Prayer Changes MeSample

A handmade sign is hanging on my bedroom wall with three words on it, “Prayer Changes Things.” It’s been there for years; attached is a small piece of paper, long faded, containing a specific prayer request. Others have long since been removed; some answered, some forgotten.

The word pray is a combination of two words, prós, "towards, exchange" and euxomai, "to wish, pray". Prayer is interacting with God, as the HELPS Word Studies puts it, “switching human wishes (ideas) for His wishes as He imparts faith ("divine persuasion").”

Most of us learned to pray from the time we could talk. We learned to adopt the posture of prayer, eyes closed, palms together, and sometimes kneeling. It’s a serious business, and it didn’t take long for us to recite our prayers from memory or, as we used to say, “by heart.”

Yet, nobody could prepare us for prayer in the grown-up world. The exchanging of wishes became way more complex and messy. The prayers we recited by heart as children seemed to have vanished. At times we’re left fumbling around as if in the dark, unsure of our words, wondering if any of this will make a difference, and reluctantly offering our human wishes and ideas in exchange for His.

In Luke, we see that the disciples took note of how Jesus prayed, and one was brave enough to approach Him with a simple request; teach us to pray. It's not like they didn't know how to pray; they were probably like you and me praying since we were children. Yet they saw something that made them desire to pray as Jesus did.

Prayer changes things, yes, but it took me a while to realize that what has changed, more than anything else, was me. I didn’t always welcome the change process, but I found that the more we interact with our Father in heaven, the more we begin to desire His will in our lives and in those we intercede for.

Today, let us approach the Lord as that brave disciple did in Luke 11; “Lord, teach us to pray”. When we follow His example, we are transformed.