside us when we go through hard times, and before you know it, he brings us alongside someone else who is going through hard times so that we can be there for that person just as God was there for us.  We  have plenty of hard times that come from following the Messiah, but no more so than the good times of his
healing comfort -- we get a full measure of that, too."  (2 Corinthians 1:3 THE MESSAGE)

Do you ever feel like you are living in a mystery when it comes to your prayer life?  How do we make sense of prayer when we experience unanswered prayer in our life?

I do have some odd sense of encouragement when I find that the Bible includes prayers that have gone unanswered.  At times I do find some comfort in the "clues" found in the biblical examples of prayers that have gone unanswered.

I think about Moses when he pled with God to let him accompany the Israelites across the Jordan River and God refused his request.  King David was passionate with his request that his infant son would not die but his prayer went unanswered.  There were times when the armies of Israel prayed for great victories over the enemy forces they were engaged with only to suffer terrible defeats.  Even Jesus experienced unanswered prayer!

C.S. Lewis observes:  "The essence of request, as distinct from compulsion, is that it may or may not be granted."  It is not unreasonable for a headmaster to say. "Such and such things you may do according to the fixed rules of this school.  But such and such other things are too dangerous to be left to general rules.  If you want to do them you must come and make a request and talk over the whole matter with me in my study.  And then --- we'll see."

Philip Yancey makes another interesting observation about our prayers.  "The assurance of answered prayers, still sweeping in its scope, comes with conditions.  Am I abiding in Christ?  Am I making requests according to his will?  Am I obeying his commands?  Each of these underscores the relationship, the companionship with God.  The more we know God, the more we know God's will, the more likely our prayers will align with that will."

As I continue to learn about prayer, in the end I am silenced just as Paul was:  "the difference between my perspective and God's."

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways."  declares the Lord.  "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)

I am reminded by Paul that the best answer to "unanswered prayer" may be found in I Corinthians 13:12. THE INTERNATIONAL INDUCTIVE STUDY BIBLE.  "Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face.  Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known."

"When the gods wish to punish us, they answer our prayers." ~Oscar Wilde

 

Well, here we are in the holiday season again – if it goes like the past few years have, the number of heart breaking prayer requests that we receive will seem to overwhelm us!  However, I think the hardest part of dealing with some of these requests is that some seem to go unanswered.  Prayers that go unanswered can be a serious threat to the faith of trusting children says, Philip Yancey.  I agree with that thought.    

I certainly hope by now that you know I believe in prayer and its power to change events and the people involved in them.  I do not doubt that God answers my prayers as well as others.  However, at times I really struggle with what seems like to me to be inconsistency in the apparent answers that come.  I share an example from a Lutheran theologian Martin Marty.  “I find the most offensive kind of prayer when 250 Marines get killed…and four survive, and their families go on television and say, ‘We really prayed, so they were spared.’  That’s an unbiblical game.  It’s magic; it’s superstition.  I like the matter-of-factness of Jesus when asked about the man born blind, and Jesus says, ‘”Did he sin or did his parents?” you ask. He was just born blind.’  Things just happen.  It rains on the just and the unjust alike.”  

Sometimes sin disrupts our talking with God.  “If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened” (Psalms 66:18).  Isaiah didn’t pull any punches when he wrote God’s words in Isaiah 1:15-17.

God is also concerned about how we view social concerns in our world.  Proverbs 21:13 states, “If a man shuts his ears to the cry of the poor, he too will cry out and not be answered.”  Husbands are told how to treat their wives with love, consideration, and respect “so that nothing will hinder your prayers” (I Peter 3:7).

Well, after spelling out some of the reasons our prayers are not answered, it needs to be said that answers to our prayers do not come about according to a fixed formula:  use the right words, live an ordered life and you can expect the desired result.  Our God is not like a jolly grandpa who satisfies our every desire.  God’s grace may be free, but it certainly is not cheap. Yancey points out that “neither purchasing our salvation nor letting us know of the gift was inexpensive.”

When bad things happen, even after we have spent much time in prayer, we need to be reminded “that God also buried his Son on the mission field.”  A prayer request came yesterday about a young mother of 4, oldest was in elementary school and youngest was a few months old.  Her husband had committed suicide.  Can you imagine what her thoughts must have been?  The only way I know of to live thru such an experience as this is as Philip Yancey said, “to have faith in a God who has yet to fulfill the promise that good will overcome evil, that God’s good purposes will, in the end, prevail.  To cling to that belief may represent the ultimate rationalization – or the ultimate act of faith.”

Have you ever been Tongue-Tied and could not pray?

When our first child was about to be born and I was preparing to go into the delivery room to be with my wife, the doctor stopped me and told me there were complications and I needed to tell him which to try and save – my wife or baby!  I asked for a room where I could be alone and pray and all I could get out at first was “help, God!”  I can’t tell you how many times I prayed that but the doctor finally asked me again, “Which one should I try to save?”  I think I could say that I was “tongue-tied”.

I have had the privilege of talking with people about many different subjects, prayer being one of those.  One of the topics is that of “hindrances”in my prayer life such as “unworthiness”.  I think I can safely say that many of us have experienced that in our own lives. 

Philip Yancey addresses some of the “tactics” that our enemy uses against us when we pray.   Some individuals feel a sense of “inferiority”, we don’t deserve to pray.  However, as we study the Bible we see “God listening to prayers from decidedly unworthy people. A sense ofunworthiness “hardly disqualifies me from prayer; rather, it serves as a necessary starting point.  A fourteenth-century Englishman, his name unknown, wrote, “Open your mind to God, who cannot fill what has not been emptied.”

Many of us struggle with “distractions” during our times of prayer.  Hear some advice from British theologian Herbert McCabe:  “When you are praying for what you really want you will not be distracted.  People on sinking ships do not complain of distractions during their prayer.” 

For those new to praying, “doing it right” becomes a real challenge.  Some individuals fear meeting a celebrity, they would never think of praying out loud in a group and some even shy away from private prayer for fear of saying the wrong thing, of offending a perfect God.

Yancey shared that “only recently has anyone attempted to look at prayer styles in light of ‘personality differences’.”  In the end, “the project’s directors drew the reasonable conclusion that we should choose the prayer form that seems natural, that fits our personality type.”

I am sure that there could be much more discussion concerning this subject, however, I will try to end with a few observations from individuals that have spent more time in prayer than I have.  To begin with – Relax.  When was the last time you listened to or prayed with a child?  You have heard me say many times that I learn so much about my spiritual life from my grandchildren.  Jesus loved being around little kids.

Yancey says, “We all differ, by personality and by life circumstances, and some will find their best prayer times while commuting to work and others while feeding the baby.  Prayer is not a comparison contest.”

Martin Luther, who averaged two hours a day in prayer, counseled others, “The fewer the words, the better the prayer.”

“Jesus taught a model prayer, the Lord’s Prayer, but otherwise gave few rules.  His teaching reduces down to three general principles”, says Yancey.  “Keep it honest, keep it simple, and keep it up.”

“Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” Hebrews 4:16