This past week I was challenged to pray in new and creative ways. Prayer is something that I've been exposed to a lot over the years, and I've learned a great deal about what it means to pray and how God works through prayer. This past week, however, I realized that there were some fundamentals of prayer that I had been lacking.
I've had difficulty praying for others, and often I have little faith that God will actually provide. What I'm realizing is that God strongly desires to bless us--he hates to see how his beloved creatures are struggling and dying because of the world they live in, but often God doesn't act because his actions would go unnoticed or taken for granted. That's where prayer comes in. When we pray we're not so much telling God where the problems are--he already knows that stuff--we're telling ourselves where the problems are and admitting that it's out of our control. Once we are aware of this and begin to have faith that God can help, he does.
In the story of Lazarus, Jesus is told about one of his friends who is very sick and dying. He has the power to heal him at any time, but he waits: "Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. Yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days," (John 11:5-6).
One of the challenges I had was to "Pray for three friends." I had been talking to one of the three just before, and felt God calling me to pray for him. As I was doing so, I heard God telling me that he was going to do crazy things with his life. This kid's life isn't easy, but he has enormous potential if he relies on God. I truly believe that he will make a big impact on his school or family or something, and God's just been waiting for a group of people backing him who will be blessed to see the power God has and the strength he is going to give my friend. Same goes for Lazarus. Jesus could have healed him immediately, he could have prevented Lazarus from becoming sick in the first place, but he let him die because he wanted to show the disciples the power that he possessed, so that they would believe.
"After he said this, he went on to tell them, 'Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.'
His disciples replied, 'Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.' Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.
So then he told them plainly, 'Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.'"
God has big plans that transcend our perceptions of the world and our understanding of what's best. He knows where the need is, even when we don't, and often the need is in us even when we think that others are hurting more. Prayer is one of the great ways that God blesses his followers be affirming their belief and demonstrating his love and power.
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