Prayer

Is anyone among you in trouble?  Let them pray.  ...  Is anyone among you sick?  Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord.  And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up.  If they have sinned, they will be forgiven.  Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.  The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. - James 5:13-16

"Do we actually believe that we can be effective in prayer?" Dungy asks.  This question certainly gets right to the heart of us.  Prayer, as simple as the definition is (talking to God), can be complicated for people.  Follow this thinking: Yes, I believe that prayer is talking to God and yes I definitely have a peace after sincerely praying, but isn't God going to do what God is going to do no matter what my prayer is, and if He already knows my needs isn't He either going to help me in some way or not as He sees fit no matter what my prayer is?  I think a lot of people get lost in these type of thoughts.

The Bible says that the "prayers of a righteous man availeth much".    Moses prayed and God parted the Red Sea.  This was done just for the Hebrews.  God could have prevented the Egyptians from getting to them in a million different ways and not have parted the sea, but He wanted them to see His power and to not fear anyone or anything but Him and He wanted them to know that they could depend upon Him in their time of need.  Daniel prayed and God closed the mouths of lions.  Daniel prayed and angels were sent to him and the devil warred against them as they sought to deliver God's message to him.  Peter prayed and Tabitha came back from the dead.  Each one a man praying to the same God.

I prayed in the delivery room when Reed was being born.  The doctor was ready to go for the C-section as the baby's heart rate was slowing and Julie's blood pressure was rising really high.  Reed was stuck in the birth canal and they couldn't pull him out.  People were everywhere in the room running in and out.  As I just finished my prayer, the doctor looked at me and said they were going to have to take him quickly.  I replied, "Try one more time".  God saw that Reed was delivered.

Jack had a fever of 103, then 104, then 105.  105!  I thought this was a cheap thermometer error so we checked it with another one - 105.  Julie called the ER, they said to watch it closely and to try to cool him.  I didn't know people could have high fevers like that.  We watched him closely and took his temperature every few minutes.  Finally it settled down to 104.  We were both tired and had to sleep.  But what if in our sleep it spiked?  Very unsettling to parents.  I prayed.  The next morning, no fever.  How do you go from having a super high fever to no fever?  God took it from him.

I believe that if you want to be good at praying, you need to pray.  For me, I have to take a few deep breaths, settle my mind and body to avoid thoughts that are not focused on my being in the presence of God.  Open my heart to input, then start praying, just talking to God.  There are many methods on how to pray, but as a father all I want from my boys is for them to put everything aside and just talk to me and listen to me so we can draw closer together.  I believe this is exactly what God desires from us in prayer.