past. Perhaps I don’t pray as often as I should. Mother Teresa, in her book No Greater Love, has a whole chapter devoted to prayer. She says, “prayer is in all gestures.” So we all pray even when we’re not conscious of praying. To talk to God ad Jesus in prayer is a most important part of a Christian’s devotional life.
I have had some personal experiences with prayer. Recently I had a bad thing happen to me. A friend of mine, who I considered my best friend, deserted me. She chose a man she fell in love with whose relationship with me was unfortunately not good. Even though I had tried to be nice to this man, he constantly was rude and cruel to me. She knew we had never gotten along. Rather than telling him to behave ad treat me nicer, she chose to dump me and keep him. We had been friends for 13 years. The feelings I had were devastating. I prayed to Jesus and asked him to take away my hurt and pain. After 3 or 4 sleepless nights, that left me weak and exhausted, I prayed that God would help me sleep at night.
In spite of losing a friend, the shock, the hurt, the ultimate humiliation and sorrow, I was able to recover but I prayed a lot. God found new friends for me. I went to church at Sanctuary and people surrounded me with Christian love and friendship. A girl that I tutored in ESL (English as a Second Language) treated me with great love and friendship. She and her husband took me out to dinner downtown at the Cheesecake Factory. They are from Eritrea, a country that became independent from Ethiopia several years ago. I liked her husband. She also helped pay my way to go down to Chehalis for Christmas for a happy holiday visit with kids and grandkids. The girl is Winta and her husband is Mico. I thanked God for my new friends.
Another friend, Cheryl, came to see me regularly. We get together every Saturday. We play the piano, go to the movie, or spend time at Green Lake. I thought to myself about this situation that when God closes a door, He opens a window.
Because I forgave the friend who dumped me, I know God will forgive me for something wrong I may have done in my past.
Other answers to prayer were that when I was worried about my new friend, Winta, when she stopped calling me and never answered her phone when I called. I was so afraid she had gotten into a car accident. But I prayed and asked others to pray also. Then one day Winta answered the phone and I felt my prayers had been answered.
Another time, I prayed for several years for my daughter’s mother-in-law who was suffering from lung cancer and was not expected to live. I asked the Lord to save her life but if not to, at least to let her die peacefully and not have to suffer too much. Dixie, the mother-in-law, is now much better. She takes care of her husband who has Parkinson’s disease (and for whom I am praying) and for her two new little twin grandsons. Dixie goes for walks and cooks and cleans and enjoys making her arts and crafts. God answered my prayers for her in a good and unexpected way.
Yet another time, I prayed for a friend, a man who had become homeless. A month later, I saw him on the bus and he had found shelter in a half-way house. I felt God had answered another prayer.
We don’t always expect or know that the answers to our prayers will be what we want or pray for. God’s answer may be saying “No” to your petition. Whatever His answer, God wants us to pray. Praying to Him, like Mother Teresa says in her book, is loving Him. We should pray as often as we can daily. We should not only ask God for things but also thank Him, as I especially did when I found new friends and was finally able to sleep. Every day you open your eyes from sleeping, you should thank God for the new day.
Nancy Kay Harris