WHY DO WE PRAY?

Over the past few months, I've had good reasons to pray - not for myself, but for others – through grief and heartache, through loss and through gain, and through celebration, through ups and downs and a bunch of what the ..., through gratitude and grace, through life and through death... I prayed for them. No, actually? I prayed with them...

And that's when I remembered why we pray.
When we pray for one another, we are acknowledging that we are
connected, not just to God, but to each other. Your pain matters, not just to God, but to me. Your joy is delightful, not just to God, but to me. The suffering of this broken world must be addressed, not just by God, but by me.

When Jesus shows us how to pray, He draws us into community, first with God, and then with each other:

My Father, who art in Heaven...
Give me this day my daily bread...
Forgive me?
Lead me?
Deliver me?
Nope. Sorry. No its "Lead us", Forgive us, Deliver us. Get it? We're all in this together.

Among other things, prayer is an amazing reminder that through God we are all connected; He is with you, I tell you that all the time... but what if he also made me to be with you? So that
you , Beloved of the Lord, know you are never alone.

I think I had part of it right in the beginning; God does listen . God hears, God cares, God loves, and though I can't explain it, I believe God responds to our prayers. But what I didn't get was that to pray for another person is the opposite of taking an easy spiritual out. Whether they live down the hall, or across the street, or on the other side of the world, whether they are our friend or our enemy, when we pray for others, we should probably be open to the possibility that God's love, His justice, His grace, His mercy may need to flow through us in other, more tangible, practical ways.

You know what I mean? Like, maybe God's perfect will is that we LOVE ONE ANOTHER, for real , because life is hard and the world is screwed up and while we may know we need God... God knows we also need each other. LOVE IS HARD!!

God IS, and shit happens, and prayer works - That's where I'm at. I understand how prayer brings you and me and God close about as well as I understand how I'm wirelessly connected to you right now through internet-magic. But I'm pretty sure that all of New Creations are woven together in a tangled web of community, fully united by God, because we were never meant to be alone.

So let us honor our Father together. Let us work hand in hand to usher in the kingdom of Heaven on Earth. Let us pass our daily bread to one another. Let us forgive together. Let us hold each other up to receive forgiveness. Let us walk side by side as we seek paths of righteousness and encourage one another in our victories.
LOVE YOU.