When do you need prayer?

When eating at a restaurant I will often ask the waiter/ess, “While we are giving thanks for the food, is there anything I can pray for you about? Sometimes I have remarkable encounters (check it out, and be sure to read the comments) and sometimes they look at me as if to say, “Do I look bad enough to need prayer?!”

American civil religion tells us that prayer is only for crisis moments. The rest of life we handle ourselves.

The Bible portrays a different picture. We are to “pray continuously”. And the spiritual “giants” are the ones who feel the need for prayer the most! That’s why Paul implores the Christians at Thessalonica to “Pray for us!” (2 Thess 3:1).

Jesus taught his disciples to pray all kinds of prayers, from “big prayers” (Thy kingdom come, thy will be done) to “little prayers” (give us this day our daily bread). Why? Because we are just flat out dependent on God for everything! And the degree we “get” our helplessness is the degree with which we pray continuously.

So bring everything to God. Your priorities and passions. Your “muddy self”. Your anxieties and fears. Your dreams and aspirations. Everything.

Because you can do nothing without God. And because your Dad wants to hear it!

The well wisher of your soul’s happiness,

Pastor Tom