What Do You Get When You Pray?

As a pastor, I have had this questioned posed to me on several different occasions, in lots of different ways over the years. I think what people are essentially asking is, “What is the power of prayer (if any) and its benefits?”

For me, praying is about a relationship. When we pray, it puts us in touch with a higher spiritual power, something beyond ourselves. For Christians, prayer is like a conversation with Jesus.

What I think we receive from prayer includes a calming spirit, a presence to strengthen us, a reprioritizing of our lives, and an alignment with God.

Prayer is not manipulation. It is not trying to get God to do what we want. It is not helping God to understand what is going on in the world and in our lives. God already knows what’s happening before we pray. Prayer is not begging or bargaining. Prayer is not a laundry list of what we think God should be doing in the world on our behalf.

Prayer is a conversation in which we open ourselves to the will of God in our lives. It doesn’t shape and form God; it shapes and forms us.

“And according to Jesus, by far the most important thing about praying is just to keep at it.” ¹

Praying without ceasing,

Pastor John D. Morris
 
P.S.  BTW, I will be praying for my Bengals on Super Bowl Sunday.  Not because I think God will help them, but so that I can make it through the game.
 
¹Borrowed from Wishful Thinking, page 70, by Frederick Buechner.