Call to Pray

Anyone who believes in the power of prayer does not find it strange to pray prayers of blessings, or prayers of intercession at strange moments for some of the people who suddenly show up in their personal space.  Military planes often fly over our house and I often look toward the sky and pray for those who are piloting the plane.  I also know some folks who pray when they see an emergency vehicle speeding through traffic on its way to trouble.  There are thousands of things happening around us which are interpreted as a call to pray by different people.

 

Sometimes we stay too glued to our prayer list.  We pray for the same people in the same way at the same time each day.  And while I am always grateful to know that someone is calling my name before the Father in their daily prayers, I also know we can make our prayers so routine that they end up being a meaningless religious exercise.  Trying to find ways to be a little creative in our praying should be understood as a good thing.  We can be creative in choosing the objects of our prayers and we can be creative in the way we pray. 

 

We are such creatures of habit.  What should always be remembered is that there is no model of prayer that is absolute and excludes any other.  When such happens we may actually be making a god out of the way we pray instead of seeking God through our prayers.  Arriving at the right way to pray is not something that ever really happens.  As long as we seek to enter into a personal intimate relationship with God, we will be forever finding that there are many ways of making that relationship into something which is powerfully alive.