I buried a great friend of mine a couple of days ago.  We prayed long and hard as he battled his illness.  Now, some of my friends who are filled with doubts about all this spiritual “stuff” are saying to themselves, “See, praying doesn’t do any good.”  They don’t understand……… and neither do I.

I don’t understand.  In most peoples’ mind, you pray to God because you want something.  That’s true, but I pray to my God because I want something more.  I pray so that I can become “ALIVE”.  Praying is a two way street.  It’s talking to God, even asking Him for things.  But even more, it’s listening to God……. actually hearing from Him.  A living relationship with a living God, that’s what I want.

But, I still don’t understand.  I can relate to my atheist and agnostic buddies out there.  They don’t believe in the power of prayer because they don’t understand it.  I prayed for healing, physical healing.  It didn’t happen, so prayer doesn’t work.  That’s what they are thinking.  They understand that.   My friends who have doubts coming out the Wazoo about anything spiritual also don’t understand the power of prayer.  Ask ye shall receive, right?  They (and maybe you) don’t see this power of prayer either.

Have I shared that I don’t understand?  I pray to a Living God for things that may never happen.  I pray for friends and their situations knowing that the outcome may stay the same.  We Christians always say “not my will, but God’s will”.  Doubters and unbelievers see this as a cop out.  I see this as more of what I don’t understand.  Jesus Himself prayed for things that He didn’t get.  It wasn’t in God’s will.  Yet the strong relationship between the Father and the Son was maintained a lot of times through prayer.

John 11:25  I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. 

Jesus said this.  I don’t have to understand.  Jesus said it.  All I got to do is believe it.  The power of prayer is in the promise from Him.  My friend is physically dead.  But,  he is alive spiritually.  We will talk again in a short while.  I don’t have to understand, thank God.  I just have to believe.  Thank God.

I don’t understand the beauty of a sunset, or the love and affection given me from a  dog.  I don’t understand the love of a woman to her child, or the beauty from the sound of birds singing.  I don’t understand what makes a joke funny.  But folks, if I spend all my energy that my brain can muster up to understand these things, then I don’t get to LIVE in these moments.  Rather than understand I’m choosing to live.  I’m choosing to hear the birds sing, feel the dog’s tongue licking my face, laugh at the joke and actually live in the moment rather than trying to figure out all these things.  That’s not a cop out, that’s becoming alive.  Rather than understand this power of prayer, I choose to believe in the promise.  He that believeth in me…….

Praying to my Heavenly Father is much more than asking for things.  It’s much more than walking into a candy store and saying I want this,this, and this.  It’s an everyday experience to grow and stay close to God.  It’s more like walking the “whole main street of Life” with a Holy companion right beside me leading me. It’s a journey.  A journey where you are not alone in life’s situations.

What about you?  Are you alive?  Can you say that you are living in the moment?  Don’t let your doubts and lack of understandings rob you of a beautiful sunset.  Don’t let the fears and doubts take away from a “becoming alive” while here on Earth.  I see too many people walking around who are really and truly “DEAD”.  The power  and promise that took my friend to heaven is also the power and promise that can turn your “dead” days into “Living” days.

My God is Alive!  My friend in Heaven is Alive!  By the grace of God even in this dead and dying world, I am Alive!

More on having a strong prayer life to come in the next few weeks.

See Ya!   Dan Ainsworth wilderness preacher, praying for myself and you