I had difficulty praying...

The other night I had difficulty in prayer. I don’t think it is uncommon or for that matter wrong of us to experience difficulty in prayer. Since the fall life has experienced evil and harm. Today we express it as “it is what it is” or  “life happens.” When we plant our garden there are thorns. We work yet are underpaid. We do the right thing yet experience hard things. 

Sometimes prayer is hard when your child is sick. You like to change places but that doesn’t happen. Like many things we learn to work through our trials and learn from them to ease the burden. For example we learned that if we insulate our homes  and we fare better than homes 100 years ago. Improving our furnaces cuts down winter illnesses. We still pray for our sicknesses but what we learn and experience helps. 

We pray for success and blessing for our loved ones but often trials are troubles are experienced. Troubles and trials are more normal than we like to think. In an athlete competition that can beat you can make you better but the outcome may be that you lose. When I was a kid it beat my dad up to watch me fall. Picking myself up made me stronger. My dad didn't like to watch me compete sports because he was afraid of injury. I was in a wrestling match once where later the coach told me that my dad was way up in the bleachers in the corner watching. That meant a lot to me, I knew how hard it was for my dad. My dad used to play catch with me for hours. I was never a very good athlete but I wasn't bad. It made me strong and certainly made it interesting for the bullies who thought I was an easy prey. I didn’t win all my fights with bullies but I never quit. 

What I know about prayer is God cares, God feels our pain, and prayers are heard. There is His will which is different from our will and He works things out for our benefit. That benefit may be not experienced until heaven. (Romans 8:18-30) Take time to read it and note the groaning. Think of my old bones groaning. LOL

One of things I liked about work, ministry, is to somehow help ease burdens of others. There are plenty of limitations. Think of the gift a carpenter gives or a plumber, electrician, a bus driver, teacher, a merchant when they work to make life better. We pray and trust and yet the outcome is unsure. Keep walking