"Whatever you ask for in prayer with faith, you will receive."(Matthew 21:22)
Prayer is an important part of the Christian life. We are called to prayer daily. We have prayers of intercession and prayers of thanksgiving. Ultimately for me prayer is a continued dialogue with God and a way of keeping other people and the world in front of me.
I don't believe prayer is a mechanism for wish fulfillment. I do believe prayer helps me prioritize and sort through my wants and my needs. I do pray for healing for others. That might be a physical healing but it may also be the strength to meet the challenge of bad health. Can there be a peace of mind.
This passage challenges what I think about prayer. The promise that I will receive what I pray for if done in faith, has not always materialized. Is the problem the faith behind the prayers? I don't think so. And yet I know people who pray for things to happen and they do, and others who may pray for the same type of thing and be disappointed. Yet I find it hard to conclude that one's faith was stronger than the others.
I have heard that people have been advised that sometimes God's answer is no. But that too makes God seem rather selective. I find it truer that a response comes but it doesn't always look like what I expected. Sometimes what is received may be even more than I could have asked or imagined. And may actually be what I really wanted and needed deep within.
I won't stop praying just because I haven't won the lottery, and people continue to get sick and die. I will always pray that in the midst of disappointments and sometimes joy filled moments that God is truly there.
Blessings,
Ed
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