Prayer and Tears       

John Roy-June 11, 2006

I Samuel 1:1-18, I John 5:14,15                            

When we are young we believe everything. As we age we become a bit more discerning. When we turned nine we no longer believed everything we were told. We didn’t want to be labeled “gullible.” When we were twelve we no longer believed our parents were always right. When we were fifteen we no longer believed our parents could protect us from the pains of this world. At seventeen we stopped believing everything our friends told us. College wore away some of our long held beliefs. After the first divorce we no longer believed, “for better or worse.” After we have been passed over for promotion we no longer believed we could make it on our own merits. As we accumulated a few more miles we became down right cynical and did not believe anything.

As a member of the human race, I like you am not immune from having my beliefs beaten by the storms of life. To date, I have been able to hold on to most of them, although I have misplaced some of them from time to time. Yet one thing I hold fast to. One thing has provided me a compass to sail my life by, I have a north star that gives comfort on the longest nights and provides direction on the darkest. I call it prayer.

As the country song puts it so clearly I know “somebody’s praying for me.” It began with my mother, I suppose.

Mighty hands are guiding me

To protect me from what I cannot see

Lord, I believe

Lord, I believe

Somebody’s praying for me[i]

Do you ever wonder why some people change and others don’t? Could it be prayer? Prayer is the regular, daily opportunity for change. I once read the only difference between who we are today and who we will be next year at this time, are the books we read and the people we meet, may I add and the time we spend in prayer.

Does prayer change everything? This woman told me once, “I’ve been praying for my husband to change for twenty years of marriage and he still can’t put his clothes in the laundry hamper.” With such testimony we wonder if prayer changes anything.  

Prayer as Strength

Prayer provides at least three things. The first is strength. The opposite of strength is weakness. When we are young we are physically strong but spiritually developing, as we grow older our physical strength fades and our spiritual muscles are flexed. Truly when we are weak then we are strong. In this world we will grow tired. Grow tired of our life, grow tired of work, grow tired of responsibilities. Becoming weak is a rather natural process. So when we are weak, pray. Prayer gives strength.

Think of it like this, we are climbing a mountain, at first the rise is gradual our strength is equal to the incline, then it begins to ascend a bit stepper and we are pausing for a breather every ten to fifteen yards or so, finally we have to pull out our rope and begin to pull ourselves up with the rope, by now we are growing tired our hands are calloused from the rope our muscles ache and then from above a rope hits us in the head. God has seen our dilemma and sent us a rope and will pull us up. This is prayer. What we cannot get through on our own, prayer can get us through.

Are we weak today. Is our job sapping our strength? Or is it our family? Maybe it is just the accumulation of several events or the intersection of several problems but we have grown tired. Prayer can renew our strength, take the matter to God, confess the weakness, confess how overwhelmed we are. Take our vitamin “P” and our strength will be renewed.

Prayer as Guidance

Pray also provides us with guidance. Life has many forks. No wrong turn is fatal but when we are faced with decisions we want to do the right thing. For some it is what am I being called to do. For others it is a choice about dating or re-marrying. For others is it how to handle a matter at home or the office. Getting lost is rather natural so God has provided us with prayer to give us guidance.

The decisions of life are not always marked clearly. The important decisions are not printed in bold print so we will pay more attention. So guidance is something we must seek. Not long ago I was reading a trail map, the first thing it said was to exit the parking lot from the south, the compass made this clear, then it indicated that the proper trail began with  gravel, this was also clear enough, it then indicated after the last campsite on the left we were to turn left, how was I suppose to know the last campsite, wouldn’t I have to walk past the campsite a piece to determine if it was the last site? I needed better guidance than what the trail guide was giving, I turned to some intuitive abilities but I still walked fifty yards past the last campsite before it was clear where the trail turned.

Likewise in life some decisions are no brainers, simply use the compass in your brain. However, there are some decisions so bewildering that we need additional instructions. Prayer is a place of guidance. Place the decisions on God’s alter and wait.

Those who wait upon the Lord will renew their strength.[ii]

We certainly can go at it alone but what will it cost us? Guidance comes from prayer and sometimes answers to prayer take time. Waiting is not wasted time, it is preparation time for God’s answer.

Are we standing at a crossroads then we need to pray. Are we tempted to run on ahead, we need to wait on the Lord. God’s never been late but he is seldom early.

Prayer as Comfort

Pray also provides us with comfort. From time to time things happen that make us discomfort able. We turn, naturally to something to make us comforted. Researchers call certain foods “comfort foods” they tend to sooth us, ice cream for instance has long been associated as a comfort food. It is not uncommon when we feel uncomfortable to turn to something for relief.

Most of us have long ago lost the feeling that “everything is going to be alright.” As we grow older we adopt another saying, “expect the worse.” Thus we are seldom “comfortable” we are always expecting the worse.  We become this way not because of what we have done but because of what we have failed to do. We have failed to see the hand of God at work and rest in his unfailing love. We have overlooked the fact that our God, our Lord, is also our father.

God watches over us like a father, wishing us the best, planning the best, providing for us. He asks for so little in return, he expects even less. It would be nice to be appreciated, to be respected but he can live without it. Then we go and mess the plan up, we go our own way not heeding his advice and end up in a briar patch. What does God do? Turn away? What do we do? Do we try to cut our way through the briar patch or do we call out to the Father? Jesus gave us this name “Father” in the hopes that we would rest assure

that we were taken care of. This relationship  should provide us comfort.

Prayer is a cry. I believe in crying out to God. Yes it shows I have failed, it shows the load is too heavy, it shows the pain is to great, but all of this is true whether I cry out or not.

There was a woman named Hannah, and the load of life was heavy for her. Abused and ridiculed by others, childless, she was walking on the side of the cliff and jumping was looking better than living. We’ve been there. Times get tough. Marriages go through rough patches, children test our patience, parents test your patients, the work is hard, and fun is on vacation. The pain doesn’t go away, the bills aren’t going away, and there seems to be no end in sight. Hannah went and prayed. It was a mixture of tears and words, it was an agonizing time. She felt alone, she felt helpless, so she cried, then she prayed, then she cried so more. When she arose from her knees she wiped her tears away and headed home. Her load was lighter, the way was clearer, and in the end her prayers were answered. We are not alone, our tears are noticed and our spirits are lifted when we pray.