Food for Thought

Luke Chapter eighteen begins with the story about the persistent widow.  “One day Jesus told his disciples a story to show that they should always pray and never give up”.  It is one of my favourites.  It helps me when considering what to do with several requests that have been on my prayer list for a long time.  But aside from that, these opening few words are quite challenging. “Should always pray” are the ones that catch my attention.  I admit that I am not close to ‘always praying’.

            I suppose there are many perceptions of how prayer might be used.  Some might resort to it when confronted with a desperate need or a deeply concerning medical report.  Others might pass a “my prayers are with you’ consolation when someone loses a loved one. Some might view it as somewhat of a drudgery, a routine of my Christian life that I feel guilty about if I don’t get in at least a few minutes regularly.  Others are passionate about prayer. They believe that it does change things as some old wall plaques used to say.  They see it not as a duty but an opportunity to intercede with God on behalf of loved ones, one’s church and one’s country.  The list of how people perceive prayer could certainly fill much more that this page.

            But I wonder how many people truly appreciate it as an amazing gift of a loving God. Afterall he really doesn’t need advice as to how to run the universe he created.

            The story is told of a woman who misplaced an unopened gift in the Christmas ‘clean up’.  Considerable time had passed when she rediscovered it and a tiny price tag that had been inadvertently left on by the giver.  Upon examination she was immediately troubled by how she would respond to the giver.  It was bad enough that much time had passed before she acknowledged it, but the tag revealed that it was extremely expensive and knowing the giver’s situation well she knew that this gift would have required considerable sacrifice on her part.  No doubt there was a difficult conversation to be had.

            Yes, the opportunity to come boldly into the throne room of grace with our wants and needs is indeed a gift.  Yes, prayer can be defined in a lot of other ways, but it is a gift. I think it will make for a lot of uncomfortable conversations in the future.

             Leonard Ravenhill writes:

Quit playing start praying.  Quit feasting start fasting.  Talk less with men talk more with God.  Listen less to men listen more to the words of God.  Skip travel start travail.

            Pastor Dave