Pray by Jeff Bills

Next week, I will begin a new, four-week series on prayer. It is one of those topics that provokes both awe and dread in people.

For those who practice the discipline of prayer, it is a subject of awe. No matter how comfortable one gets with the practice of prayer – the reality of it never loses its power to humble and inspire. When you realize that the One to whom you are speaking is the Creator of the universe, the One who gives and sustains life, the Source of everything that is… well, you get the picture. It is like David wrote thousands of years ago “What is man that you are mindful of him?” (Psalm 8:4)

Given the vastness of the universe and the transcendence of God, my stuff seems incredibly insignificant. Yet, throughout the entire sweep of scripture, we see that God cares about the affairs of humanity. What’s more God cares about me. In the same Psalm that David ponders about why God would care about us, he writes that God “crowned [people] with glory and honor.” We really do matter to God, and our concerns, no matter how small, matter to Him as well.

For those who rarely, if ever, practice the discipline of prayer, the thought of it evokes dread. Basic questions such as “What would I say?” “How do I learn the language of prayer?” “Would my prayers make any difference?” keep many of us from experiencing the joy of strengthening our relationship with God. One of the goals of the series will be to deconstruct some of these road blocks for those who are prayer-challenged.

In the midst of this series, we will be presenting a prayer workshop. On Saturday, March 1st, we will be led in a exploration of a specific kind of prayer—the prayer of healing. Our presenter will be Reverend Brewster Hastings from St. Anne’s Episcopal Church in Abington, Pennsylvania. Healing is one of the most misunderstood aspects of prayer and yet one of the most basic expressions of our conversation with our Creator. Whether you are in awe or in dread of prayer (or somewhere in between), this workshop will both challenge and inspire.

In a world that is filled with cynicism and darkness, the practice of prayer is a beacon of hope and light.

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