Like most adults, I have a morning routine.  I'm not going into detail, but last Friday morning things were interrupted a bit and I grumbled around the kitchen till I realized it was still a pleasant morning.  But it was not at all the kind of morning that a million or so folks in the deep south had when they woke up.  Last Sunday they still had a routine, but this week Hurricane Katrina changed everything for them.  They have no clothing in the dresser, no food in the cupboard or coffee in the pot.  Indeed, they have no home!  How blessed I am to have a morning routine to interrupt!  How those hundreds of thousands will get back to normal is beyond me.

          Now and then I ask elderly people what they think are the most amazing advances they've seen during their lives.  Their answers often surprise me.  They don't talk of space travel, medical advances, or scientific discoveries.  They talk of things practical: indoor plumbing, store-made clothes, and telephones.  Rockets, cell phones or computers don't make their list.  Our elders concentrate on the things of life: good roads, penicillin, and running water.

          But nearly all are amazed by the communication we have.  And when I ask our elders what they spend their time doing, they often say, "We pray."  Recently one lady told me, "Prayer is my direct line to God, and it doesn't cost a thing!"  She's right.  Prayer is communication with God.  Prayer is our part of a conversation with God.  Prayer is responding to God who talks to us through His Word, the Bible.  The Bible is God speaking to us, and prayer is our speaking to God.  It's communication, and we need to do it every day.

          But too many people abuse prayer.  We don't pray for days, weeks or months, and then run to God for help when bad things happen.  When things are good, we forget about prayer, but when things are bad, we expect, even demand, God to help us.  It's like talking to my wife.  I don't just talk to her when I want something, but at other times, too.  If the day is good, I tell her.  If it's bad, she'll know all about that soon enough, too.  That's prayer.  Prayer is sharing the day with God.  Open your heart and let God look inside.  The family where there's little talk is a family in trouble.  The spouse who acts like he's alone is a spouse who will soon be alone.  We need to talk to each other.  And we need to talk to God.

          In this passage Jesus tells His disciples that they should pray intelligently.  He told them not to babble things that make no sense.  Mere repetition doesn't cut it with God.  We should express ourselves, and clearly.  A child who babbles is ignored.  A woman who talks all the time will soon be talking to herself.  We need to talk to each other, and to God, but we needn't do all the talking.  Rather than just pray, pray, pray, we should let God talk to us a little.  Read the Bible, sing a hymn, read the headlines, listen to others.  God speaks to us in several ways, so let's let Him do it.

          One interesting thing Jesus says in this text is that God knows what we need even before we ask.  That may prompt us to ask, "Then why pray?  If God knows what I need, why bother with prayer?"  But prayer is more than making requests, more than saying "I want, I need, so gimme!"  Prayer is not a vending machine - pop in a prayer, out comes an answer!  Prayer is an act of faith.  Real faith knows God provides, and prayer is real faith responding to God.  Faith knows we need God, and prayer is a good way to show God our faith in Him.

          A mother knows when it's mealtime.  She doesn't wait until the kids say, "We're hungry!"  She starts to prepare beforehand.  A mother often likes to hear, "What's for supper?" because it shows the child needs Mom's help.  By the way, it's not just Moms who feed us these days.  More and more Dads are cooking, too.  Long gone are the days when fathers stay out of the kitchen.  Some Dads are incredible cooks.  I hope, however, that the Moms and kids, too, will offer to clean up when Dad does the cooking.

          And we need to thank the cook often enough.  A sullen child who sits down and eats, gets up and says nothing has a lot to learn.  Thank the cook!  If we don't know enough to say thanks, one day maybe we'll sit down to an empty table.  Common sense says give thanks for what you're given.  It's true of people and it's true of God.

          A little boy had been sent to his room because he'd been bad.  A short time later he came out and said to his mother, "I've been thinking about what I did and so I said a prayer."  "That's fine," mother said, "if you ask God, He will help you be good."  "Oh, I didn't pray to make me good," said the boy.  "I prayed to help you put up with me."

