i am reading the sacred echo right now by margaret feinberg…very good book. i got hooked on her back in my 20’s when i was a twentysomething looking for somewhere to go and something to be. i have aged along with her style, taste, and writing topics and i enjoy keeping up with them. i read organic god sometime back, her book on marriage when jason and i were married and most recently scouting the divine. but nowhere could i find the sacred echo although i knew it had been out longer. i searched and searched and finally had to just take the time to order it from her website. i am not finished yet, which is unusual for me but it is a book on prayer. and praying. and honestly has slowed me down. i am just downright weird about prayer. i feel like i am a horrible pray-er sometimes. i have no rhyme or reason or set time to praying. i pray all the time and sporadically all at the same time. i believe god will and can answer my smallest prayers from finding my keys or a lost piece of paper to the biggest dreams and desires of my heart; because i have experienced it. i am demanding sometimes, i am frightened sometimes, i beg sometimes, i become incredibly emotional sometimes…and sometimes i don’t feel like i am doing much at all. i see answers immediately and i feel like i never hear back. i doubt what i feel and what i hear. the phrase that caught my eye and made me catch my breath was on back cover of the book….he echos…he echos…he echos. he is echoing now, i am trying to hear.
January 13, 2010
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Here’s a part of a paper I wrote on prayer some time ago.
Purpose of prayers
Apart from a few exceptions, grantings of prayer requests are not assured. What Yehovah knows He does not usually tell regarding these things. A person who prays does not know if the request will be granted. The purposes of praying will not include the fulfilling of a certainty of an affirmative answer.
One prays because one has a request.
Much has been said and written about the power of prayer. While it may have made a catchy title there is no power in prayer. The power lies with the god to whom the request is made. Prayers should be to the source of power. There is no power in prayer. The power is with the God of the Bible, the one true and living God who is King of the universe.
Prayer often requires other factors, including the following:
1. The prayer must be serious, and not something that the person already has the power to do or to obtain by proper means. Folks often pray out of laziness. No such prayer gets anywhere. (For example, a person who prays, “Lord, grant me patience” is foolishly praying in almost all circumstances. The prayer itself shows that the person knows what is necessary: patience, and that the person is capable of exercising that already.)
2. The prayer must be specific. Praying for a general item is foolish and is a waste of words. For example, praying, “Lord, please grant us peace in our city and many blessings” is a waste of time. If that prayer were answered, who would know? Who would care? No Saint prayed such a general prayer, though one Saint prayed for his own enlarged border and be kept from bad!
3. The prayer must be accompanied by a willingness to wait and even to work (if it is not an emergency prayer). For example, if a person asks to understand the Bible, the person must be willing to wait years and to fervently seek out its knowledge.
4. The prayer must not be vile utterances. For example, “Lord, touch me; give me thy power! Make thy face to shine upon me! Grant me thy peace! Show me love! Let thy light shine upon me! Fill this place with thy presence!” Anyone who attempts this with the God of the Bible will find that He does not respond well. One who does not Fear God will be open to such a vile utterance.
5. The pray-er must be earnest.
6. The pray-er does not have to be born of God. Indeed, the True and Living God will hearken to the prayer of any sinner who desires to know the Truth and to live according to that Truth. Such a person will be more than willing to be rid of sin and to live righteously. Yehovah does not hearken to the prayer of a sinner who desires to be prospered in sin. A sinner who is not intent to be prospered in sin and who prays for a specific item or for some type of demonstration of Truth, and who will respond to that demonstration by considering the Truth of God will have answered prayer. This is testing God, and it is appreciated. Naaman did exactly that.
7.One must not presume to be Israel when praying. That is a good way to be ignored. For example, one might pray, “Thou saidest, Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. I have sought thy kingdom and thy righteousness. Therefore, I am asking for a mink coat in thy will! And I know that I have received this from thee, because thou hast promised!”
“Praying back to God” is usually a form of spiritualization and presumption.
Comment by Ann Miller — January 22, 2010 @ 8:52 am |
have you ever published? i feel like i have read this somewhere before or something similar. i am re-reading henri nouwen right now, so getting a lot of good input from different sources.
Comment by Crystal Millenaar — January 23, 2010 @ 5:14 pm |
It was just a reply to a question asked by a friend of mine a few years ago. I tried to be thorough with my answer and it turned into a paper.
Comment by Ann Miller — January 31, 2010 @ 7:43 am |
Crystal, I just read your article, he echos. This is what you were telling me about Saturday, and I find it quite interesting. It doesn’t matter where you pray, when you pray, how you pray, nor what you pray about. God hears every prayer and will answer each one according to His will. He knows your heart, and in reading some of your articles, I can see the humility that is in your heart……he echos…he echos….he echos…Keep listening, you will hear.
Comment by mamaw — February 1, 2010 @ 7:56 pm |
thanks mamaw, i will bring the book down sometime so you can read it… it was great getting to spend papaw’s birthday with you guys, the cake was delish!
Comment by Crystal Millenaar — February 2, 2010 @ 5:22 pm |