A chaplain friend was visiting patients in a hospital when he stopped to see a woman who had just been admitted. At the conclusion of their conversation he asked if he could pray for her. She told him very politely, “No thanks, I don’t believe in prayer. I don’t believe it does anything and I think it’s a waste of time.” My friend heeded her request, they continued their conversation, and then parted on a pleasant note.

This Sunday we hear from someone who had a much different take on prayer. As we know, Jesus was a serious pray-er. He often went to solitary places and stayed up all night to pray. Jesus was so convinced of the necessity of prayer that He taught us what became the most famous prayer in the world: The Our Father.  Jesus articulated exactly how we should pray, what we should ask for, how persevering we should be, and how apt God is to respond. In contrast to the woman in the hospital bed, Jesus seems convinced that prayer does things, it is not a waste of time, and God does seem to care about our piddly concerns.

So from the perspective of someone who never prays, we hear how useless it is. While from the perspective of someone who prays often (and happens to be God...) we hear it is a lifeline. This may lead us to ponder that the reason we don’t see the importance of prayer in our lives may be because we’re not doing it enough.

Perhaps we're being encouraged to spend less time questioning prayer and more time doing it.

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Reading

Robinson Crusoe – William DeFoe

Free – Mark Scandrette

Practicing Resurrection – Eugene Peterson