A

number of studies have tried to search out the benefits of prayer.

Results often indicate that people who pray are generally happier and

healthier than people who don’t. This may help people to consider

praying more. And people who do pray know that the benefits of prayer

extend far beyond their health and their sense of happiness.

As

we have noted this month, prayer is ultimately about a relationship

we have with God. I am reminded of a definition of prayer that I

found in an old book some years ago: “Prayer is a cumulative life

of friendship with God.”

Just

as a friendship involves and affects two people as they interact, so

does our relationship with God. Today’s Bible reading makes this

clear. On the one hand, we are instructed to seek God, which seems to

imply that prayer happens by our initiative. But our seeking of God

is only possible because God first says, “Come, all you who are

thirsty, come to the waters.” God calls, and we answer. Prayer is

our enjoyment of a banquet already prepared by God. We pray not

because we must, but because we may.

As

we turn to the Lord, we find the One who has already turned to us in

mercy and who freely pardons. This is the assurance of prayer—and

also its greatest blessing.