Thought for Today
1 Kings 8:28 Regard your servant's prayer and his plea, O LORD my God, heeding the cry and the prayer that your servant prays to you today;
Psalm 54:2 Hear my prayer, O God; give ear to the words of my mouth.
Matthew 21:22 Whatever you ask for in prayer with faith, you will receive."
Acts 1:14 All these were constantly devoting themselves to prayer, together with certain women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, as well as his brothers.
It seems that medicine, healthcare and associated technology have been much on my mind recently. This morning, we have a friend and member of our family of faith who is in a hospital waiting room while his spouse is undergoing surgery. It is a serious operation and the hospital is a very capable, well-known hospital. Every expectation is for favorable results and a full recovery. However, being neither doctors nor workers in the healthcare industry, the most we can offer our family member is our thoughts and prayers.
In this age of institutionalized violence, angry demonstrations, wars, mass shootings and other senseless loss of life, the phrase ‘Our thoughts and prayers are with you’ has become so ubiquitous it has almost lost all meaning. Politicians and other leaders have made that such a trite phrase without taking any real corrective action, it has almost become irritating. Yet, in a very real sense, what resources do most ordinary, everyday Christians have to offer in response to all of the senseless loss of life, all of the serious, life-threating events which confront us?
I cannot hope to adequately address this complex issue of prayer, its efficacy and application, in these short, simple thoughts I share each day. For those who think that clergy take some course in seminary that resolves all the questions, answers all of the contradictions . . . we do not. However, based on my own seminary experiences and the life lessons of my years, I will share what I have come to know about prayer.
The dictionary I so often quote defines prayer as, “Human approach to God and addressing God in praise and adoration, confession, thanksgiving, supplication, and intercession. A consciousness of God’s presence, love, direction, and grace may be experienced.” (Westminster Dictionary of Theological Terms, pg. 216) That is a good definition, as far as it goes.
In desperate situations, in life-threating situations and in response to the needless loss of life, I suspect most of us address God in fear and confusion more than anything else, hoping for God’s intercession or protection. And, that’s okay. Think about the prayer of God’s Son in Gethsemane, "Matthew 26:39 My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not what I want but what you want." Luke even tells us, “22:44 In his anguish he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down on the ground.” Many of us, myself included, have prayed the prayer of the tax collector Jesus spoke of, “Luke 18:13 But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner!'” And, that too is okay.
Most seminaries today do require a certain amount of chaplaincy training in a hospital. I did my Clinical Pastoral Education in one of the chaplaincy training hospitals in Houston. After completing my seminary’s requirements, I continued to volunteer at that hospital. There one truly sees where ‘the rubber meets the road’ in terms of the efficacy of prayer.
There have long been debates about whether or not prayer is effective in curing disease, in resolving healthcare problems. I have read studies which seem to indicate that patients being prayed for heal and recover more quickly and successfully. I have seen other studies which seem to refute that claim. And, I have witnessed and personally experienced times when prayers have been answered with the results for which I prayed . . . and other times when the results were not what I wished. Oh, that there were a simple answer!
My own experience tells me that prayer is the single most effective and important tool Christians have with which to confront the vicissitudes of life. In that hospital, I prayed with many patients. For them, and for me in those moments, there was a perceptible “consciousness of God’s presence, love, direction, and grace” as we prayed together.
Today, I hope and pray that our faith family member, knowing that so many of us are praying for him and his spouse, will sense that same “consciousness of God’s presence, love, direction, and grace.” And, I am confident that God will hear our prayers.
Stay safe, talk to God today, trust God,
Pastor Ray