The Power

I find myself offering up a prayer quite often these days. In fact, most morning when I leave before sunrise to go to work or to go play golf I enjoy voicing a prayer out loud, especially  as the sun rises. I am all alone, don’t have to feel embarrassed, and sometimes I even picture Jesus sitting next to me… and we talk. Okay I talk, but I believe he listens. And I believe He cares. Funny thing is, as I pray and the sunrise bursts forth over the tops of the hills, so does a feeling of calmness within me, combined with happiness.

Call me crazy, because I admit that I never used to pray very often as a young man. But as I’ve gotten older two things have changed in my life.

• One – I appreciate the blessings that I have a lot more these days because I’ve been through enough hard times in my life to recognize when I have it good. So I feel grateful and want to express my gratitude in prayer. Doing so makes me feel good, and happy as I mentioned above.

• Two – Being older, I have a lot of friends my age who are going through health issues and some of them have even lost loved ones recently. They need all the help they can get so I put them in my prayers and let them know I am praying for them.

However, I am having a problem with number two above.  There is no way for me to know if my prayers are doing any good. I mean I am just your average Joe. I am not a pastor, I am not super smart, I don’t have any special power, and I don’t even know if I am structuring my prayers in the right way. Sometimes my prayers are answered the way I hope. Other times a friend stays sick, or a relative dies, and I feel really sad.

Until today, Easter Sunday, that is. As I was reading the book of Psalms in my Max Lucado Study Bible, I saw that Max added a sidebar note. It will forever change the way I look at prayer, which is to say that I will never stop praying and never stop believing that my prayers are heard.  

Since the power of prayer is in the One who hears it and not in the one who says it,

Our prayers do make a difference!

                                                                                                      ~ Max Lucado