20th Sunday after Pentecost 10.10.10 Prayer
When we hear the problems other people have and we cannot see any obvious solution to those problems we are inclined to say, I will pray for you, or pray about that. This can sound like it is not going to be much help but in reality prayer can move mountains. Today’s Gospel is a reminder of the power of prayer.
Our Lord heals the nobleman’s son from a distance. Nothing is impossible to God.
We get discouraged too easily. We tend to take too short term a view of our situation. We can let our current set of problems preoccupy us to the point of forgetting the goodness of God, and failing to see His overall plan.
When we pray for specific problems we cannot guarantee they will be solved immediately but we can guarantee that prayer will make things better in an overall sense.
A lot of what we suffer is caused by other things beyond our control. For example that we live in so much anxiety in our personal lives is caused by the fact that the world as a whole does not accept or obey Almighty God, and so does not run as it should.
There is a saying that you can give a hungry man a fish but better if you teach him how to fish. It is something of that order with God. He can help with this or that need but most of all He wants to teach us how to live.
When we pray we can guarantee that the overall situation is coming closer to what it should be. We cannot guarantee the particular problem of the moment will disappear but with prayer it is far more likely to. If the Body of Christ would pray more, with more vitality, more faith, then certainly there would be more miracles, more order and a healing of the face of the earth (along the lines of the prophecies, such as children being able to play with cobras (Isaiah))
We are accustomed to a high level of disorder in the world. For example, the fact that we habitually distrust other people when we lock our houses and cars, or when we are afraid to go out at night. Not to mention that we all need ‘police checks’ now!
To heal the more basic problems it would need thousands to pray properly. We are working to a larger picture as God does: seeking the salvation of as many as possible.
If we repented on a grand scale a lot of the underlying problems would not happen. For example, if you went for a walk you would not be attacked by a gang of youth. They would all be home with their families! In a better world, that is. And it is for this better world we are praying.
We can succeed only if a large part of society will turn to God. In the meantime we have to stay home and lock the door.
In a better world people would find the right person to marry, marriages would last, workers would be treated justly; the streets would be safe. People would even drive better, and of course, there would be no road rage.
Often the apparent non-answering of prayer causes loss of faith. We pray for something and it does not happen as we ask. We can then conclude, OK, there is no God, or prayer is useless.
We have to trust that God can see the overall picture and that our prayer is helping that overall situation to come about.
It may be we have to suffer a certain amount of things, in union with Christ.
It may be that God will withhold one blessing for the sake of giving something better instead.
It is always good to ask, and any sincere prayer will help somehow.
If we cannot heal the whole world we can at least create a little bit of order in our own part of the world.
May the Lord hear our prayers - local and cosmic - short and long term - and bring things to how He wants them.
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