I always remember that, as a kid, I was so impressed with some of the prayers I would hear in church, especially those in the King James/Reina de Valera version. You know, the ones, with the old language words. Since that was the language of the Bible, I thought those were the prayers to which God gave priority.
Another thing that impressed me was the length of the prayers. The only time I did not like the long prayers was when we gave thanks for our meal. The elders of our church would hold our hands while giving thanks. I always thought it was to keep us kids from eating during the long prayers. How did they come up with so much to say? My prayers always seemed to be short and to the point. I would ask my Sunday school and discipleship teachers and my pastor how could I learn to pray like that; but they would try to explain it to me with theological church words which they themselves probably did not understand.
One day, during a sermon on the Pharisee and publican’s prayers, it dawned on me. It was not so much about the words we use in our prayers, but our attitude before God. Then, a few years later, I learned about the things we do as an activity, rather than living it as a lifestyle. What did Jesus mean to pray without ceasing? Do I really need to close my eyes? Do I have to kneel, sit or stand? Does it have to be while everybody is still sleeping to count? Do I have to sacrifice something so that God will listen to my prayers? The more I pondered, the more questions came to mind.
As a (rotten) kid, my grandmother would punish me by making me kneel in a corner of the house. Every once in a while, she would check up on me. She knew me too well. She would ask me if I was still kneeling and my response was that on the outside I was kneeling, but on the inside I was standing up. That was how rebellious I was! Is that not what we do sometimes before God? We give the appearance of being humble, but in our hearts, we are filled with pride and standing up.
Before leaving for India in 2002, we would ask people to give to missions. Come and do missions, we would say and, if nothing else, pray for missions. When we first returned to the United States, we apologized to those to whom we had said those words. It was during our first years on the mission field that we realized the best thing anyone can do for us is to pray. Many times we would find ourselves ready to give up because of the situation we were in and, almost like clockwork, at our lowest points, we would receive a note, a letter, a phone call from someone letting us know they were praying for us. WOW! We came back and asked everyone to simply pray for us. We learned that when people pray for us, they will want to support the work we are doing and to be a part of it in other ways. They might even come join us! With all my heart, I believe this is the power of prayer.
PRAY . . . GIVE . . . GO . . .