by Jan Dravecky
Psalm 10:17 One of the most difficult activities for suffering men and women to engage in is prayer. When you are in pain, it often seems that all your prayers just bounce off the ceiling. You cry out, but there seems to be no answer. And after you have lived with the silence for a while, your own voice often grows quiet. Dave and I both struggled with this during our hard times. Being the analytical person that I am, I found it difficult to pray when I understood that God knew everything already. What could I tell him that he didn't already know? And besides, when I did pray, I could seldom detect an answer or even sense that God was listening. In our work at the Outreach or Hope, we deal with a lot of hurting people who feel the same way. Why pray when God doesn't answer? Why pray when, apparently, he doesn't hear? Why pray when our prayers seem to rise no higher than a couple of feet above our heads? The answer Dave and I now give can be boiled down to one thing: We pray because God tells us to pray and he promises that he both hears and answers our prayers. It comes down to choosing to believe what God tells us in his Word. And he tells us a lot about praying! He says things like, "O people of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. How gracious he will be when you cry for help! As soon as he hears, he will answer you" (Isaiah 30:19). He tells us, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:6-7). A great preacher from a bygone era once asked his audience, "Did any of you parents ever hear your child wake from sleep with some panic-fear and shriek the mother's name through the darkness? Was not that a more powerful appeal than all words? And, depend upon it, the soul which cries aloud on God, 'The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,' though it have 'no language but a cry,' will never call in vain." Excerpted from "Do Not Lose Heart" by Dave & Jan Dravecky, pgs 28-29.
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