Honest Prayers

Have you ever heard the phrase “thoughts and prayers?”

We use this phrase to basically say: “Wow, that’s tough. I can’t fix it, make it better, or make it go away, but I’ll pray for you. Or I’m thinking about you.” And, most of us, mean it. We mean “at some point in my day, even right now as I type this, I’m going to pray for you,” but—you know this already—oftentimes, typing “thoughts
and prayers” is a lot easier than actually praying for someone.

Sometimes we think prayer feels that way—like there’s a right combination of words you have to say. Maybe you’ve tried to pray and felt like you had to use…
— Fancy words.
— Formal words.
— Fake words.

The point is, it can feel like when we pray, we have to use the right combination of “two formal words, a fancy closer, and a little fake happy” to make things work.

Why do we feel that way? We think for a lot of us, it’s that deep down, we believe this: “If I pray the right way, God will give me what I want.”

Have you ever prayed and gotten nothing? Maybe, like us, you’ve wondered, “what happened?!” “Am I doing it wrong?” or “what’s the point of all this?” Or, maybe, here’s a better question: If there’s a God and if God loves you, why make prayer so difficult?

We are going to look at two passages from the Bible today, written hundreds of years apart from each other, but both are helpful in getting us to see prayer in a better way.