“I don’t know how to pray.”  Is that something you have said?  If so, you have a lot of company!  It is one of the top three things pastors hear, right after “we have never done it like that” and “I’m too busy to do one more thing.”  And yet last week many of you offered prayers “out loud” during our worship service.  In fact, I was wondering how I might shut you off!!  No, just kidding - it was great!

When I asked for joys and concerns last week, they came in a flood.  Many of you participated.  Many of you offered corporate prayer!  Yes, that’s right.  That is all it is – expressing what is on our hearts to God.  There is no big mystery about praying.  And yet there seems to be this hesitancy about praying.  One of the things I have experienced in attending worship in third world countries has been the leadership of members of the congregation in prayer.  The pastor simply calls out a name and that person offers the prayers of the people.  Wouldn’t that be great to do here?  Don’t panic, I wouldn’t do it today – maybe next week!! 

God seems to be aware that praying is not an automatic for people of any age.  The Christians in Rome evidently did not know how to pray as they ought.  That last word is what throws us into hesitancy.  Ought!  How ought we to pray? 

There is a current commercial that has a man talking to another about some serious issues in his life.  The therapist responds in a language that the first man obviously did not know.  It goes on to say that when someone advises you regarding your financial matters, it needs to be in a language you understand.  Now I can get lost very quickly in technical language regarding computers, or biophysics, etc.  I suspect that some of you can get lost very quickly in theological or philosophical language.  Just mention justification, sanctification, atonement, etc., and many faces begin to gloss over.  The point is the need to communicate requires speaking in a language that will be understandable.

In praying, we need to communicate in language that is understood.  We often are more worried about using words that will be acceptable by others who hear our prayers than we are about communicating what is really on our hearts.  Prayer is the lifeblood of our relationship with God.  We don’t have to make it so difficult.  When we pray - are we authentic?  Are we communicating what is on our heart?  There are NO “right” or “wrong” words.  There are simple honest ones.  But it is difficult to be honest with someone you do not know well. 

When we were in New York last week at the Multicultural Church Conference we met several people.  Some we have known over the years, others were new to us.  The quality of the relationship was different in each case.  Those we knew, we could be warmer and straight in our conversation.  With the strangers we were more careful and distant.  We didn’t know if we were talking the same language.  The more we listen, the better we get to know the other.  That is true with prayer also.  Prayer is listening as well as talking.  The more we get to know God, the easier the conversation (prayer) with her or him.  We listen by paying  attention  to  the  voice  within …and  to  God’s revelation in scripture.  When we know what matters to God, it is easier to address those issue in our life.  

Sometimes things hit us, and we don’t know how to respond.  A tragedy strikes, an unexpected event occurs and we are left speechless.  It is at this time, we aren’t sure what to say to God that God in the form of the Spirit helps us.  The Spirit takes our stammering or our groans and translates them for us to God.  The Spirit becomes our interpreter.  We can be confident that God knows our concerns, our hurts or our perplexities.  What an Amazing God!

This past week Londoners were again aghast at violence in their city.  They had just begun to recover from the previous attacks.  Now another.  How do you begin to pray about that?  And then comes this often misused or mistimed verse. Verse 8:28  We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to God’s purpose.   Can we say that the terrorist activities are working together for good?  Hardly, and yet perhaps, yes.  This is not to say that anyone who is injured or has a family member who was killed will experience this as good! No, what happened was evil!  How then do we understand it working together for good? 

I imagine there were those who might have said that all things work together for good in London because they were delayed a few minutes that morning and didn’t make that train or catch that bus.  And while that delay was irritating at the moment, they now see how good it was.  But there may well have been others who normally were not in that particular location on that day who found themselves there.  And  their  lives were taken.  So how can that event be good for one and not for the other. 

In his book, Awareness, Anthony De Mello cautions the reader against identifying external happenings with one’s self.  External events do not control or determine who we are.  It is our response to these happenings that shape us.  And we are in control of that, or can be.  And when we are in tune with God, we discover that God is with us in all our situations and wants good for us.   God is in us not only praying for us by the Spirit, but also working in our spirit to focus on what is good in the midst of chaos.  This is not to excuse sin or evil.  It does not justify prejudice, greed, or injustice of any kind.  But is a powerful force knowing that what is in us is greater than any thing that can come our way. 

This is not a “take this sugar pill and see me in the morning” response.  We will have pain in our lives.  I can attest to that.  I had been hurting so badly at one time in my life that I seriously considered suicide.  I felt if I could succeed in it, that would be best for all.  I remember saying to God – and this was probably my purest prayer I have ever prayed, at least it was the most honest – and I prayed “God if you love me, you have a strange way of showing it.”  But you know what, I couldn’t get that thought out of my head – that God loved me.  I certainly didn’t feel I had much evidence to show for it, everything was falling apart around me.  But if I had heard anything at all in my life in the church, it was that God loved.  Reality was either that or what I was feeling.  Somehow, I think now it was the Spirit alive in me, I believed that what Scripture said was true of reality, not what I was feeling.  I listened to the inner voice and chose life.

We can respond in two different ways to the painful, (sinful?) evil events in our lives.  We can turn in fear and hatred and allow these events to eventually destroy us.  Turn us bitter, or into scared or revengeful persons.   Or we can discover that we have a power within us that is seeking our good.  What then are we to say about these things?  If God is for us, who is against us?  ….  Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness?   Will natural disasters or military might, or efforts of terrorist? 

The answer is powerfully clear!  Paul, who himself experienced a number of hardships including jail time says:  No, in all these things we are more than conquerors…for nothing in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 WHAT AN AMAZING GOD!!