My Powerful Prayer?

One of our daughters called.  Her car battery died.  She'd been having trouble with it and now the repair place said she'd been running on 20%.  No surprise there.  As she waited while they were replacing her battery, she called me with an update.

They couldn't get a bolt off in order to get her battery out.  Why can't it ever be easy?  She was facing having to take it somewhere else, spending time and energy she did not have.

We hung up and I immediately prayed for help for the mechanic.  As I finished my prayer, she immediately texted me that they were able to get the bolt off and were presently working on replacing her battery.  Problem solved!

Praise God!

Now you may be thinking one of two things:  My prayer was either tremendously powerful, or a nice coincidence just took place.

I know.  I get it.  This example merely highlights the challenge we all have with prayer.  How does it work?  What actually happens when something like this takes place?  Could God have really intervened that quickly?  And if he would intervene in something like this so fast, where's he been when I bring him the bigger stuff? And if it wasn't him, then what was the point of my prayer?

On and on we go, wondering. 

Here's one way to look at it that may be helpful . . .

On this earth, we don't really know all that we would like to know about prayer, but there is something transcendental in the practice of turning to God in our need, no matter how big or small our request.  In humility, putting everything in God's hands says something about our relationship with him.

And, likewise, not turning to God also says something about us as well.  If we are unwilling to turn to God, perhaps we do not believe a spiritual world exists.  Perhaps we think that what we see and experience here on earth is all there is.  

Admittedly, we are kind of cause and effect people.  We pray.  God does something.  If we pray and God doesn't do anything, then we surmise there must not be a God, therefore, no spirit world.  We can get sort of stuck on the idea that if we can't see anything, then it must not exist.  But, even when something seems to result from our prayers, we can be dismissive, doubting it could have been from God.  

It's sort of a Catch 22.  Poor God.  How is he ever going to get us to believe in him?

Interestingly, this practice of prayer calls forth the peace Jesus promised us.  Some people see it as just a psychological comfort, a crutch that makes us feel better, but prayer is an actual exchange between us and our God who created us.

Every single time we pray, we enter into a sort of union of love with our Father.  Prayer isn't about the recitation of words.  It isn't about results.  It's not about hearing a voice. If it seems like that to you, I assure you that you are missing the key to life and the spiritual world.

Never stop striving to conquer your doubts about God, prayer and how this all fits together.  We don't need to know the details of God's activity, but we need to learn to instinctively turn to him.  No need to analyze whether he helped a mechanic unloosen a stripped bolt.  It really doesn't matter.

All that matters is that we open ourselves up to the reality that a life lived in the presence of God is a life fully lived, one of endless possibilities.

Janet Cassidy
janetcassidy.com

#howdoesprayerwork
#benedictxvi
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In light of the issues surrounding Proposal 3, I thought you might enjoy this 2-minute reflection by Pope Benedict XVI called Image of God.  Here's the link:  https://www.stlukeproductions.com/benedictus/10/06