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Uttered From the Edge A woman half-jokingly told her friend, "Things are so bad, I’d better start praying." We say prayer is a privilege, and we believe that, don’t we? But sometimes we turn to prayer only after we’ve tried a lot of other ways to wriggle through--or out of--a situation. Our list of actions in a personal crisis might look something like this: Call best friend-get answering machine; talk to husband-hear suggestions that ... well, he did give you a good hug; read self-help book that doesn’t help; stay awake all night worrying; spin mental and emotional wheels-get stuck deeper in the problem; eat everything sweet in the kitchen, eat everything salty in the kitchen; go shopping for sweet and salty items. Oh, yeah -- pray. Prayer is wondrous; it is a finite act through which we see the infinite. It is a thing of beauty, even when beautiful words can’t be found by the pray-er. It is an awe-filled experience in which a created being touches her Creator’s heart thru her utterances. And yet ... prayer is difficult. Why? Because we are finite beings with limitations. We are easily distracted ("Dear God, thanks for -- must remember to buy Marissa’s Tootie Fruitie cereal today...") Or we discover we believe in prayer in general but aren’t sure about God’s responsiveness to our prayer in particular ("Ah ... God, would you consider ... well would you take a peek at ..."). We feel inadequate to find the right words to express the complexities of our lives. We are undisciplined in praying regularly. Guilt, pride, and anger keep us from talking to God. Sometimes we hurry through our prayers, speaking to God because we know we "ought to". Or we turn to God as the Savior for Our Frightened Moment but forget he is also the God of Our Frazzled Daily Lives. We worry whether our prayers are too small ("Where are my car keys?") or too impossible ("Please bring peace to our world"). We are quick to speak but slow to listen. And sometimes we find prayer downright unrewarding. But prayer--and even the struggle to pray--results in something wonderful. It not only brings us face to face with God but also with our frailties. And once we’ve taken a good gander at those, we’re more likely to rush to our Father with humbled, grateful-for-his-love hearts. And that’s a very good place to be. We aren’t alone in this need state. A perusal of all the prayers in the Bible brings us a sigh of relief. For we find in them the same human qualities we bring to this most holy of actions: whining, questioning, sighing, crying, laughing, thanking, asking and praising. In the upcoming study, we’re going to look at some of those prayers prayed in people’s extremities, their moments of dire need. That’s why each lesson is about the "shortest", "oddest", "most". or "best" --- these are prayers uttered from the edge. Sometimes the pray-ers prayed because their boat was literally sinking, sometimes because God’s actions deeply troubled them. Sometimes they prayed because they had yearned for an answer for so long and so deeply they didn’t think they could go on if God didn’t grant their request. Sometimes they prayed because they were full of thanksgiving, sometimes because they were full of fear. From their examples, we learn that God always listens and often responds in visible and marvelously surprising ways. We’ll see that the length or content of a prayer has no effect on its efficacy, but the condition of our heart does. Eavesdropping on those prayers teaches us much about how to pray and why. It shows us how God interacts with us when we pray. And it encourages us to pray no holds barred, frailties dangling in the wind. Because that’s just the way God taught us to pray. Sound interesting? Sound like something you’ve said or thought about yourself, or heard from a friend? The above is from the book we will be using for the Women’s Bible Study this year, called Growing in Prayer. We will be meeting the 3rd Tuesday of each month beginning September 18th, 2007. If you have any questions, please call Linda Wilber, 734-481-1781 or Monica Doerr, 734-454-4996, or just show up. We meet from 7:00-8:30, with a snack, and some wonderful conversation about Praying, the Bible and how we can relate it to our lives today. “My teaching is not mine, but His who sent me.” |