The other day when I got home, I saw Santy kneeling on the side of the bed praying with two other female members of our church.  The women who attend the women’s fellowship are divided into groups of three and each week they pray together over the phone. They’ve done this for quite some time; week after week they pray for each other and of course, for all of us, too.  I would like to say, thank you, for praying for us.  You are all the spiritual backbone of our church.

In his book, An Introduction to Prayer, Bishop Robert Barron tells us simply that prayer is, “the mystical coming together of these two longings—our longing for God and God’s longing for us.”  In prayer, we and God come together; we want to see Him, talk to Him, and be with Him, so does God.  In prayer our heart meets with God’s heart, and our mind is re-aligned with God’s mind as we enter the Union with the Holy. In prayer, He hears us, and we hear Him.  No matter how cluttered our heart is, when we pray, it will be cleansed.

As a pastor I do have a few concerns that cross my mind from time to time; some by way of direct involvement, some by way of hearing from those who share them with me.  Whatever the concern is, my immediate reaction is usually helpless.  I cannot do anything about it.  Secondly, I come to God, and I pray; I bring up this concern to Him and I surrender.  I trust that God will do something, maybe not in the way that I think of or hope for.  He has His way and His will. 

One of the men that I admire is John Wooden, the legendary coach of UCLA Basketball Team.  There are many pearls of wisdom that have come out of his blessed heart; here is one of them, “Be quick but don’t hurry.”  Similarly, Dallas Willard also says this about Jesus, that even though He was often busy, He was never hurried.  So, we must stop the hurry, not by walking slowly, but by praying slowly.

Pastor Paul