A Thought On Prayer

Prayer is often such a self-centered, self-indulgent activity, stimulated by personal desires, trials, or failures. The impulse to ask others to pray for things far removed is often hindered by a strong sense of reluctance. Usually we reserve such requests—about that cousin of ours, or this village in China we heard about, or the economy—for the gatherings when we’re all fishing around for prayer suggestions that deflect attention from any of our real needs.

Why should we pray about people we’ve never met? About places we’ve never been, about individuals we don’t care about because we don’t have the slightest connection to them? Well, if prayer is just about us, then we shouldn’t. But when prayer becomes about expressing to the Father a desire to see him glorified in our lives, the lives of others, and the world at large; when we have a vested interest in the advancement of the Truth because we love the Truth, because we have a vested interest in the glory of God being manifested in the world, then it seems it could be easier to see the point of speaking to God—petitioning him regarding any situation we become aware of where the glory of God is “at stake.” Somehow, it seems to make it worth it. And much more personal.