Comfort Zone: Stretching Beyond Your LimitsSýnishorn

“Well, I guess all we can do is pray.”

Have you ever heard that? Maybe you’ve said that or thought that yourself. It’s a common sentiment when circumstances are so clearly out of our control. It’s natural to conclude that when there’s nothing left for us to do, we can always turn to prayer.

There’s a subtle problem behind that statement that could be detrimental to our faith. When we consider prayer our last option after we’ve exhausted all others, we risk valuing our activity over God’s. 

I’m learning that prayer has inherent value, even apart from any evident answers to my specific requests. Praying is an act of faith. We wouldn’t pray to God if we didn’t believe he existed or if we didn’t think he was powerful. Praying is also an acknowledgment of dependence. We wouldn’t ask God for help or intervention or direction if we believed we had it all under control. 

What if, instead of turning to prayer when all else has failed, we made prayer our starting point. What if each of us began our days with an act of faith and dependence. What if prayer initiated our decision-making processes. What if, before interactions with others, we paused for just a moment to utter, “God, lead me.” What if our choices about how we spend our time and resources were informed and directed by God. What if, in preparation for serving together, we all committed to pray that our work would be God’s work.

For one, I think we’d find ourselves in far fewer all-we-can-do-is-pray moments. We’ll be far less troubled when we realize that we are not in control, when we’ve started with an acknowledgement that he is. The more prayerful we are, the more confident we can be that God has gone before us, and the more clearly we’ll see God at work around us. 

Prayer is hard. For most people I know, it’s not natural or intuitive—especially for those of us who measure our lives by our productivity. Prayer can feel like a waste of time. But if we think of prayer not as a means of accomplishing our will, but of aligning ourselves with God’s will, we’ll begin to see and feel the fruit. So let’s not approach prayer as a last resort, but as a first response, a response of faith and dependence.

Bryan Apinis
Intersect Director