Monday Morning Devotion-July October 28, 2024

Whose Idea is This?

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7 

*reposted, with minor changes, from July 2011.

          The concept of prayer.  Whose idea is that anyway?  That's the way a devotion I wrote on July 18, 2011, began.  I can't say that particular devotion came to mind this week, after all I have now published 1,010 weekly devotions.  But I was thinking about prayer because I have some deep-rooted prayer requests, not just for myself but for those I am close to.

            At the time of writing this devotion initially our good friend Pastor Betsy was having open-heart surgery. As a church family at Good Samaritan UMC was praying for successful surgery and a complete return to good health.  Now, we can look back and see how wonderfully God answered those prayers as our friend Betsy came through the surgery with flying colors and is now in great health. So, as I was thinking about this very important prayer situation, I started thumbing through past devotions I had written; came across this one, written 13 years ago that says a lot about the power of prayer and where the idea to pray actually comes from.

            Dave Roper in his book "Seeing God" writes: "Certainly when push comes to shove, we pray whether we understand prayer or not."

            Roper says, "Prayer springs from us impulsively and instinctively in the face of necessity.  There are no atheists in foxholes, as they say, nor in any other holes we dig for ourselves.  When we're frightened out of our wits, when we're pushed beyond our limits, when we're pulled out of our comfort zones, we reflexively and involuntarily resort to prayer."

            "Yet the questions remain or at least they do for me.  How does prayer work?  God is perfect wisdom.  Does He need me to tell Him what to do?  He is complete goodness.  Does He need me to prod Him into doing the right thing?  He is infinite wisdom.  Does He need my counsel?  Is it possible I can ask in such a way that God must change some vast eternal plan?  Can I bend His ear and bend His will to mine?  As Winnie the Pooh would say, 'It's a puzzlement.'"

            I guess all those would be legitimate questions if prayer was our idea in the first place.  But it isn't.  Lloyd John Ogilvie, a Presbyterian Minister who was Chaplain of the United States Senate for 8 years (104th thru the 107th Congress) says: "Prayer is (God's) idea.  Our desire to pray is the result of His greater desire to talk with us.  He has something to say when we feel the urge to pray."

            So there! Whenever you have felt a need to pray, you thought it was all your idea didn't you?  But it was really God having something to say to us that causes us to quiet ourselves in this busy life and communicate with Him.

            Sometimes it does take an emergency or a drastic situation for us to realize that He has something to talk with us about.  He is always there.  Waiting to hear from us.  He always has stuff we need to converse with him about.  And why is that?

            Not because God needs our help.  We need His and prayer is a gift from God.  It is the way the Creator and the Ruler of the Universe enables us to get guidance, experience comfort and feel peace. 

            You see the great thing about prayer is that it changes us.  Remember how Abraham, who God chose to be the Father of Nations, prayed fervently asking God to spare the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah?

            Well, God did not spare those cities.  He saw so much evil prevalent there that He stuck to His previous plan and destroyed them.  What Abraham's prayers did was they changed him.  His prayers enabled "him to enter into God's wisdom, understand God's thinking, and by it become a little more like God."

            Roper says, "Prayer then, whatever else it may be, is not calling God's attention to things He's not aware of, nor is it urging Him to do His duty.  No, it's rather a conversation in which we speak our minds and God speaks His.  We talk, and we listen until we get into His mind, and He gets in ours."

            Richard Rohr says that "prayer and suffering lead us to emotional depths."  That's why we feel compelled to go to our Heavenly Father when we are hurting.

            Rohr talks further about the importance of being still and quiet in our prayer time. He writes, "Silence is helpful, especially extended silence where we observe ourselves and can feel the changes taking place.  If silent, we can feel emotional changes, moment by moment.  In quiet times we can tell what anger feels like in our body."

            Now I'm going to leave this next paragraph exactly as I wrote it seven years ago but when I came across it again, I realized this part of the devotion might be directly aimed at me at this point in time. :)

            Not too long ago I took up Yoga.  I've experienced some remarkable changes, not just physically, but mentally as well.  In addition to the stretching and strengthening of my body it has awakened an awareness I did not have before about things like how breathing affects the body and how proper breathing enables me to become more flexible and versatile.

            In exercising while using the Rodney Yee "A.M. Yoga" video, he will instruct us to focus on our breathing.  On certain exercises he will challenge us to feel our breathing down in our "belly" or down into our "toes" as we "root our legs" on the floor. 

            In doing this we just become more aware of how our breathing affects every aspect of our body's movement and actions.  We think more about different body parts and what they contribute to the whole person. 

            OK! I get the message.  I need to get back to Yoga which I haven't been doing for, uh, I guess a couple of years now.  Not smart Jim.  So, yes, I must work Yoga back into my life.

            Like Rohr said prayer helps us focus on and feel emotional changes and how they affect our body.  Then we become more aware of what actions we take.  The things we are doing and what affect they have on us physically and emotionally, as well as how they affect others whom we come in contact with.

            Rohr also says, "Most people become their thoughts. They do not have thoughts and feelings; the thoughts and feelings have them."

            It's an old idea that "we are, or we become what we think about."  Therefore, when we silently come before God in prayer, we can fill our minds with thoughts that are positive and uplifting as we search for and receive answers.  We are changed by the process, the experience, the contact with our Heavenly Father.

            Paul challenged us not to worry about stuff, but while thanking and praising God to bring him our petitions as well.  It is not a promise that anything or anyone will be changed by our prayers.  Although that could happen and often does.

            It is a promise that our state of mind will be changed.  And since our thoughts and feelings influence our actions, we will be positively affected.

            So, prayer is not only important, but critical as well.  After all prayer is God's idea and His gift to us.

            There you have it.  It's God's idea not mine, yours or the rest of your friends or family members.  So that makes it even more important that we continue to pray for others,

Monday Prayer:  Lord, thank you for inviting and encouraging us to speak with you through prayer.  Help us to take advantage of this wonderful gift.   Amen!