Borrowed Breath

…what is it?

I’ve been pondering that question a lot recently.

Communion with my Redeemer is the first thing that comes to mind.
Intimacy must be maintained through communication.
If I stopped talking to Michelle, our relationship would wither.
If I stopped telling her I loved her, she might begin to question if I do.
If I stopped writing her poetry, she might wonder if I think about her.

But prayer is more than just talking to God.
Prayer involves listening.
If I just talked to Michelle and never listened, I would never learn from her.

Now I realize that likening prayer to communication with my wife is a poor analogy.
But even poor analogies can be helpful.

Prayer also involves faith.
It’s interesting to me that even the early disciples prayed and did not believe in the answer.

Read this story.

In verse 5, we read, “So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him.”

And yet in verse 15, after Peter’s miraculous release from prison, the disciples told Rhoda, who answered Peter’s knock on their door, “You’re out of your mind…it must be his angel.”

How often have I prayed with an unbelieving heart?

I think the best approach to praying and understanding prayer is the simple request, “Lord, teach us to pray.”

Prayer also involves trust.
I’ve prayed for things, specific things, that I have not seen the clear answer, or at least the answer I was looking and hoping for.
But I must come to the place where I trust my heavenly Father that He knows what is best for me to have and what is best to withhold from me.

Good fathers know when to say “No” to their child’s request if it is not in their best interest.

I have never seen anyone miraculously healed. I believe that God still miraculously heals people.
I’ve heard stories from people I trust and believe. But I’ve never seen it firsthand.
I have been in prayer groups where all involved (to the best of my knowledge) had faith that the Great Physician would heal the person being prayed for.
And they were not healed.

Was it a lack of faith?
Maybe.

Or is it also true that when God’s children experience pain and sickness and loss and death just like everyone else, but they exude  grace in the midst of the suffering, that this gives as much (if not more) glory to our God.

I don’t know.
Add it to the ever-growing list of things I don’t know.

Lord, teach us to pray.