Monday, September 25, 2017

Are our prayers working?




 
Anyone that has followed my blog(principalsonlineoffice.blogspot.com) knows that I struggle with my prayer life.  I struggle to remember to pray, daily, and when I do pray, I wonder if I am saying the right things or am I doing it the right way.  I have overcome most of these hurdles, not completely, but I am much better than I ever was before.
 
In an effort to remember to pray, daily, I got an app for that.  I know, this is kind of sad that I have to have an application to pray daily, but before the app I would forget to pray completely.  Now, every time I open my phone, there is the app on the first page, and while it only gives me a morning prayer and an afternoon prayer, I see the image and now I do not have to use the app to pray, I use it to remind me to pray.  I might not open the app and read what it suggests, but now I will just say a few words in my head, whether it be to ask for God’s guidance, give Him praise and thanksgiving, or to ask God to protect a loved one or friend.
 
As for worrying what to say, I had a friend give me some great advice, about what to say when one prays to God:  J.O.Y.  Jesus, Others, You.  I have stuck pretty much to that plan every time I pray.  I thank God for the wonderful blessings in my life.  I pray for those that have asked me to pray for them by name, then I ask God for his guidance and understanding in whatever my struggles are in my life. 
 
As far as praying the “right way” I have come to the conclusion that there is no correct way to pray.  If I am wrong on this, boy am I in trouble.  However, I have learned that God is ready to listen to anyone willing to engage in conversation with Him.  He is there ready and waiting on us to start the conversation, so I believe that He does not have a particular “right way” to pray.
 
Now I have an entirely different struggle.  At Mass we always have prayers and petitions starting with the Church, the Pope, the Priest, then it usually turns to peaceful end to wars, and for our world leaders to find said solution.  Finally they end in a more personal or community prayers.  However, the other day, I must have been in a bad mood, for I wondered why we continue to pray for the same thing over, and does God even listen?  Because if He did, then why are we not praying for something different every week?
 
After long contemplation, I had two epiphanies when it comes to prayers and petitions.  First is something that Fr. Hunter tweeted a couple of weeks ago that reminded me that God has three answers to prayers, “Yes,” “No,” or “I have another plan.”  The second epiphany I was reminded that the purpose of prayer is to change something.  Change the sick to healthy, the wicked to kind, whenever we pray, we are actually praying for some kind of change. 
 
Now, for the biggest revelation of all, I have come to conclude that regardless of who or what you are praying for, whatever change you wish to see from your prayer, the biggest change one gets from prayer is hopefully from within.  The most important thing prayer can change is your heart.  When one experiences change from within, it can’t help but change their actions and the way they treat others.  If we pray for an end to war and for the beginning of peace, it will not and cannot happen if we are not allowing our prayers to change us from within.
 
Think, if we all allowed prayer to change us from within, then it changes our actions towards others.  Hopefully, that change for the better is contagious towards the family and friends that we surround ourselves.  Then they start to spread the change to family and friends they are around, and next thing you know, we could have an epidemic, of the good kind.  If we can allow God to change our hearts, and spread that to everyone we know, then before you know it, we might just have the peaceful place we always pray for at Mass.
 
 



 

No comments:

Post a Comment