Praying Like Miss America, September 29, 2011

to respond: go to your journal page in https://docs.google.com/   Written by Neal Bowes

Wednesday, September 29



James 5:13-16¹³ Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. ¹⁴ Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. ¹⁵ And the prayer offered in faith will make them well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. ¹⁶ Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

In the movie, Bruce Almighty, there is a scene where Bruce, played by Jim Carey, is praying to God, played by Morgan Freeman. Bruce says, "Lord, feed the hungry. And bring peace to all of mankind." Then he looks at God and asks, "How was that?" The reply is, "Great--if you want to be Miss America. Now, come on. What do you really care about?"

Sometimes when we pray, we forget that we're talking to the One who created us, the One who knows us better than we know ourselves, the One who loved us before we were even born. We tend to have generic, distant conversations with God and save our personal exchanges for friends and family members.

The Bible tells us that God wants to hear all about us. God wants to hear about our good times and bad times, our fears and needs, our joys and celebrations, our challenges, our setbacks, and our victories. God wants to hear from us like a close friend.

Meanwhile, God listens to us like a close friend, too. The Bible tells us that God hears our prayers, answers our prayers, and works to do good for us in all things.

Try to make your prayers a more personal conversation with God. And be sure to find some quiet time for prayer so you can listen for God to speak to you.