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.