          There's nothing wrong with that boy's prayer.  At least he was thinking of his mother and knew God could help.  Prayer shows we trust God, and thanking Him shows we appreciate Him.  There's no prayer too bad to be prayed.  God gives us the Holy Spirit to help our prayers make sense.  Paul wrote in Romans 8:26, "The Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we don't know how to pray as we ought."  God knows our needs, even before we ask, but we still need to do the asking.  It's amazing what God does when we pray!

          Missionary Dr. Helen Roseveare told of a mother in the African country of Zaire who died after giving birth to a premature baby.  Dr. Roseveare tried to improvise an incubator to keep the infant alive, but her only hot water bottle had holes in it.  So she prayed and she asked the children there to pray, for the baby and for her sister.  One of the girls prayed out loud, "Dear God, please send a hot water bottle today - tomorrow will be too late.  And God, send a doll for her sister so she won't feel so lonely."  That afternoon a large box arrived from England.  And under all the clothing was a new hot water bottle!  Immediately, the girl who had prayed dug deeper, saying, "If God sent that, I'm sure He didn't forget a doll!"  And she found one!  The Lord knew what the girl wanted even before she prayed, and five months earlier He had led an Anglican ladies' group to pack both things in a box of clothes.

          I am sure there have been thousands of prayers offered up this past week from the people in the path of the hurricane, prayers from rooftops, from boats, from swimmers, before and after the storm hit.  There have been prayers by those who weren't there, prayers of safety, of providence, deliverance.  Katrina may also have answered some earlier prayers.  In one powerful event, the Lord wiped out many of the red light districts there in the Big Easy.

          We modern people don't think something like that will happen to us.  Our inventions will protect us, we think.  Current events are more important, we believe.  But folks rescued from roof tops haven't thought much about the price of gas lately.  They haven't thought much about politics, either.  They're just glad to be alive.  Nothing like the prospect of death to clear one's mind.  Survival makes people pray.  Survival gets people talking to God, even if they don't believe in Him.  Unless, of course, they think they're a victim.  Then they talk to a lawyer.

          Dan, a pastor friend of mine, told me of a recent visit he made to his mother.  She'd just had a stroke.  She had been the ultimate caregiver, at age 70 still caring for her 90 year-old father.  But there she lay in bed, left side completely paralyzed, struggling to understand why.  As he looked back on it, their six day visit was marked with one bad day, one good day, a bad day, a good day, bad day, good day.  And he said, "The bad days were actually the best, for on those days we called on the Lord more fervently and submitted to His will more completely than we did when she had a good day.  But the Lord knew how much we could take, so the bad days were always followed by a good day."  It takes faith to realize that, that bad things can turn out good.  For it's in our pain that we cry out to God in faith, and it's in our valleys that the mountaintops become meaningful.

          Journalist John Chancellor once wrote, "If you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans."  Our lives are in God's hands.  He knows the future, so He knows what's best.  We may pray for success, but He may not give it.  We may hope for a family, but He may not always bless us with one.  God gives us what we need, just not always what we want.  Years back, I found this unnamed article, words of a wounded Confederate soldier, written in a hospital:

"I asked God for strength, that I might achieve
- I was made weak, that I might learn humbly to obey.
I asked God for health, that I might do greater things
- I was given infirmity, that I might do better things.
I asked for riches, that I might be happy
- I was given poverty, that I might be wise.
I asked for power, that I might have the praise of men
- I was given weakness, that I might feel the need of God.
I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life
- I was given life, that I might enjoy all things.
I got nothing that I asked for - but everything I had hoped for.
Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered.
I am, among all men, most richly blessed."

          Jesus is our prime example in all this.  He prayed to His Father in all things.  Jesus trusted His Father for all things.  He left heaven to be born a human being.  He lived as one of us, yet without sin.  He gave His earthly life for us, that we might have eternal life, and all who trust Him will receive His salvation.  "God so loved the world that He gave His only son; that whoever believes in Him might not perish, but have everlasting life.  For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved." (John 3:16-17)   Believe it, my friends - it's true!  And praise God for the simplicity and majesty of the Gospel!

          God grant us all the faith to pray often and eagerly, to pray faithfully and diligently, to pray joyfully and expectantly.  Let's make use of our direct line to God!  Amen!

Copyright © 2005 by Pastor Bob Tasler.  All rights reserved.