My home blew up! There was an explosion in Beirut last week that decimated a whole section of the city leaving people even more homeless, jobless, and hopeless than they were before the blast.
I’m in communication with many coworkers and friends in Lebanon who are pouring themselves out into their communities one broom and dustpan at a time. All they ask of me is to pray. I feel useless this far away, especially when someone gives me the worn-out phrase, “thoughts and prayers,” with attached sad emoji faces and praying hands.
The Gospel of Matthew says, “your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” If so, then why do I need to pray?
The intent of prayer is not to get answers, but to have absolute, all-out oneness through whom you pray. Most likely, we pray specifically because we crave answers out of desperation and we get indignantly bristled when we are unable to instantly claim results from our fretful petitions. When prayer appears unfulfilled, try not to hurl the blame elsewhere.
As you pray ceaselessly, you are also searching the mind of God within a specific situation, becoming intimately identified with him. Therefore, keep the “thoughts and prayers” going. Persevere!
For what or whom are you praying? Are you getting closer to having the mind of God through these prayers?
my utmost for his highest by oswald chambers
We are not here to prove that God answers prayer but to be living trophies of God’s grace.