Power of prayer

One good reason why we should pray because God can do more in a second than what we can do for ourselves in a lifetime. The act of getting on our knees to pray, acts in a symbolic way to curtail the wrath of the ego, and open us up to the divine guidance that is readily available to us. In this we are surrendering ourselves to God as per what God said: "If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you" (John 15:7). When we hear the part “you will ask what you desire and it shall be done for you” we tend to love that as we know we will get anything from God but we forgot to look at the first part when God said, “If you abide in me.” What does that mean? it has been said that the first step in making our prayers to be answered is to make sure God knows who we are. We need to make God include us in his family. To do so, we have to follow the steps in bringing god into the negative. Give thanks, bless and forgive. Then only, God will take us into his family. Our life has to be right with God in order for God to hear and answer our prayers. God has certain conditions that must be met before our prayers can be answered. We have to feel the need of help from God. If we refuse to give up our sins, doing things we should not be doing and disobeying God, then we cannot expect God to hear our prayers. prayers is the door to faith but certain times when prayers go unanswered, we quickly close the door of faith and find fault in God for each and every trouble and pain we experience. Firstly, it will be wrong to assume that God answers ‘Yes’ for everything that we ask for. God is our father and we are his children. As children, if we ask something from God and the specific thing we are asking for is going to harm us in future, God will not give it to us. In fact God will give it in another best way for the best of us. Like parents, when a child asks for toys which are not suitable for the child’s age, parents will not buy it because it was for the best of the child. If the parents would have given the toys to the child, the child might get chocked with the parts of the toys. So they ask their child to wait so that when the child reaches the suitable age to play with those particular toys, no harm will befall the child. Of course, when terrible pain does not decrease despite fervent prayers, it is natural to wonder how God can bring anything good out of such a bad situation.  But the Christian faith has always involved trust that, even in disappointments and setbacks, ‘God works for good for those who love him.’

Copyright © 2014 PAMELA SANTIAGO. All Rights Reserved.

Adapted from the book Journey of A Thousand Miles. To purchase the book, clickhere.