I know little about prayer. The more God answers my prayers, the less I seem to understand prayer. It makes much more sense to be down to earth and do all we can to get the job done. Yes, we can pray, but why devote so much time to it? Isn’t a short prayer sufficient? After all, isn’t God great enough not to be petty about the lack of prayer?

I’ve realised why I would think like that. Because in essence, I doubt prayer.

This is how I get a sunflower. I take a seed, I dig a hole, I put the seed in, I sprinkle fertilizer around it and I water it everyday.

The above statement seems to speak of the irrelevance of prayer, when in fact it cements the effectiveness of prayer. Reason being: I cannot make the seed grow. Therefore, as I doubt that the petitions of my lips have more than or at least the same power to change a situation compared to my capable hands, I forget the key to prayer: the God hears prayer and moves His hands.

“I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.” ~ 1sr Cor 3:6-7, NKJV

At first glanced, it seems fair that the credit be given to God for the growth that happens. But it is the next verse that shows how strongly Paul feels about the importance of the work he does compared to the work God does.

Therefore, I conclude that prayer in itself does not make sense. But it is on the account of the living God who hears prayer, that the effectiveness of prayer is validated.

A word of caution, this article only wishes to convey the importance of prayer. This article DOES NOT intend to claim that prayer is the most important. Balance is the key, would God cause my sunflower seed to grow when it is still in the vacuum packed plastic packet?

This entry was posted on Monday, December 28th, 2009 at 8:12 pm and is filed under Journal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.