Does Prayer Matter?

This blog is designed to give people an inner look at a devotional life. Taking time each day to spend time with the Lord. The hope is if you travel on this journey with Rev. Jacob Shaw, you may be more inclined to spend time with the Lord as well. I encourage the use of a devotional, a scripture reading and prayer, then finally some form of artistic mark to tie it all together. 

Today's devotional is taken from: Zacharias, Ravi. The Logic of God: 52 Christian Essentials for the Heart and Mind. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2019. [E-Book] Chapter 27: Does Prayer Matter?

Opening Thought: I found the reading from Zacharias’ chapter revealing. Zacharias speaks to his reader about prayer, and he tells a story about a time he came along a man who had lost faith in God because none of the man’s prayers had been answered. It would have seemed to this man that his trajectory in life had left him in circumstances that were painfully different than what he prayed for, thus he lost faith. Zacharias instinctive internal response to the man’s objections was much more tender than my own, he was saddened by the man’s pain and wanted to help. My internal response gets to those more merciful feeling eventually, but if I am honest, I find this line of reasoning frustrating at first encounter. Maybe I get frustrated because I find myself constantly looking upon the knee-jerk reaction which many people seem to have about a relationship with God being “what about me”. If our belief in anything was predicated on the idea that it must benefited us in order for it to exist, well then, no one would believe in anything, and nothing would exist. This idea become more absurd to me as we know from not only Christianity but most religions and belief systems that we are dealing with spiritual matters. Christianity teaches specifically that we should not be tied to worldly things, and that we should be concerned with the welfare of the soul above all else. Often what people pray for is material betterment, or sometimes relational betterment, but often not at the cost of their own pride or self-righteousness. The point I guess I am making is, when people pray for God, they are usually clearer on what they want, not what they are willing to give up, or most importantly – opening themselves up to the will of God, because often God takes us to places that we are not comfortable with but these places are where we can grow and help other grow too.

I have never met a person who genuinely prayed for truth, revelation, mercy, and a call to go into the world to do good, and then walked away from prayer disappointed.

The devotional begins with: Luke 11:9-13

“And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.

“If a son asks for bread from any of you who is a father, will you give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will you give him a serpent instead of a fish? Or if he asks for an egg, will you offer him a scorpion? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?”

Second Thought: Often people are disappointed in prayer because it is not so much that they don’t get what they ask for, it is that they don’t understand what they need. If you are wanting fame and fortune to feed your hedonistic desire, that is certainly not something God is going to grant, unless, doing so would lead you on a path that could help you see the error of your ways and wants. God may put up roadblocks against that path because what you would gain would only hurt your soul long term. When I was young, I wanted to be an NBA player, what 6’4” young man in high school does not think of this dream, I am fairly sure I prayed about it. But, my body being challenged by a medical condition that did not bode well for professional sport meant, short of a miraculous healing, I was not going to become an NBA player. Let us consider what would have happened if God gave me everything I wanted rather than what I needed, I could have become an NBA player, but my tendency towards ego and achievement would have left me devastated, I would have had money and maybe fame, but nothing worthwhile. 

What I found helps me feel the response of God during or after my prayers is that I pray in many ways, and for many purposes. I don’t just seek, I also dwell with God, I share with God, and I hold expressions with God. The more I treat God as the person in which all personhood was inspired, someone to be in relationship with rather than treat as merely a fairy godmother, the more God’s presence has been made known to me.

Continual Work: Practice your prayer time. Think of prayer as any skill, sometimes you need to work with it before you understand it. One way of doing this is to not stop praying. We offer the word AMEN at the end of prayer to close out a time of formal prayer, however, this is only one way to pray, do not let formality get in the way of your prayer time with God, stay in constant conversation with God throughout the day. No Amen to end this time of togetherness. This will take a lot of work, but when you do this, you open yourself up to God’s presence beyond your hopes in just getting want you want.

What Rev. Jacob is Working On: Constant prayer is something I relish, I started doing this back in 2012 for myself, and I have never looked back. I remember one day just making the choice to speak to God as if He were sitting on my shoulder chitchatting with me throughout the day, and within a year, I saw the world a whole lot different. Why the world was different? It was because I realized that God was and had always been there, not sitting on the shoulder necessarily, but with me all the time. I believe God is with you too, you just need to be willing to exchange with Him.   

Prayer for your day: God, listen to your children praying, God be with us by Your spirit, and show us the way the truth and the life. Amen.

Artistic Close: It doesn’t take much to pray, just find a quiet spot, get comfortable, humble yourself and talk to God. If you’re a parent get your kids in this habit now, because as they grow up, it is a skill too often forgotten. The best way to teach is to lead by example.

Evening prayers from Verses For Grannie. Suggested By The Children... illustrated by Dorothea A.H. Drew (1899). Original from the British Library. Digitally enhanced by rawpixel.