Reginald A Bradley
Staff Chaplain, San Francisco VA Health System, CA
When I think about prayer, I reflect on my youth and my desire for change whenever challenges occurred. The youngest sibling of three, I did not understand the tears as they flowed from my mother’s eyes, when we sat on the third-row pew in church. Now, I realize she desired change from stumbling blocks and mountains that tormented her life, apparently ones larger than herself. Her life of prayer resonated with me and is now a vital part of my life and spiritual practices. I’m privileged and confident to know my relationship with God is secure. Even in “stillness” and the “meanwhile” period as I wait for God to answer, I have assurance that God knows what is best for me and is always seeking to restore peace and harmony in my life as I strive to serve others.
As a chaplain in the clinical setting, prayer, meditation and songs of praise are often used as interventions to restore peace, a sense of self-worth, as well as hope when life circumstances become difficult for care recipients, often waging war against the mind, body and Spirit. These inevitable and unusual circumstances often cause spiritual distress. Through prayer and continuous removal of unwanted mountains in my life, I’m reminded that God is the ultimate Comforter and desires peace, joy and love to pour into the lives of others.
Believers are charged to spread such comfort to others; “God comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God” (2 Cor. 1:4). Prayer is the channel to not only acknowledge the supremacy of God, but also to invoke God’s grace, mercy and loving-kindness in our lives and in the lives of others. One surrenders as a willing vessel to promote divine change. The great danger, however, is not that we shall believe in prayer too much, but that we so often believe too little, harboring unforgiveness for self or perhaps others, or that our mustard seed faith is weightless and non-measurable for petition before God.
I can identify with Peter as it pertains to human nature, because doubt has a way of slithering into one’s heart-felt prayers to God. The foundational scripture (Mark 11:24, 25) gives Peter and the masses today knowledge, wisdom and insight about faith, prayer and forgiveness. Peter’s curiosity allowed a teaching moment for Jesus. Jesus has a way of using His creation and things familiar to humankind, so that a broader concept and/or lesson is revealed. In this lesson, a fig tree is emphasized. Peter remembered and said to Jesus, “Rabbi look! The tree you cursed has withered!”
“Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. “I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go throw yourself into the sea’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him.” This passage reminds us in our prayers/petitions before God, that it is all right in continuity to hold God’s hand; but we must be mindful to release the prayers, to believe in God’s infinite abilities, and to trust the process, as well as the outcome. Have faith in God!