Well, let me be honest. Sometimes (often?) prayer is hard and even confusing for me. As Tim Downs asks, “Is it hard to pray to an unseen, infinite, omniscient being? You bet!” And, living in this world so bathed in materialism, about the only reason even Christians give me for praying is “to get answers.” So when I don’t get the answers I want (and sometimes not even any answers), I don’t know why I should keep praying. So...
“What’s that,” you say? “You feel that way, too?” You think everybody feels that way? You just gave up praying three weeks ago because you didn’t have any more motivation either? “Can you look over my shoulder at what I’m writing and maybe get motivated, too?” Absolutely!
Any of the rest of you out there trying not to look interested can follow along, too. The more, the merrier.
Why Pray?
Well, as I said, sometimes you get the impression that prayer is a grocery list: “Our Father, who art in heaven... Gimme, gimme, gimme!This is sort of a, “shop ‘til you drop” way of praying. But somehow I cannot see that as the prime and certainly not the most satisfying reason.
Well, that’s the second reason I was amazed. The more I study, the more good motivating reasons I find to pray. I find they’re basically the ones Jesus Himself had. And since, as I said earlier, I’m often flummoxed about prayer and get discouraged, these reasons almost always give me a lift -- and sometimes even a jolt.