After all these years, I still don’t fully understand prayer. It’s
something of a mystery to me. But one thing I know: When we’re in desperate
need, prayer springs naturally from our lips and from the deepest level of our
hearts.
When we’re frightened out of our wits, when we’re pushed beyond our
limits, when we’re pulled out of our comfort zones, when our well-being is
challenged and endangered, we reflexively and involuntarily resort to prayer.
“Help, Lord!” is our natural cry.
Author Eugene Peterson wrote: “The language of prayer is forged in the
crucible of trouble. When we can’t help ourselves and call for help, when we
don’t like where we are and want out, when we don’t like who we are and want a
change, we use primal language, and this language becomes the root language of
prayer.”
Prayer begins in trouble, and it continues because we’re always in
trouble at some level. It requires no special preparation, no precise
vocabulary, no appropriate posture. It springs from us in the face of necessity
and, in time, becomes our habitual response to every issue—good and bad—we face
in this life (Phil. 4:6). What a privilege it is to carry everything to God in
prayer!
God’s help is only a prayer away. (RBC)
