March 23

“Every time you cross my mind, I break out in exclamations of thanks to God.  Each exclamation is a trigger to prayer.  I find myself praying for you with a glad heart.” 

Philippians 1:3 (Message)

God is not a vending machine.  The purpose of prayer is not to force God into giving us what we want, but to align ourselves with what God is doing within us and in the world.  When we talk with God, the idea is to grow, that we might be changed by knowing that God hears us and loves us.  Sometimes this is the hardest thing about prayer.  We long for an answer to our prayers, and wonder whether God is there or if God really cares for us.  And yet, the very impulse to cry out to God is itself a gift from God to us.  And as we make others more the focus of our prayers than we are ourselves, we discover our hearts and ears are more open to hear God’s answers.  May the words of the hymn be true in our life:

“What a friend we have in Jesus, who will all our sorrows share; What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer.”