Spirituality/Spiritual Secrets/Prayer

Grow Deeper In Your Understanding Of Prayer

All prayers are answered in a way, though not necessarily in a way that we want or understand

Understanding what prayer is helps us to accept how our prayers are answered. Photo by ABEL MARQUEZ on Unsplash

There are so many challenges on earth that even those who claim not to have faith are praying for a solution to the crises. These are cries of desperate souls. I remembered when COVID-19 was first announced in China, my immediate thinking was not to travel to China for now, despite my interest in visiting with a friend. And before we know it, over four million are dead from the virus worldwide.

Why Is Life Such A Challenge?

Apart from COVID-19, there are many casualties going on around in the world today, ranging from bush fire, flooding, abuse of women and children, starvation, chronic illnesses, lawlessness, oppression of all kinds, all these on a global scale. Even though many of us might not be affected, but there are so many affected, and many more have died from them.

The causes are usually man-made, by ignoring the basic common sense of natural laws and doing it in our own way. Doing things in man’s way has caused all these sufferings we witness today. Many, therefore, not knowing what is coming next resort to praying.

Yet, others have also blamed God, the all-powerful for allowing suffering on earth. What these accusers don’t understand is that any opposition to natural laws has its consequences. Nature will fight back, and the fighting back is what we have witnessed in bush fires, flash flooding, global warming, chronic illnesses (because our food chain has been compromised), etc.

The world powers are waking up to the realities of generations of abuse of the environment. The sufferings are now being felt, so what we need is the surgery to remove the ‘’cancer’’ that caused the pain. It is not God that caused it, but our own wanting things in our own way without thinking about the consequences of our actions. If I ignore a healthy lifestyle, for example, the consequences of suffering from the diseases are going to show up sooner or later.

My suffering will however depend on how badly my body has been damaged before I decide to start living a better lifestyle. Perhaps I will need some life-saving surgery to normalize the working of my organs, etc. So the path of mankind need not go through sufferings and pain, but unfortunately, most only learn after they have been bitten.

What Good Does It Do To Pray?

For those who believe, do pray, but not everyone believes prayers are answered by the magnitude of what is going on in the world today. So the question remains that what good does praying do with what we are seeing now? They queried this because to them, all those prayers are not answered, so prayer has not changed anything.

To explain this, I will say, prayer is not wanting to manipulate God to do what we want, but prayer is a way to allow us to be open to what God wants us to do.

‘’Prayer does not change God but it changes him who prays’’ Soren Kierkegaard

God will do what is best under any circumstances we push ourselves into, but the law must take its cause. We must realize our failure and the willingness to turn around. It is under that circumstance that we can feel the effect of His love towards us, although the love has always been there, our stubbornness has prevented us from feeling it. It is like our eyes are covered with a shield.

Do You Wrestle With Doubts?

We all do, especially during tough times. It is natural to ask ‘’Why Me, Lord are you there?’’ Doubt is not a bad thing as it allows us to feel the frustration, the pain, the agony of what we are going through. The feeling makes us build up our faith. Our doubts usually lead to a stronger conviction of faith to survive the worst storm.

Conviction in the love and goodness of God is what increases our faith. I know the God I serve, you think within yourself. God is always faithful, Abraham once challenged God, ‘’It is unthinkable of You, God that You will destroy the good persons with the bad ones.’’ Gen.18:25. These are strong convictions, but they develop after challenges and doubts.

Do You Believe Life Is Unfair?

Most people say so, and you hear it all the time. They were looking at the fact that justice is not being served and all the discrepancies in the world today. But how do you define fair or fairness?

Fair or fairness is to make sure that whatever happens to me serves my best interest no matter what. That will be fair. And we know that:

‘’All things work together for good for them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose.’’ Romans 8:28

That is what fairness is all about. We do not see the future, but we know it will be good, the extent to which only God knows and can determine for me. Perhaps that betrayal now leads me to the place I ought to be in the first place, that I can confidently say, ‘Oh I thank God that this happened in a way that works out the best for me.’ That will be fair.

The Takeaways

Understanding the concept of how God answers prayer is essential to develop our conviction in the love of God that never fails.

“God speaks in the silence of the heart. Listening is the beginning of prayer.”
- Mother Teresa.

“The value of persistent prayer is not that God will hear us, but that we will finally hear God.” William McGill

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Thank you, Darshak Rana, for Spiritual Saturday.